Project One: Intro to Soft Pastels, Local Color and Layering

Objective:

To further investigate the elements of seeing, attaining proper proportions, identifying local colors, layering, working from the back of the drawing forward. You will be working with color soft pastels minus black. You will create an under drawing of one piece of fruit or vegetable attaining the best possible proportions. Try to occupy as much space of the paper as possible keeping in mind the compositional elements discussed in the lecture. I will demo the use of soft pastels in a formulaic manner on the handouts for you. These color studies allow for you to experiment with how the pastel moves and how colors interact with one another. After this you will watch me demo on a drawing of the fruit or vegetables. Take what you have learned with the hand out and my demo and apply that to your own drawings.

Directions:

Step 1: Take a 9" x 12” sheet of BFK paper mount it on your drawing board in a horizontal format. Then using a ruler and mark off a 1” frame all around your drawing with a pencil (we will do this for nearly every drawing).

Step 2: You will then find an interesting, fruit or vegetable on the stage. I want a drawing that includes the entire environment touching all four edges. Using an H pencil create the under drawing being mindful to keep the drawing surface as clean as possible. Correct proportions and perspectives are expected.

Step 3: Once you have your under drawing complete start identifying what colors you see in the still life and collect those colors from your pastel palette. Start working from the lighter values to mid-key hues from the back of the drawing to the front.

Step 4: Move the pastel around the drawing in whatever manner you found most appealing from the demo. Keep in mind vibrancy, edge quality and value range. No black is allowed, explore ways to achieve darker shadows seen in the demo.

Step 5: Complete drawing to the best of your ability. Spray with fixative and hand in according to the outline in the syllabus.

Materials:

9" x 12" BFK, Soft Pastels, Pencils, Erasers, Ruler