Drawing Rich Base Colours for Black

Maggie has sent me this pastel pencil painting she has done of her niece’s dog, and has asked for a few tips that would improve the work. Maggie writes:

I still can't get the darkest bits as smooth as I would like. You can still see the lines on the paper. My second problem is the background. What main colour should I use. As you can see from the reference photo the background is a bit messy!! The picture is a bit darker than it looks in the photo and I think I will have to fix it before I send it to my niece which may darken it more.

Paper Showing Through

Lets deal with the most important problem first that is the lines of the paper showing through and not getting the dark hair strong enough. If you notice the nose is in fact well done and certainly dark enough, all the black sections of the dog should be the same colour as the nose. All Maggie has to do at this stage is to add more black to those dark areas and lightly blend using a colour shaper, the grey one would work here. The real problem though stems from not having a rich enough base colour before using the black on these dark areas. Using the mid grey (273) followed by the Payne’s grey (181) and making sure no paper is showing through at that stage would mean that the black would have gone on smoother; thus eliminating the paper showing through.

Adjusting the Eyes

The original photograph was taken with a flash virtually blotting out the eyes with a white circle. This means that the eyes have to be made up and Maggie has done a good job of this tricky procedure. However the light in the right eye (see red arrow) is too far to the left. If this was moved slightly to the right both eyes would look in the same direction. Maggie might have to adjust this a few time to get it right.

Choosing a Background

As far as the background is concerned I would use a base colour of either pastel pencils: 270 or 230 and rub this well into the paper. I would follow this with mid grey (273 or 233) and rub this in. You now have a good base colour to add either Payne's Grey (181) for a darker tone or 187 and touches of 283 for a more colourful background.

Fixing the Picture

As far as fixing the picture is concerned I would not do this. I know there is always a fear of the pastel smudging but if the original painting was placed into a transparent bag and sealed, it could not move about. Then if it's packed well with suitable support (I use hardboard), it should be ok. It would also help if the painting was double mounted before being placed in the bag. This helps keep the painting from touching the packaging. I recently sent an original painting from the UK to the United States packed this way and it arrived intact.For feedback on your pastel pencil artwork, join Colin's Membership programme and learn to draw using pastel pencils.