I started a new picture today. One that I have been planning for a little while, but had to put is aside for other types of busyness. The decision had already been made to do but in pastel, but the next question, of course, was what kind of support to use. I spent ages looking at the variety of papers I have accumulated over the years before making a decision. Now I’m well into the project I wonder whether I made a fundamental mistake.
I am using a soft pastel, and the paper I selected has a very pronounced texture. This means that either I end up with pastel sitting on there surface of the rough paper, emphasising the texture, or I need to work it into the depressions in that surface in order to get a smooth and continuous colour. Quite soon I came to realise that I had set myself a technical problem.
The subject I am doing is a still life, including different types of object. It consists of a group of objects associated with my Balkan travels. Some of these are smooth and require a dense and continuous colour (such as the frame of the ikon or the metal of the coffee pot) others have a pronounced texture which would be better conveyed with a light and impressionistic application of the colour (such as the elaborate background to the ikon, and the “worry beads”).
I am at a fairly early stage in the project at the moment, and have not even covered all of the surface with colour. The differences between the ways in which I am going to need to apply and work the pastel have become very clearly evident. In places, because of the coarseness of the paper, this is becoming quite a challenge. It even crossed my mind at one point that I ought to chuck it in and start again with a different paper. Then I realised that this would mean missing an opportunity to demonstrate technical versatility …. if I do get it right in the end. Of course, it could all turn out to be a dreadful mess, which I will regret. For the time being, however, I have chosen to treat it as an opportunity to show off my adaptability. It will be interesting to see how it does work out in the end.