Wednesday

New experiment with pastels.


Even though I was not finished with the last watercolour I have been working on, I needed a break to try something new. I will get back to my watercolour later.

I decided to use black pastel paper (Fabriano) for this project

The choice for the new experiment and new to me material was pastel on paper. The subject is from the same area as the last watercolour featuring rocks on the beach. I worked for a while building the colours up and gradually added more tonal differences. In order to stabilise the colour I decided to spray the half finished work with fixative. This was a great mistake as the fixative I used had been standing on the shelf for years! I did shake the tin and spray in the air but it wasn´t enough to avoid this catastrophy.

Unintentional blobs and drips from the
fixative spattered on to the pastel colour

The black paper was revealed in small blemishes,
blotches, dots and specks as a result of using old fixative

Rocky Shore                                    pastel on paper  44 X 65 cm.                        Elizabeth Tyler 2021
But instead of giving up I embarked upon the tedious process of scraping the "Jackson Pollock effect" off. After this I smudged all the colours with my fingers and worked on the details of the spray, water and rocks. Then I went out and bought a new tin of fixative.

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