It is always exciting to look into artist’s creative process. Today we are talking to Elena Lobovikova, who is sharing her experience in choice of materials and showing us how to make a pastel drawing step-by-step.
The Choice of Paper
It is vital to find the right paper for you. In my work I’ve used tinted paper with textured surface (Uart 400, Canson, Sennelier), velour (Pastelmat, Hahnemuhle), ordinary cardboard.
For me, the ideal paper is Pastelmat. Dense (360 g/sq.m.) sheets with a velvet coating (50x70 cm), 14 color options (from white to anthracite). I prefer the white color of the sheet. On Pastelmat it is hard to blend pastels in the first layers, but after applying several layers, you can mix them and create the volume of objects, background, and seamless light-and-shade continuum. The surface of the paper is soft and does not injure your fingers. I usually apply no more than 4-5 layers. On Pastelmat pastels hold pretty well and don’t go off, so I don’t use aerosols to fix my paintings.
The Choice of Pastels
The first pastel that I bought in the early 2000s was Podolskaya (I still use those crayons). After that appeared a set of the Czech manufacturer Kooh-i-Noor. Over the past few years, the number of boxes of pastels on my working rack has grown significantly. And now my collection (I can't call it anything else!) includes hundreds of crayons: Sennelier, Schmincke, Winsor & Newton, Unison, Rembrandt, Gallery, Kooh-i-Noor, Gamma, Black River.
Pastels differ in the softness of the chalk structure. I use soft and medium pastels to create background, still-life objects, and landscape shapes. They are easily blended. I use medium soft and hard pastels for the final stage of my work, for details, hatches, and lines.
I use charcoal sticks for dark accents and lines, and pastel pencils (Kooh-i-noor, Caran d'Ache, Derwent, Bruynzeel, Lyra) for small details.
As a rule, after making a pencil sketch, I go on to apply a watercolor undercoat (for Pastelmat paper). It sets the overall tonal solution and color scheme. My watercolor underpainting is either in the palette of the model, or, quite the opposite, in complementary colors, for example, I apply red under the green foliage or purple (or blue) under the sun-lit autumn grass. I really like it when in the end the watercolor undercoat shines through a translucent pastel layer. This effect not only reveals certain glow from the inside, but also pinpoints interesting dynamics in the combination of color. On top of the watercolor underpainting I apply pastel layers, controlling the overall tone. After applying 2 or 3 layers, I can shade them, blending the colors to achieve soft transitions.
Depending on the desired effect, you can use semi-transparent layers of pastels, leaving white paper or watercolor underpainting to shine through, or you can apply pastels in a pastose manner, imitating three-dimensional strokes of oil painting.
Some of the stories are better depicted on pure white paper (without underpainting) – a lot depends on the initial idea.
The Process of Creating Artwork
"Adult Conversation...". A genre scene captured in a café - a girl with her mother and a friend who they met. The women are fully engaged in their adult conversation. The girl does not participate, but tries to understand what they are talking about, watching them with acute interest. For me, the main thing in this story is the child's emotions: curiosity, surprise, expectation, that’s why I just outlined the women lost in conversation and drew them without much detail.
Step-by-step work:
1. I make a preliminary pencil sketch.
2. I go on to make a watercolor underpainting. It is not necessary to cover the entire sheet with paint - only those areas, which match the main ones in terms of tone. I start from them, gaining tone.
Watercolor can spread dramatically, so we need to control the amount of water and paint on the brush and dry the watercolor layer with a hair-dryer for speed.
3. I start working on the horizontal surface of the table, because I don’t want dark background bits to get on the girl's face. I put together a distant view with the combination of dark cold and warm shades, then chalk out the child's clothes with warm colors of pink and gray.
4. I move the work and fix it on the vertical surface of the wall. This way it is easier to evaluate the tone of my artwork when I stand back.
I draw the child's face, keeping in mind the lighting of the scene. I almost bring it to the stage of completion.
After that I saturate the background with tone - a dark evening cafe window and reflecting warm interior details.
The contrast between the background and the girl's face focuses the viewer's attention on the main character.
5, 6. I draw the figures of women in the foreground without much detail.
7. In the final stage I add some accents.
The process of creating an artwork is very intuitive and it is difficult to follow a clear plan of action. All of these points are quite relative.
For me, the emotional component of the plot is crucial. Everything else is in logical subordination. I consider my work to be successful if it evokes good feeling and personal memories in those who see it.