SAA Archives | Poppy Using Oil Pastels on Black Canvas with Anita Pounder

Hello and welcome to another demonstration. I asked Gary what can be the subject for this and he has chosen a poppy. What I wanted to do was show you that you can get black canvas. So this is canvas sheets primed with a black gesso or primer. And what it does, it comes in a pad so I can tear a sheet out. I've used an A3 one but I've cut it down to A4 because I'm not using it all. It takes down the cast and gives you a beautiful black background. So that is a lot of fun, which means I'm not actually going to touch the background. I'm just going to create a poppy and hopefully it'll just jump off the page. I was trying to debate what to do. I could do acrylic, I could do oils, I could do mixed media. But I decided I haven't done oil pastels for a while and I just love the quality and the creaminess when you put them on the page and this will help this poppy be bright and jump off the page. So oil pastels, if you're not familiar with them, don't get confused with soft pastels. They're totally different, they're a totally different medium. They are a bit like lipstick or a lip balm, that kind of consistency, that greasy consistency. These are the Snellier ones and they're artist quality, which means the colour is lightfast on most of the colours. It goes down really rich and creamy and allows for blending. You can get student quality, which give a lot of the same qualities but not quite as pigment rich. For this, I'm going to use them on this black canvas and just allow the poppy to emerge. One thing about these is they don't dry, they're non-drying. They dry to a certain level but they can always remain that little bit sticky. So I will cover and protect with a piece of crystal paper or I think it's called glycine paper. Or you put behind a frame. So that's one thing about these, it's got a non-drying formula inside. It just allows for the creaminess to continue coming out of the stick. So I'm going to put on a bit of colour and work my way around the poppy. I'm going to try and work on this side first because I don't want to be leaning on it. That will just mean I get everything very messy. The great thing about this poppy is it's got lots of colour. Just putting on colour, this is all I'm doing for this because I will blend and soften with a colour shaper. And I'll show you what a colour shaper is. So that's the mouth and this area, this is a colour shaper. They come in different shapes at the end and they're rubber tipped. Great for masking fluid because it just rubs off. This is the only shape I have at the moment, I couldn't find the others so this is the shape I have. But it allows me to get a much more blended look. See how that blends in. I can feel the real consistency, the creaminess of this medium. So you can blend it with solvents. It's a wax and oil based pastel. Like I say, very different to soft pastels. You see the word pastel and you kind of think they're very similar, it's different. So blend with solvents, can be used in mixed media. I've seen people use it successfully as a resist over a water based medium. Look at that. I'm going to just blend here. The great thing about this is I'm using it on the black surface and look how opaque it is. It's actually quite an interesting medium to use on lots of different surfaces. Sennelier have produced a fixative specifically for the oil pastels. So that kind of helps to set them and have the surface less sticky to attract dust. I can actually move the pastel a little bit further than where it is on the paper. It's allowing that black surface to come through. You can use these, you don't have to do this blendy softness technique. You can use them quite strong and bold. This is just the technique I've chosen for this particular drawing painting. I can never tell. I know there is a rule for soft pastels, rules we can break them. But on the whole they consider a drawing is one which doesn't use the whole of the surface of the pastel paper. That's very sketchy and a little bit of background but not the whole surface covered. And a painting is where you cover the whole surface. But I think it's whatever works for you. Look how quickly that has put on colour. I'm just trying to work out what that bit is. I think it's a fold. I've chosen the colours that I'm using from a bigger set. I'm just cleaning that off. And just put them out on the palette. So I don't have to keep going back in the box. I'll put them away and then I'll forget which colour I'm using. I know what colours work. They do feel sticky on my hands. I just can't do this and talk at the same time obviously. They have a nice paper covering and I was going to show you. What's really clever is when you need to take the paper off you don't have to take the whole paper off. I've cleverly put little nicks all the way down the pastel. You can just take a little strip off at a time and keep the wrapper on the rest of the pastel because it is a bit messy. For this first layer I'm just going to put down initial layers of colour and work out where my lights and darks are. Because I know I can go over it, I can alter it, go back in. Sometimes I find if I put colour on quite quickly it stops me really overthinking what I'm putting on. I am looking at the original and I will add the lights but at the moment I'm just kind of thinking about putting colour on. The petal is in front of these ones at the back. I don't often do this blending with these. I often use the pastel on top of itself to blend but this is actually quite satisfying with this tool. I'm actually able to get to the edge and control where I'm putting the pastel. You see these are quite chunky, they're not easy for getting small detail so I'm using this for small detail. I could also go in with a stump which is why I've got one of those over there ready. Right there, right there, right there, right there. I've got one right across the top there. It's just a really nice rich way I can feel the stickiness there, hear that? Right there. I'm going to extend that. Right just down there. That's dark. Right in a bit of this top of poppy. I don't know which type it is. It's quite one of those really big ones. That's got a number of petals. It's got that beautiful black and purple interior. I'm going to just go down with the tool because that is also helping create the lines on the petals. These kind of have folds, they're very delicate but they have folds. If I do this it actually kind of creates some of those lines of the folds itself. I don't need to do anything which is always a bonus. I'll do that. Before I do this side I'm going to go in here and put some ... This is actually the perfect colour for this. Maybe in the middle, I'm sure it has a name, I can't think of it. A bit of purple. A bit of pink. A bit of green. And this is where I'm going to use this smaller blending tool in a minute. I'm going to just put these lovely details which goes across the top. I've not counted to be honest. I probably should do but it's a representation. I just want this puppy to emerge in this black background. Blend that. I've got a little scrap of paper here because these colours can get contaminated quite easily. I'm just going to scrape off and clean the edge. That's why I have a bit of white paper. It didn't need to be the same colour as I'm working on because I'm not looking at colour. I'm just using it as a bit of cleaning. I'm going to use the black of the canvas as part of the... I don't need to paint on it. It's already there. Why do I need to add anything? It's already been done for me. And green. I'm trying to suggest that these are a bit more of a shape than I have on here. I'm going to clean my tool because that's red. It doesn't matter if it gets contaminated to be honest. I just want to suggest that it's not just flat black in the middle there. Like that. I might put some bit of purple in. Not too much. Just enough that it's not quite as flat black. I'm going to start and go round again. I'm leaving this area till last because I will lean on it. That's the only reason I'm leaving that. I've used all those colours. Let me look at it a bit. Right. I don't think that goes on. A little bit more light here. I'm not using white. That is going to be at the very end. Right there. Then following the direction of the lines in the background. It's doing the job for me. I'm going to fix the effect I'm going for. Just get that delicate nature of these petals. A little bit darker. See how I can build up, I can take off, I can alter. It's always a bonus. Some mediums don't always allow for this so easily. Work on this. This is actually a little bit darker. More like that. I'm trying to make this petal stand out a bit more. Get that. Get that. Get that. I'm curving it a little bit as well. It's a bit darker in the middle there. That's slightly pushed. Pick up some of that white at the top there. That's a nice petal. I'm going to catch the edges. They're slightly crinkled. Get that more white. This time I'm not going to blend, I'm going to use pastel. It's a bit of... ...violet over here. That's there. I'll keep going. So this is darker at the bottom. Where it's in the shadow. Get that kind of shape. Get rid of your fabulous folds. Get that. If I use this tool too much, I do over-blend it. It's got a lovely burn and a bit of highlight catching. Shape that so it's much more... ...looking for. I do have a dark... ...section here. So that's quite thick there. What I'm going to do is scrape a little bit off. Just so I've got a little bit more grip. Because you've got lots of layers, you're creating a less... ...grippy surface, which means this was just sliding off... ...as I was trying to put colour on. That's better. Because I've scraped back a layer... ...with my tool... ...my colour shaper... ...it means it's actually then onto the surface of the canvas rather than... ...onto the pastel. So I'm going to use... ...just a little bit of colour. I'm pushing quite hard. That's definitely got that... ...dark area. Maybe I need to go a bit more... ...more between the lines. I might do a bit of... ...so I think I'll go with this colour. That's something not right there. I think I'll do that while I'm... ...better. I'm much happier with that shape. I'm going to... ...better. See how that's altered? And I know this looks quite light... ...on the photo. You've got to think about the light... ...a little bit more on how does it look on your... ...drawing. It may not quite work. I'm not doing a photographic representation. What I want to show is the different layers of leaves. Petals, sorry. And to do that I'm going to have to... ...make some darks... ...darker... ...and lights lighter. Right, let's move on to this one. Not as... ...light as the others. So... ...just a bit of shape. Definitely need some... ...light across the top there. I'm now moving round... ...to... ...so... ...that red. It's pretty lovely... ...further round on itself. And it goes into there. This goes over there. And then that petal comes... ...behind it like that. I don't think I said but... ...initially... ...I used a pastel pencil to sketch it down. Because... ...I know I can easily remove it if I had to. But you can... ...you can use anything because the... ...oil pastel covers. It's darker in there. I'm going to use the surface... ...of the black as well... ...to kind of use that to shadow. As you see here, some areas I haven't... ...quite filled in. Might as well use the black... ...foreshadow... ...there, that's what... ...it's colour. So I don't want as much... ...of this opaque medium... ...on the surface. I want it to show through. Just gives me that darker... ...area I'm looking for. I can lighten. Finish it. That's light. So I'm just looking at... ...how this relates... ...to these other petals. I'm trying to work out... ...so... ...this is quite light. Should be lost... ...there. Goes... ...around like that. Gets part of the... ...it's a bit flat still. I can... ...look into that. Actually, it does look quite flat in this photograph... ...but... ...it doesn't work. I need to add... ...a little bit more light. Definitely catch that there. At the moment... ...this one I need to... ...work on that shape. It's actually a bit laggardy. So... ...got a few... ...catches of light on it. A bit on the edge there. That comes around. Like that. Also... ...lighten that up. Looks like the light is also... ...catching on a bit here. It's quite light there. And some red there. And... ...a bit of... ...different... ...textures on the edge. I can... ...pick up some of the folds. I can see this is still a bit flat. I'm going to... ...get another one... ...that has a little bit of a light on there. I'm not going to do this to make it a little bit more interesting. These I'm... ...possibly not going to blend in. I'm going to just... ...manage it. Darker. Let's darken that under here. There. Don't like that here. That's too... ...outlining the light. I'm going to put... ...a bit of light there. That works better. Click that again. I'm pushing quite hard. Alright. A bit of shadow now. A bit of shadow. Green. I've forgotten the... ...damp giving it something to... ...sit on. Where's my smaller... ...using my canvas? Then I can use the darkness. It's quite difficult to get such a... ...line. It's quite... I think... ...I've got little... ...bits of... ...tiny little hairs coming off. Right. One thing I have done... ...is I've... ...not used the white... ...until now. And that's because I wanted to be really careful... ...with what I did with it. It's really... ...tempting to go over... ...every area... ...with... ...light. And I don't want to... ...want it to... ...just... ...suggest that there will be some areas... ...that won't actually... ...pop the light... ...but have this... ...white sparkle in it. A lot of it is... ...what do you think would look... ...works... ...what... ...where is it lacking... ...in depth... ...a little bit strong. So you can see I can still keep going... ...back in if I want to. I'm going to reach a saturation point... ...and I've purposely not picked up a black... ...because I might have needed one a little bit. I think on the whole that's worked quite well. Double check... ...as I go round... ...everything makes sense. By that I mean... ...you've not done an area that... ...just looks odd. It may not be exactly the same as... ...your... ...original. But you get the idea... ...of what it is. It's... ...a poppy. And it's this type of poppy. I'm going to stop... ...because I think I will easily... ...go over areas which look quite nice... ...now. So... ...my hands are a bit... ...sticky... ...because of the medium... ...but I love this medium. It just works... ...in so many ways. You can do it really free... ...and rich... ...straight away you get the colour on. All I can have done... ...is blend it... ...and move it with tools. So just to clarify... ...using a... ...this is the Frisk... ...black... ...canvas. This is a canvas sheet... ...which means I can now... ...store this... ...somewhere... ...easily. I haven't got... ...the bulk of a canvas... ...and I'm just going to use... ...a little bit of... ...crystal paper... ...on the top... ...and there we go. That is done. So I hope you enjoyed that... ...and join me again soon... ...for another demonstration.