Paul deMarrais Shares His Technique

Paul deMarrais is an exceptional pastel artist and colorist, and he shares his technique with our readers.  He gives frequent workshops in his beautiful home of Tennessee, and enjoys painting in plein air as well.  

Paul is also an artist's entrepreneur.  He makes his own pastels and sells them in beautiful sets to artists everywhere.  If you click on the image above, you can read more about Paul's pastels, how he makes them, and how you can get a set of your own.

For today, Paul shares with us his technique for painting in pastels, so you can enjoy learning how he creates the beautiful pastel images of the countryside he enjoys so much.

Step 1- with vine charcoal, I map out my composition. This is a critical step for me as I can immediately sense the potential success of the project. I keep this drawing loose to accommodate changes in the horizon line. I prefer not to make my rough in too finished but this stage remains a very important point in my painting process.

Step 2- I begin to apply some pastel, sticking to a very few colors that approximate the general coloration of my subject. Keep in mind that the pastel is only the delivery method in this technique. You don’t need very much with the heavily pigmented pastels I use.

Step 3- liquefy the pastel with acrylic matte medium. I use a three inch square piece of one inch thick foam and dip into the matte medium. I try to follow the form here and there. Some of these strokes could show through and add a subtle textural interest. What is wonderful is in just a minute or two my design comes to life. I’m creating a good foundation to build on with these initial transparent washes.

Step 4- Add more pastel and liquefy to further develop the glazes. I’ve added a few strokes of green pastel and some purple on the shadows.

Step 5- I continue to refine and add some orange pastel to the tree trunks. Remember that the values will darken when you liquefy.

Step 6- adding opaque passages brings out a nice contrast of textures and edges. I mixed up some homemade acrylics with dry pigment and matte medium and applied it to the brightest areas of the painting with a rounded palette knife. The opaque areas add some pop to the painting but some of the softness and subtleties are lost.

Step 7 Finishing Up- I soften the look of the painting with glazing. I add some light coral pastel to the path and a very light yellow and some green glazes to the background. Glazing is so easy with this method. I simply dip my foam into matte medium and water based urethane. I go back and forth adding more opaque touches and then coming back with glazing to soften. I am seeking a balance of soft and hard that will seem like outdoor sunlight. I glaze a very light yellow over most of the painting. This effect is like bathing the painting in sunlight. It really improves things and I feel more hopeful about my finishing touches.

Pastel to Acrylic.....A New Approach to Painting

I've never had much luck with tube acrylics myself. They seem thick and unmanageable or watery or like gummy plastic. Working time never seems adequate and I found it difficult to achieve the transparent effects that interested me. Pastels, on the other hand, are my true love in painting. My desire was to see if I could develop a method that would use my vast pastel experience to create paintings that would end up as acrylic. I think this method has a great deal of potential on many levels.

Materials

Acrylic matte medium- this bonding agent is critical to this method. Use it to liquefy pastel and create transparent workable color. Keep it thin as AMM is rather plastic in nature. It dries fast but not too fast. You can work into wet medium for a good while before it begins to dry and lift. You don't want it lifting so that is a good barometer for when you need to let it dry completely. A hair dryer can speed up the drying process.

Canvas- I use a prepared stretched canvas. I prefer a "deep' canvas that is double thickness as I can paint around the edges and avoid needing a frame. Look for canvas that has a bit of 'tooth'.

　

Soft Pastels- to be effective, you need a premium type pastel with lots of pigment content. I use my own hand made pastels but other premium brands would be satisfactory as well. Hard, cheap pastels have much less pigment in them and won't get you strong color when you liquefy. Pastel is merely the device you are using to apply color in this method. Good pastels have lots of pure pigment and when liquefied create rich transparent washes. These glazes can be built up in thin layers to create wonderful effects. Remember that liquefying will darken the value of the colors. You'll be choosing pastels several notches lighter in value than you might ordinarily choose.

Other applicators- I like to use squares of one inch thick foam to apply matte medium to pastel. Using a blunt tool like this forces you to be loose and vigorous. I also like various other shapes of sponges that I find in craft stores. Each artist will develop their own preferences. I am not a big fan of brushes so I wanted to develop other ways that were more akin to hands on feel I get with pastel. For detail work, I like to use 'Style Stix' { made by Loew Cornell} and other similar foam tipped tools. I've made some of my own tools as well. Be creative and have fun. You can certainly use brushes if you wish. I have a variety of palette knives that come in handy as well.

Water based Urethane- this is a new product that I have been told will replace oil based finishes in the future and has shown to be very stable. It's pricey and hard to find but wonderful for transparent glazes. I use it sparingly in the same manner as acrylic matte medium. It's a bit easier to work with than the matte medium and easier to obtain very subtle effects.

Acrylic Paints- I use traditional acrylics only for opaque effects where I want a build up and richer color. I like the craft store brands like Delta Ceramcoat. These are more liquid and dry to a nice satin finish. Being a pastel manufacturer, I have access to lots of dry pigments so I often make my own acrylic using dry pigment and matte medium. This is very pure and powerful color, more rich than traditional manufacturers brands. I can make a thick paste this way and apply it with an impasto that contrasts nicely with transparent washes of color.

Basic Procedure

I use a stretched canvas with a bit of tooth. If the canvas is smooth I will apply a sanded surface on it with acrylic matte medium and fine aluminum oxide grit. Many canvases have enough tooth so you can skip this step altogether. After roughing in my composition with vine charcoal, I apply pastel to the canvas. I keep in mind how much color I think I will need to liquefy. A few good side strokes of quality soft pastel is usually sufficient for a large area. I keep in mind that the value of the color will be darker when I apply the matte medium and liquefy.

Using a three inch square piece of one inch foam, I dip into some matte medium and begin to liquefy the pastel. I use broad strokes to develop my design very quickly. I try to work with the form as well as with random strokes. Transparent washes immediately begin to define my image. While the medium is wet, I can add in more strokes of pastel and continue to refine my design. When I notice "lifting' of color, I know I need to let my initial wash dry. I will repeat this process over and over building glazes of color that will appear transparent and soft. Sometimes I will switch to smaller sponges to allow for more work on smaller areas of my painting. I can also draw into the wet medium with 'Style Stix' { Loew-Cornell} which have a hard rounded rubber head. These drawing tools make very nice lines of varying widths. Be creative and develop your own preferred tools! These initial layers are about developing a sense of mood through transparent glazes. When I have developed these glazes, I am ready for some opaque touches.

Adding Opaque Details

Much of this technique produces soft transparent color. To make this effect really sing, I'll add some opaque touches of brighter acrylic using 'Style Stix', palette knives and other tools. The texture produced will create a nice contrast with the smooth soft effects of the washes. The beauty of this method is in the contrasts you can easily create......soft edges and hard, smooth and textured, dull and bright, transparent and opaque. I let one of each partner dominate but provide relief with its contrasting opposite. This is a solid time proven practice used by painters over the centuries. It is more akin to how our wondrous human eye works than the hard edge eye of the camera lens. Our vision is a soft vision.

Finishing Up

Finishing is always a challenge. When do you know to stop? This is a question all artists are concerned with. In this method, I look again towards contrasts. Do I have adequate contrasts to make the painting really 'pop'? This method produces wonderful neutral color, soft edges, color unity, and transparency. Do I have a bit of brightness, a hard edge here and there to catch the eye? Do I have enough detail to bring out the lovely broad areas? After checking for contrasts, I look at my composition. Does my eye move through the painting easily or is my painting 'broken up' with bits of isolated areas? Can I improve the unity in my painting by adding more glazing? If my composition involves deep space, I can check to see if that illusion is working well. Do I have aerial perspective? Are distant areas bluer and duller? I can also look for small drawing problems that might be distracting and stand back and look at my painting. When I have done a thorough review and feel good about my painting, I can call it quits.

Why Use this Method?

Like all new methods, there should be a feeling of improvement over other traditional methods. This pastel to acrylic method has a number of advantages. It is lightning fast compared to oils as there is little drying time to slow you down. You can just keep layering and layering. I like the fact that your painting develops very rapidly as well. You can see immediate results and to me this is inspiring. This method makes glazing a snap. Glazing in oil and acrylic can be quite a tricky affair. This method reinforces good painting practices. You develop a good foundation, avoid fussy details that often snag painters, get good color unity almost automatically. Best of all you can easily develop exciting contrasts in your paintings. To me, creating a painting with this method is loose and fun. Painting should be fun!

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Thank you Paul! 

Visit Paul deMarrais on his website by clicking HERE

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What Painting is This?

It has been a while since we played this game.  But it sure is fun. Here is a beautiful work and the artist was groundbreaking in his portrayal of light and night scenes. 

I'll give you a hint ...

Here is what they say about him at the National Gallery of Art:
This artist has long been celebrated as one of the most gifted interpreters of the American West. Initially, his western images appeared as illustrations in popular journals. As he matured, however, he turned his attention away from illustration, concentrating instead on painting and sculpture. About 1900 he began a series of paintings that took as their subject the color of night. Before his premature death in 1909 at age forty-eight, [this artist] completed more than seventy paintings in which he explored the technical and aesthetic difficulties of painting darkness.

Surprisingly, [this artist's] nocturnes are filled with color and light-moonlight, firelight, and candlelight. These complex paintings testify to the artist's interest in modern technological innovations, including flash photography and the advent of electricity, which was rapidly transforming the character of night. The paintings are also elegiac, for they reflect his lament that the West he had known as a young man had, by the turn of the century, largely disappeared. Although immediately recognized as extraordinary works, [this artist's] late nocturnes have never before been the subject of an exhibition. "The Color of Night" gathers together for the first time the finest of these mysterious, often deeply personal paintings.

What Painting is This?

The winner will be our featured artist in the next newsletter!

Susan Vaughn
Editor-in-Chief
Red Easel

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Design is Everything - the Perfect Palette

Well, today I won't be posting the Saturday Morning Skraw, but I have been drawing things up this week.

Plato once said "Necessity is the mother of invention" and working as hard and as long as I have this week in my studio, I got so frustrated and covered in paint that I decided I was going to do something about it.  You see, I have 2 palettes that I use when I paint - a hand-held palette, and a table palette with a glass top for easy clean up.  The problem I have been having is with the hand-held palette.  After searching for hours online for a palette that would solve my problem of getting oil paint on my left sleeve and arm, and the occasional stress and pain I feel in my left arm from holding the palette a certain way, I sat down and designed my own palette - one that would put an end to paint on my left sleeve and arm, one that would rest comfortably on my left hip or belt if I wanted, and one that had the correct angle at the fingers that I could place used brushes in my left hand easily.

So you can understand what I created here, let's take a look at some artist palettes:

 

 

This is an example of the palette I have used for years.  When I hold this palette in my left hand and rest it on my left arm, the paint on the palette gets all over my sleeve and my arm.  There is also no good place to stick a medium cup onto the palette.

 

This is Renoir's actual palette.  I have to admit that I have wondered if the image was on the palette when he was using it.  That would make mixing colors complicated I would think.  Still, the square design does not make for comfort in resting the palette on your left arm.  I've known a number of artists that use the square palette and they are really uncomfortable - I mean, the left bottom corner of the palette gets in the way of your arm and your clothes and makes it cumbersome on your arm.

 

This is the palette of renowned portrait artist Nelson Shanks. He is probably one of the most outstanding living artists of our time.  Now this is better design - well, sorta.  First of all, see the opening for your fingers in front of the thumb hole?  This design makes it difficult to place brushes in your hand while holding the palette, and I've noticed in some video of his demonstrations at the Studio Incamminati that his palette is sitting on a table in front of him rather than on his arm.  In addition, the curve that would be at your stomach is too deep, and the curve that rests on his arm would again be cutting into the bend of his arm at the elbow thereby getting paint on his clothes and arm, unless, of course, he holds it at the curve you see at the bottom.  The problem with that, though, is that the palette will curve right into your stomach, so it doesn't conform to your body comfortably.

 

This is the palette of artist Fatima Ronquillo.  Love her artwork.  She has mingled classical portraiture with modern design by creating portraits of characters you might say.  Children, but no particular one.  You can't help but be drawn into her work.  So, let's look at her palette.  She has room to hold her brushes in her fingers, however, the palette curves towards her stomach when she is holding it, and again, the left bottom corner curves right where you don't really want it to - in the bend of your arm, making it nearly impossible to avoid getting paint on your left sleeve and arm.

 
 

So, after drawing, erasing, and cutting out multiple designs, I finally designed the best dang palette ever.  It is so good, in fact, that I am going to offer them up for sale.  Made in America I might add.  Better yet, made in Charlotte, North Carolina - in my studio and on my deck to be more precise.

I made this one out of birch, but I am going to go to the lumber yard next week and get a sheet of Mahogany and Walnut, and make palettes out of those hardwoods as well.  The only difference will be that the palette will be heavier.  This palette is nice and lightweight.  

 

It doesn't matter if you are left or right handed - all you have to do is turn it over for the hand that you hold your palette.  This picture was taken right after I had  finished sanding it.  My Big Bear cut it out based on my pattern that I drew on the Birch wood panel.

 

After I sanded the palette, I stained it with equal parts of Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber - that way it isn't too Red or too Brown.  A perfect mid-tone.

Next step is to varnish it after it dries and to prevent it from absorbing the paints when placed on the palette.

Here is an explanation of the features that were important to me in the design ...

Click on the images to see a larger view.  Pretty cool design don't you think?

Here are the dimensions:

I am really proud of this palette and its design.  I hold it and it is lightweight, comfortable, and doesn't get in my way when I paint.  It curves around the bend of my arm and I don't get paint on my arm and clothes.  I have plenty of room for my palette of paint colors and for mixing and also for attaching a medium cup.  I love the fact that it rests on my arm so comfortably and I can rest in on my hip too.

 

I am calling it the "Red Easel Palette" after my Fine Art company "Red Easel, LLC."  

And guess what?  I am offering it for sale right here on Raisin Toast and also on my Red Easel site at www.redeasel.com. 

I think it is a great value at 49.95.  I priced palettes across the internet that were approximately this size and a few were as expensive as 74.95.  Small ones were as inexpensive as 6.95 but very small and basic. 

Just consider this - it is entirely handmade!  On my Deck!  In North Carolina!

Hope you like it.  That is what I have been working on all week at the expense of the laundry which I promised my Big Bear I would get done today. 

If you would like a Red Easel Palette of your own, just email me at susan@raisin-toast.com and I'll get right on it.  I've even provided a BuyNow button below to make your purchase easy via PayPal. 

Hope you have a great weekend!  I'm gonna paint!

 

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