more playing around

I keep acquiring new things to play with. A while back I bought, without knowing what I would do with, a box of D'uva ChromaCoal heat fixable pastels. I have used them a time or two in small amounts, but lately I've tried to use them like I would regular pastels, using fabric instead of paper. Some of the new stuff on my website involves the use of them, particularly "Maclura Rising" .

But the other day I started just playing with them with no end product in mind. This is the result, so far, of that play.



I did the black first, just sketching with the side of the pastel. Since I was in 'play mode', I decided to color the osage oranges. And thus discovered the limitations of at least this particular set of ten colors--they're very bright, not easy to tone down, and the color choices aren't great. They don't seem to be true primaries. They're a little difficult to blend together. What I ended up doing was drawing in the colors, then using an old toothbrush to blend themas much as possible. Yes, that's an unconventional tool, but it was handy. The colors of the piece are, however, really this bright.

So the pastels have potential. Heat setting them is no big deal--you can do it with an iron. And for some pieces, I like this loose, drawing style. I have also used them occasionally to touch up a color on a piece. If you can find them (I think I got mine at Dick Blick), they're a handy addition to the studio.