Pastel Painting Process

In my previous post of pastel study of bottles I had promised that I'll be posting WIP pictures of another pastel study. Today with this post I'll try to fulfill that promise. While painting I actually forget to take pictures as I get involved in the painting process. But somehow I did try to get a couple of work in progress pics. Hopefully those will do justice.

This is the final work

First I carefully draw out the shapes as carefully as possible. I keep the shapes simple and also draw out all the shadow shapes. Then I block in all the shadow shapes with cooler tones mostly except where there is a strong reflected light.

I wanted to show you my setup :)

Then I start building shapes everywhere in the painting. I keep shifting between different shapes. This is important because I need to keep seeing each shape in relation to the other.

And then towards the final stages I let my intuition and sense of aesthetics do most of the work and at some point I just stop.

That is my typical process of a still life or figure study, and hopefully it could inspire you in some way.:)