Monday 8 February 2016

A little experimenting with textured handmade paper.


I mentioned in my last post about experimenting and exploring the new possibilities of using
the textured hand made paper ( From Sun Papers - Fort ) for my soft pastel paintings.

The soft pastel painting of a seascape is a quick study work on blue coloured hand made
paper with beautiful textures on it. I wanted to try out the underpainting with water 
before adding the second layer of pastels.

After having drawn the rough outline with white pencil, I blocked in the initial colours in 
my usual technique and then instead of blending the colours I ran a wet brush over the sky, 
followed by the other elements. Everytime I painted on a different coloured area, I made 
sure that I washed the brush again in clean water. After having done that, I let the paper 
dry. The paper being thick, fortunately did not buckle.

Once the paper was fully dry, I added the second layer of pastel colours and a few details 
at places where required. In all I enjoyed using this paper. It is very reasonable too. I 
purchased it long time back but I think it should not be more than Rs 60/- a sheet.

Experimenting with textured hand made paper for creating soft pastel art. By Manju Panchal

Seascape on Blue handmade paper.
Just an experiment.

I love soft pastel medium because of its rich and vibrant colours. Moreover it is a dry
medium and one does not have to wait for it to dry. We do not need many tools around.
Just the pastels, a kneaded eraser and a sheet of paper. 

The pastel colours do not fade or crack in time. I do not have to worry about the painting
catching fungus though I still take precaution to keep Silica Gel around
my art work to absorb the moisture around.

One of my favourite Quotes

"I dream my painting and then I paint my dream." Vincent Van Gogh

Saturday 6 February 2016

Demo works of forest scenes created during my ART WORKSHOP


I recently conducted my usual Two days soft pastel workshop. The first day is like a warm up 
for the participants where in they understand all about the soft pastel medium, the papers, the techniques etc. and then go on to create simple works like seascape and landscape with mountains. 

On the second day I normally go about doing demo works of forest scenes, wherein I explain 
my step by step technique that I follow to create a landscape starting with the sky,
followed by the trees, bushes, the pathway etc. The painting technique that I follow normally
completes in two layers of soft pastels.

These demo works are normally completed in a duration of thirty to forty minutes each and
I add a few details here and there once the workshop is complete. Both the demo works as seen
below are done on Canson Mi Teintes paper are done with reference to my photographs from
Coorg. ( Madikeri )


soft pastel demo work created during a two days workshop by Manju panchal

soft pastel demo work created during a two days workshop by Manju panchal

Two soft pastel demo works done during
a Two days soft pastel workshop.

Since I am working a lot with soft pastels these days, I decided to experiment and explore.
I used a Prussian blue coloured hand made paper ( with textured surface ) and created a 
seascape on it using soft pastels with an underpainting created using wet brush
 on pastels. Just an experiment to check out if pastels work good on
 handmade textured paper. Will post the image of my experimental work soon.

Monday 1 February 2016

Reflections in the water - soft pastel work


One of my favourite photographs taken at Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. It has been on my laptop since last year or so. I finally decided to give it a try in my way. I started off by selecting the black coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper. I started off by simplifying the bigger shapes and coloured 
them as a whole using the soft pastel medium. Blended the colours using my fingers. 
Then I fixed the layer with Winsor and Newton fixative.

In the second layer I added the tree trunks, foliage and other details. Signed at the bottom left 
with a white pastel pencil. I have also made use of the black charcoal pencil at places especially
to create the thin branches.



Solitude
Soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper
Size 6" X 9"

What is most challenging in any forest landscape is the greens. No matter how many shades 
you have, you still fall short of the right shade. Unlike water colours, oils and acrylics
it is not easy to get the green shades by mixing different colours. Moreover with
my past experience I know for sure that if I use more than two colours on each
other it creates a muddy effect and the freshness of the colour fades away.

I have created a few more small Demo works in soft pastel medium and I shall
be posting them soon.