Pastel Landscape drawing lesson

I thought it might be interesting to do a small article on my new landscape drawing lesson, as its a different subject than I normally tackle.So here are some thoughts and tips

To start with I think this drawing shows that just because you might be doing all animal drawings, the techniques and information you are learning is very much transferable to other subjects. When you think about it, and as you will see in the videos, drawing tree texture is pretty much the same as lots of fur texture. Its just green instead of our usual browns.

Grass at this scale is just like very short fur too, and tonal values is just as important, if not more so, on a landscape as it is in a pet portrait.

As you will also see in the video, to get the mountain to recede in the drawing NOTHING on it could be near the darkness of the midground and foreground darks. As things go backwards they lose their darkness / contrast. So if you had a huge black box in the foreground, as it went further and further back it would gradually lighten - because there is more and more air / particles between the viewer and that receding black box.

I didn’t draw this landscape very large as I wanted to show everyone that you can create nice detailed pastel drawing on a smaller scale and still get details in it.

Many think pastels are only good for huge drawings, but when you take some care its surprising what can be achieved.

The Sky / CloudsIn the video you will see me use pastel sticks and pencils on the sky, and many might wonder why I didn’t use PanPastels, as they are so great at blending. Well..... the more I use PanPastels the more I realise both their strengths and weaknesses (every supply has strengths and weaknesses) and its important to use them when they can help us but also know when not to use them.PanPastels are brilliant for FUR underlayers, ESPECIALLY on big subjects, they cover large areas fast, and prevent us from fixating on details when we should be thinking about general shape and form in the early stages of a drawing.

But they have 1-2 major draw backs >

1.      They are not particularly opaque, and this means that you will NEVER get a really dark black from them, even when using straight black out of the pan.

2.      Its VERY difficult to get a perfectly smooth covering due to their application with sponges in all shapes and forms - you see applying pans with sponges means it gets the pastel nicely down in to the paper tooth, BUT it also wipes away the pastel sitting on the surface of the paper texture.

so if I did the sky with pans then on CLOSE inspection you would still see the paper grain (this time caused by no pastel on the top of the paper) on the surface. You may not notice this on some artists work you see online as we are looking on small devices.

The easiest way to see this for yourself is to choose a paper like dark grey (just to make the effect more pronounced) put a light colour on there with PanPastel and a pastel sponge and then do the same with a similar colour pastel stick (put plenty of pastel down with both) . You will see a BIG difference , the pastel stick is opaque and when gently rubbed in with a finger will create a perfectly smooth surface, if its not smooth put more down. No matter how much PanPastel you put down it will not do the same.

We don’t need this all the time, but in skies, water, it is essential, as we don’t see textures in them normally.

You will see me do both sky an water in the videos.

Hope those extra pointers help and enjoy the landscape lessonJason