Pastel Drawing Lessons

I thought I would share this tip on using gouache with pastels. So your 1st question is probably"why even use gouache?" and that is a good question, because at 1st it looks like just using black pastel would be fine. And it would if you could keep it clean. The trouble is with subjects like the one in the photo, is that it's almost inevitable that some black will smudge out into the lovely coloured areas, and if instead you saved doing the black until the very end, it might

The more complicated the subject, the more I like to break it down into simple concepts and stages. Many ask me, "How dark should the under-layer be? What colour should it be?" Well ..... think of the underlayer as looking like a slightly out-of-focus reference photo. You see the basic colours and tonal values, but the details disappear. That's what the underlayer should look like - see photo above. The underlayer should still look 3D and show the lighting effect. But no

When artists start looking for their next perfect reference photo to work from the following normally happens.