Pastel Underpainting

With the recent change of leaves, our weekly plein air tutorial with Carol Iglesias sought out the landscape artist's forgotten shade: red! However, there's a twist.

Carol typically sketches her composition on acrylic, creates a thumbnail and notan, and then carefully transfers her work to her paper, typically Wallis.

Carol divides her small Heilman Box into a hard side and a soft side. She doesn't want to use too much of her softs doing underpaintings.

Because Carol often has architectural elements in her work, the drawing process is specific and exacting. Her next step is to fill in large shapes as relating to her value drawing. This day at Occoquan Regional Park, she went with a complimentary scheme, choosing colors on the opposite end of the color wheel. Beautiful red trees had a typical green underpainting and green grasses were pink in the distance and red up close.

To liquify the hard pastel, she uses alcohol, be it isopropyl or even gin.

Notice that Carol keeps some areas of pastel thicker and some thinner to maintain the feel she wants for the piece.

I'll be sure to post when she finishes this one up. Carol usually starts her pieces in the field and finishes them in her studio.