Friday 3 August 2012

Three more pastel tips


Sunset Sail
Pastel by Jane Ward
Price £295.00 
Size 22x 29inches with double Ivory mount and bespoke frame.
To purchase this painting or for details just email

I really enjoyed getting back into the pastels this week and working with the fisher 400 paper. For those who have never tried pastels, yes it can be messy and dusty and you do need quite a few colours but it is such a tactile and instant medium and you can create some magical effects that are so difficult in watercolours. Here are three more tips, that I find useful.

One* I find working with my board totally upright with a piece of card underneath to catch the excess pastel dust works well. 
Two* Use an old brush to get rid off mistakes, this helps to keep the texture of the paper fresh and not overload with pastel.
Three* Use Derwent pastel pencils for finer detail, like tree branches, boat rigging, birds and especially signing your name. To keep the pencils nice and sharp I use a piece of rough sandpaper rather than a pencil sharpener.

If you fancy a painting holiday after the wonderful Olympics I have two places left 

Monday 13th to 16th August  Watercolours around Derwentwater and Keswick

Watercolours and pastels in Grasmere Monday 8th to 11th October


P.s I am so enjoying our Olympics, Bradley Wiggins getting Gold, Princess Zara getting Silver, Rebecca with Bronze and a gold insight tonight are just some tearful moments. The passion and inspiration is pure joy. 




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