Pastel Demonstration by Les Darlow #LesDarlow

Les explained how he trained as a technical and Scientific Illustrator,  and having freed himself of the technical preciseness of a photo realistic painting, he now paints expressively and creatively; producing paintings that are based on feeling, light, energy and movement. This all started after he was bought a set of pastels, as a Christmas present, and realised the potential of these.

​He likes to grade his pastels by the level of hardness, in a similar way to pencils and would like companies to do the same. For the demonstration he would be using Pan Pastels, as these are very pure and can be mixed like paint with  special micro sponges. These also rub out easily with a rubber,

---

He used a Canson  Mi-Teientes paper, which is semi-rough, and drew out his composition with a pencil and then drew a line down the side of the paper. Here, he showed the power of the pastels by doing a range of colours.

​He explained that you needed to avoid over blending and to remember the glazing effects you could achieve. The warm colours in the sky were added first before adding some blues, reds and purples. He then used a rubber to bring out some highlights.

​Next, the mountains are added before some of these colours are dragged down into the water, Blues are then dragged across the water and tints are added. On the left side, land is added and darks are used for the shoreline. A harder pastel is then used to pick out details, as he continues to refine the work.

All this was completed before the break and when we returned we were treated to a second painting.
This time A Canson Touch paper was used as this had a rougher texture.  Bright calligraphy ink was used to colour the paper ready for the pastel.

​Blues and greens were used for the water with blue black for the darks. The paper was then dried with a hair dryer ready for the pastels. 

​For this demonstration he used Conte pastels that are a lot harder than the Pan ones used earlier.  The sky was warmed up with light colours and then he started to draw into the water. He worked with white to bring out the waves, adding turquoise and dark blues where needed. The rocks are next where texture is added, all the time being careful not to over work areas. Conte sticks are then used to define crevices and cracks in the rocks.

​Time seems to have flown by and we are in awe of the quality and effects he has achieved in such a short time. An exceptional nights demonstration by a master of this medium.