For this exercise I first thought about what colour I wanted to use. I didn’t want to use the same colour (blue) as the example in the course materials for some reason and I’d had enough of green with the last exercise. I looked around for inspiration, and a bowl of apricots caught my attention. I decided my colour would be orange. I felt for the subject and for my own personal development it would be good to use oil pastels. I have limited experience with these but am aware that they are not good for intense detail and that was something I was hoping to steer away from. I started to look for other items that I could add to the composition; initially I opted for a string bag and chopping board. I took a few digital photos to play around with the most appropriate view and felt that birds eye worked best. At the time I had the benefit of good weather with bright sunshine which gave good definition and contrast to the items.
I also had a go at drawing first the apricots and then a section of the proposed composition as I was keen to see how I would manage the string bag with the materials. The first practice went well and reinforced for me that oil pastels were the right medium. The second experiment was not so good and I realised that the string bag was going to be difficult to reproduce with this medium and may make the overall composition messy. The exercise also asked for one medium therefore using something to help with definition was not an option. I therefore decided just do away with the string bag, to add some interest I halved one of the apricots. Because of the view I was adopting I took a digital photo to work from but this time ensured that I did not zoom into the image and used the whole image for reference.
I used all orange based colours in my oil pastel set which amounted to 7 sticks. I made a quick outline sketch with coloured pencil and then started with the mid tone across the whole image, then dark tones, then highlights. I then went back and forth with the different tones until I was happy. I was careful not to rub the pastel with my fingers. This was something I had done before, I thought it was how the medium needed to be worked but have since read that it should be layered to create depth of colour. I first used the sticks softly and as the layers built and the image was developing I worked the sticks harder into the paper which gave a more blended and intense effect.
As I stuck only with the orange colours, the shadows are not as dark as in real life and the wooden chopping board is less true to its colour, but I am happy with the overall result – mostly I’m happy that I was able to create a good drawing with less focus on minute detail, whilst at the same time not disregarding this. It is a very simple composition and perhaps I could have added more items or background but I’m not sure that this would have added any value. I chose a textured paper for the ground as this seems to be recommended for pastels, however I found that I preferred working on the smoother paper which I used in my practice pieces.
I will take the opportunity to use and experiment with pastels more during the course. I need to get better quality sticks and would like to try conte pastels as I understand that these can be used with water, I most like the way that you can build up on the colours to blend them. The richness of the colours also encourages more boldness.
Deborah McAulay 