On the Easel

I had the idea of doing a figurative pastel involving baking. Also I wanted to try out a drawing technique using a grid that I had seen in a Christine Ivers video called "Pastel Painting Techniques: Indoor Scenes with People".

I've used grids before to  help me me get accurate proportions and placement from my reference to a drawing but it can be tedious. First  you have to figure out the scaling of the grid to fit your paper and then carefully measure it out line by line on your drawing surface. Usually you end up having to draw out lines at some untidy interval like  2.773 inches or something unfriendly like that.. Christine Ivers demonstrates a way that makes it extremely easy to create a grid on your painting surface that is in perfect ratio to your reference without having to measure lines! You don't even need a ruler, just a straight edge. Check out her video :-)

I ended up with the drawing at the right ready to start the pastel application. The paper is La Carte pastel card, 12 x 15" light grey.

Here are a few progress shots.



It was going well until it wasn't. It sat on my easel for a few weeks at this stage with no further progress. I had put in some of the background scene through the window and it just wasn't engaging me. I guess I should know by now that something is wrong when I keep putting off working on a piece.

I came to me on a walk. Get rid of the blinds, pick another scene beyond the windows. It doesn't have to be my driveway and neighbors house showing up out there. I can put something beautiful there, I can be baking by moonlight, or in the forest, I can use artistic license.😵

So I'm working on it again. I have started removing the pastel lines for the blinds and drawing in the window frames. I've done a little refining of the figure and changed the color of the table. Soon I'll overlay a new scenario beyond the windows. I still have to make some decisions to make but it's moving along again.