Marion Derrett: Pastel Landscape

Marion often takes photographs for reference, which she usually crops and then develops thumbnail sketches if she wishes to adjust the composition. She brought with her the photo and thumbnails for the landscape she demonstrated today and had also sketched the scene with charcoal on the sanded paper support she used.

She began by putting in the darkest values and then added various blues to the sky - darkest at the side from which the light came. Notice the purple on the underside of the clouds.

Some pinks were added to the sky and into the foreground to add some warmth. So far everything has been done in hard pastels. Soft pastels can be used over hard but not the other way round. Hard pastels do not lay down much pigment compared to soft when applied with the same pressure. Hard pastels are useful for blending the pigments. Blending with fingers or colour-shaper tends to deaden the painting.



Sue is avoiding greens at this stage. Soft pastels are making their first appearance with the white of the clouds.


Beginners will often clog their support by using too much pressure when applying soft pastels.

The next three picture show the further development and completed painting.