Landscape Pastellist Teresa Allen Reviews Art Spectrum Soft Pastels

Teresa used the 20 half stick Art Spectrum Soft Pastels set.

For this painting, I decided to use Fisher 400 which is a waterproof sanded paper as I wanted to do a watercolour underpainting to provide the base structure of my composition.

Once the underpainting had dried, I sketched out the composition and started to block in the big shapes, and then worked from dark to light. I also used broad strokes with the side of the pastel and broken colour and glazing techniques which produces some interesting colours. At this stage light pressure was needed to apply the pastel as I like to work in layers and I did not want the “tooth” of the paper to be filled with pastel too quickly.

Some of the Art Spectrum pastels left a residue of pastel dust on the paper which I gently blended by tapping with my finger to soften. This technique stopped the next layer from mixing with the dust and creating new colour mixes which were not what I wanted! Also, by blending, this allowed the second layer of pastel to sit on top with no problems. I particularly liked the “lights” pastels which were very soft on the paper. The Australian Grey and lightest tint of Yellow Ochre colours were very useful for highlighting a glow in the sky.

Applying the second layer, I started to blend the sky by using circular and tapping movements with my little finger over the broken colour so there were no hard edges. At this point I am looking to unify and reduce colours so I decided to “knock back” the middle hedges and tree line by glazing over the area with the Spectrum Red (which is a salmon pink colour) and using a broad stroke of Leaf Green Blue over the yellow grasses to cool down the warm colours and unify them.

I applied Flinders Blue Violet on the left side of the tree for the shadow. This is a very strong dark colour and is more granular (scratchy) than others so you need to experiment to find out its properties. At the start of the painting I wasn’t sure about using it as it also leaves a residue which can creep into other colours. However, by the end, it was one of my favourite colours. At the end of the second layer, I used Spectrafix fixative over the areas where I wanted to make additional marks.

The third layer was about mark making.

The pastels that were more granular were very good for the twigs and branches at the front of the painting. To achieve the linear lines, I held the pastel with the edge on the paper and rolled the pastel between the fingers with an upwards stroke/flick.

Applying a heavy mark of Spectrum Red Deep created a rich texture for the red bush. Overall, the pastels were well suited for mark making and very thin lines can be achieved.

Finished landscape painting using Art Spectrum Soft Pastels
by Teresa Allen

A sketch using pastelmat paper with Nupastels and Rembrandt pastels.

Next I added the Art Spectrum pastels on top. They glided over the Rembrandts like butter and the two brands worked very well together.

I added Unison, Sennelier and Terry Ludwig pastels on top. There were no problems and all the brands were compatible.