MATERIALS
• Half sheet of white Colourfix paper taped to a backing board
• A workable matt spray fixative and SpectraFix spray for final fixing
• Art Spectrum and Rembrandt soft pastels: Pale blue, dark brown, mid-brown, midpink, light yellow, light grey, orange, white, burnt sienna, reddish brown
• Faber-Castell hard pastels: mid-grey, dark grey, light warm grey, lavender, mid-brown
• Faber-Castell pastel pencils: Very dark blue No. 157, black, white, dark yellow, mid-green, dark brown, light grey, mid-grey
• Conte pastel pencil: Pale blue No.56
• Conte Pastel Pencil No.56
• No 2 chisel blender
• No 2 pointed blender
• Putty rubber
• Wet cloth or wet ones
STEP ONE
Firstly I applied a very pale blue soft pastel (gently rubbed in with my finger) to the background immediately around the birds and the very small foliage. This allows the detailed edges to remain clear when colour is applied, I find this method means I don’t have to put back any detail lost when I put in the rest of the background.
Next I applied very dark brown soft pastel to the eye and feathers where they are darkest, then a dark blue pastel pencil to the beak and a mid-pink, light yellow and light grey soft pastels to the lower beak blended with the chisel blender, as fingers are too big for some areas.
I used the same dark blue pencil to indicate the shadow on the branch under the front bird and put a midbrown soft pastel on the inside edge of the vertical branches, light yellow soft pastel on the lighter side of the branch and used a light warm grey hard pastel to gently blend the colours together. Then I applied a light yellow soft pastel to the chests and under bellies and chose a burnt sienna and a reddish brown soft pastel to use on the tail feathers with a black pencil to indicate the darker side of the stripes.
A dark yellow, a mid-green and dark brown pencils were used to colour the leaves and stems.
STEP TWO
I applied mid-brown soft pastel over the dark brown on the heads and used the chisel blending tool to blend and drag colour over the top of the heads and around the eyes and under the beaks, then I put black and dark blue into the centre of the eye and around the edges of the eye with pastel pencils.
Now for the back of the birds, mid-brown was gently blended into the dark brown, leaving the dark areas under the wings. Next I started outlining some of the feathers with white pencil, as this is not a botanical depiction; I chose only the most obvious feathers to draw in. At this point I spray my work with fixative to help prevent smudging.
STEP THREE
I continued drawing in feathers and then blended the sharp white edges into the brown on the feathers with the pointed blender. I put more colour on the tails using the same colours mentioned in Step One, again blending with the pointed blender. The chests were next, I applied a soft white over the light yellow using the side of the pastel following the direction in which the feathers grow and then drew in a splattering of feather detail with a light grey pencil.
Next I tackled the branches, applying light yellow soft pastel over all, mid-grey and dark-grey hard pastels on the bottom of the bigger branch, then using lavender and mid-brown hard pastels to colour the bark on the top.
Lastly I used a light warm grey hard pastel to gently drag the colours together and around the branch, making sure under the birds, the bottom of the branch and where the vertical branch joins were keep slightly darker than the rest of the branch.
FINAL STEP
More of the very pale blue is added to the rest of the background and gently blended in with my fingers. When I reached the top of the branch I started adding some soft white to the blue and gradually using only the white at the very bottom under the branch.
Now for the highlights. A small dab of orange was added to the brown eyes to give more depth and I used a very soft white for the highlight in the iris. Then using a white pencil I put in a small line around the eyes. I added some dark blue to the edges of the beak and blended in a little white on both the top and bottom of the beak. Using a pale blue Conte pastel pencil I added more colour over some of the feathers on the wings. More white was added to the ends of the flight feathers.
With pencils I added some white and very dark brown lines to the creases in the bark, and using the side of the white pastel I put in some light clouds. Lastly I sprayed the whole painting with Spectra Fix.
ARTIST’S HINTS AND TIPS
• I am sure you all have heard this before, a reminder never goes astray. It is very important to get your drawing as accurate as you can, because putting colour on an imperfect drawing will not make it better.
• Practice, practice, practice and your drawing will eventually come naturally.
• Try drawing upside down, this method frees you of any preconceived ideas you might have on how your subject should look.
• I have used a combination of pastel types mainly because I find that the colours I like are not always available in all brands.
• Use the Putty rubber for lifting off when you have too much pastel on your paper
• I chose a white paper because I wanted the background sky to be very pale and then I drew straight onto the paper using a mid-grey pastel pencil.
• If you are not confident with drawing, draw up on cartridge paper
and trace or use the grid method.
• Even though I was pleased with this first photograph with the new camera, I left out a couple of the branches and moved the foliage for the sake of a better composition.
Using Fixatives With Pastel
• Some people don’t use fixatives at all, as they can dull some colours if you use too much. My preference is to use the standard fixative during the creative process where slight colour changes don’t matter, and to help protect from smudging as you work.
• Lastly I use a product called SPECTRA FIX from the USA which doesn’t seem to dull the colours as much, however I find you can’t work back over the top as with the standard fixatives so I only use it as a final spray.
Framing
• I have seen the most wonderful paintings ruined with the wrong choice of frame, the frame should add to your painting not detract from it, so if choosing is difficult for you ask your framer or your friends for their opinions.
