Thank you for your comment Robert. I did find the lack of a brighter greet in the Basics set rather disconcerting when I came to work on the still life but once I let go of my need to recreate the green I saw, I felt much better!! I love the way Terry and team are always inventing new colours to tempt us with. Have you mentioned your colour ideas/needs to him?

Thanks for sharing the way you work especially when it comes to using white paper. I take it you use one cool pastel and one warm pastel and cover the entire sheet with that, then rub to create an underpainting on which to continue working. When working en plein air with white paper, I use three values and then rub that in. And yes, usually the colours are bright. I believe you can always tone down! I know of Susan Sarback’s book on colour developed from her studies with Henry Hensche but I have not looked at it.

Again, thanks for taking the time to leave such a thorough comment 🙂

🙂 Glad you liked the video. And the colour palette was a surprising delight – sort of a 19th century look. This is why I like working with limitations – you never know when it might lead you to a new direction!

Get out that white paper and GO!

Thanks Sandy. Generally if I work on a middle value paper, there is little problem with the specks of the paper coming through. It’s only with white paper that this problem arises, especially in dark areas where the white is in strong contrast to the darks. I will have to show you the work in person!

Great question Sandi. And YES, I do think a limited number of pastels is beneficial, even if you are selecting them from hundreds that you have. Let’s see…you’ll learn to focus on values, on colour harmony, on telling the story of what you see in the most essential way. You’ll also be less bogged down in making colour selections especially if you are working from a limited palette set.

It’s tough especially using a preselected set (as in all the starter boxes available), there’s no denying that, but there’s something about the challenge of limitation that makes a successful piece that much more satisfying. And yes, I always want more choices, especially when I have been attracted by a particularly beautiful colour in a scene, like a fuchsia or a brilliant orange neither of which is in the set. That’s a bit frustrating.

I did find it a challenge using the Terry Ludwig Basics for the still life I had set up. But once I let go of recreating exactly what I saw and instead,focused on the values that would tell the story of bowl and fork, I was much more at ease. Like I said in the video, I was pleased with the way it turned out, surprisingly so, since as you noted, the less saturated colours are not my usual choices.

But other than palette gaps, I love his pastels and have hope since he’s always inventing new colors. The little set was surprisingly useful despite absence of those brights.

One teacher got me using white as happily as I do colored grounds. Charlotte Herczfeld showed me how using strong saturated spectrum palette on white paper gave the most intensity to colors and subtle effects to her Colourist method. She learned from Susan Sarback, who’s written a good book on it, who learned from Henry Hensche. I deal with white flecks the way Charlotte does by rubbing in the garish first layer underpainting so that my shadow area specks are a saturated cool color, highlight area saturated warm, then I choose values and hues with an eye to what I’m layering over them.

I’d always liked those saturated colors best, now I treat all the muted and neutral colors as conveniences or extras. I work with a smaller more saturated palette of 12 pure hues and their tints and shades, counting yellow ochre and a brown as pushing yellow deeper on a value scale. That last is my own twist, sometimes the earths are handy as deeper warms. I usually have a few earths and grays but have fun without them too. It’s harder to work without tints and shades or with major hue gaps.

But that’s a specific style and I seem to be slightly modifying it partly through my love of green, even in landscapes!