How to Paint a Sunset with Pastels

In this video we'll take a look at how to draw a dramatic sunset with pastels. We'll begin by taping off the borders of our picture plane on Canton Métis pastel paper. For this demonstration I'm using the heavily textured side. We'll start with a bit of pan pastel and I'm just using a large applicator to apply a light blue. Then down near where our light source will be originating, down near the sunset, we'll add a bit of orange and red, just a touch of yellow, again with the pan pastel. We'll allow our brush strokes to be loose and visible. Now switching over to traditional stick pastels, I'll use a light blue over the top of the darker application, working the medium into the tooth of the paper as I go. Now of course the sky is rather complex so I'll be layering lots of different colors. I'll now switch over to a darker blue and apply it in the upper left hand corner and just a bit in the upper right hand corner. We want to create a transition from darker blues down to lighter blues and oranges and yellows towards the lower portion of the sky. Here again I'll work this application into the surface of the tooth with my finger. Now for a lighter blue closer to the lower portion of the sky. We're going to create a transition again from the darker blue to the lighter blue at the bottom. At this point we're not concerned with any of the details of the sky like the clouds. Instead we're worrying about developing the areas of color that happen behind the clouds. Since we're working with pastels we can layer additional applications over the top of what we've already got down. So at this early stage I'm quickly layering colors as I see them. We'll switch over to a lighter cream color, again just to make the value a bit lighter towards the bottom of the sky. We'll allow some of this color to mix in with our orange applications that we made with the pan pastel. We can add a bit more variety in this area with a few more horizontal strokes made with the light cream. Again we'll work this application in using our finger. Now you'll see throughout this process that although we're doing a lot of heavy blending early in the process, we'll eventually get to the point where we're applying the pastel without any blending at all. I think a mistake a lot of beginners make with pastels is thinking that they need to blend absolutely everything in with a finger or with a blending stop. This is not the case as pastel marks are rather aesthetic left alone. We'll layer a bit of strong orange and a bit of yellow closest to the area where the light is most intense and strongest. For the most part we'll create horizontal marks and blend this application in with our finger. We can lighten this area again with an application of light cream. We're allowing our marks to be loose and organic at this early stage. If we became too stiff with the marks making too many geometric shapes, our image would look unnatural. We'll continue to apply applications of yellow, orange, and the light cream until we get the light feeling as natural as possible. We'll also pull some of the yellow into the bluer areas on the right side of the picture plane and again more applications of the cream here as well. Now that we've got our base application of the sky in place, we can start to layer some of the details or the clouds over the top. We'll start with the darker values and colors that are observed. A deep purple is applied first establishing the shapes of the clouds. Here again we're mindful of the fact that clouds are loose and organic, so again we're trying to make sure that we're not too stiff with our applications, allowing the shapes of the clouds to be organic and irregular. Because this is a base coat, we can work it into the surface using our finger. For smaller more detailed areas, I'll use the blending stump. We'll continue applying applications of the purple in all areas where the clouds exist. Just as we did when we were establishing the initial colors for the sky in the lower portion where we layered lots of colors, we'll be layering lots of colors over the top of the clouds as well. It's important to create depth in the color, so we'll add a bit of blue before switching over to orange to create some of the highlights. Now of course light is important in any image, but this one in particular, so we'll need to consider the light source. In this case, the light source is originating from the sun, which is setting in the background. This means that light is going to be emitted out from this location, producing areas of highlight on the underside of the clouds. This is where our most intense applications of orange will be located. Initially, we'll make strong marks with the orange pastel. We'll add these applications in all of the locations where we have the strong highlights. We'll also create additional clouds using the orange. To create a little bit of a transition between the orange and the purple, we'll use a very light purple nestled right next to the orange applications. We'll make some of the lighter diagonal clouds on the right side of the picture plane a bit more visible with this color as well. Now of course strong highlight applications are important, but to make the highlighted areas feel even stronger, we'll deepen some of the shadows on the clouds. We'll use a dark gray for this application and work the material in using our finger. For more detailed areas, again we'll use the blending stump to pull the color into the surface. Now with just a very limited touch of white, we'll increase some of the highlights on the cloud on the far lower portion of the picture plane. We'll continue to apply colors to increase the depth within the scene, this time with a touch of blue. It's important at this stage of the drawing to remain patient. Understand it's only through multiple applications of the material that you build up enough necessary depth for the image to appear representational. A lot of beginning artists stop way too early in the process, mistakenly believing that they only need to a few applications of color to get the results that they desire. We'll continue to apply colors, strengthening the highlights and increasing the depth of color in the shadows as we go. This time a bit of the light cream is added towards the lower portion to create a stronger stripe of color. We'll also use this light cream on some of the clouds in the sky as well. A bit of lighter blue is applied around the edges of the far right cloud to create a bit more contrast and define the shape a bit further. We'll use this lighter blue to create some additional subtle highlights in this particular cloud. For the most part these lines are horizontal but there's quite a bit of variety in the mark as well. We can gently blend these applications in as they are made. We can define the shapes of the clouds even further with a more precise touch using the blending stump. And then a bit of light orange is added to create a few smaller clouds that exist in between the larger shapes. We'll continue to adjust and refine transitions of color and value using the blending stump. And we'll also continue to increase the intensity of the colors as we add them, especially in the areas of orange. Then it's back to the cloud on the lower right. We'll go back with the light blue and continue to increase some of the contrast between the highlighted areas and the darker areas within this cloud. We'll create a few horizontal marks at the bottom of the cloud and gently work it in with our finger. In most circumstances clouds that are found on the lower portion of the sky will be further away than clouds found higher up on the picture plane. For this reason the contrast is not quite as strong in this area. Now back with the blending stump we can further refine the edges of this cloud. Next we'll intensify the light with an additional application of orange, a touch of yellow, and a bit of the light cream. Using the light cream color will create a few indications of some breaks in the clouds. Using this color will also slightly lighten the bottom portion of the sky. A touch of light orange is also added for a bit more variety. These applications are then gently blended before intensifying the light a bit further. These final applications of orange, yellow, and a touch of light cream are just slightly blended before moving on to the middle ground and foreground. This image of course is all about the sky. Of course the other elements are important as well but the sky is really the star of the show. We can create more emphasis on the sky by lowering the horizon line. Therefore we're going to limit the amount of foreground and middle ground that we have in the image and allow the sky to take up much of the picture plane. Using a dark umber we'll start to establish the horizon line and I'll bring this application directly across and over the top of the applications that we've made for the sky. We'll cover the entire lower portion of the picture plane and then gently blend this application with a finger. Now we can create the silhouettes of the far off trees. Again these applications should be organic just as we saw with the clouds. We'll add a few indications of some distant trees on the left side as well. With dark and light yellow greens we can start to establish some of the colors. Now of course these colors are going to be very subdued because they are off in the distance and remember we don't want to take focus away from the sky. We'll concentrate on putting the lighter greens closest to the light source. So this means on each tree that we define in the distance the lighter greens are going to be applied predominantly to the left side of the tree on the right side of the picture plane and to the right side of the trees that we see on the left side of the picture plane. We can lighten some of the values with an application of the white pastel pencil and define a few indications of some distant tree trunks. We'll continue back and forth with the dark green and the lighter yellow green. Now for a few more detailed applications we'll pull up a few indications of some trees using a black pastel pencil. Since black is such a strong color we'll use a very light touch. And to make this application feel a bit more natural we'll go over the top of it with a dark green. Now we can start to address some of the flowers that exist in this field. We'll start with a light purple creating horizontal strokes. We'll next switch over to a darker purple. The darker purple will exist closer to the edges of the field of flowers although we'll incorporate it closer to the center as well and especially in the extreme foreground. At this point we're just creating stripes of color. These marks can be broken in areas to indicate shadows in the field. We'll also create more variety by using light pink as well. The light pink will be more prevalent closer to the light source. Closer to the viewer we have some indications of a few of the stems from the flowers so we'll use dark yellow green to indicate these. And then to make a few indications of highlights we'll use the light yellow green pencil. We'll incorporate the light yellow green in a couple of areas in the field as well to create a bit more harmony and unity. And then with deliberate marks we can indicate a few of the individual flowers closest to the viewer using the dark purple. A pink pastel pencil is used to increase the variety of color even further. We'll use it in a couple of spots to encourage harmony and unity. Then it's back to the light purple. We'll create a few additional streaks of color. Deliberate marks are made with a light purple closest to the viewer in the extreme foreground to indicate a few of the flowers. Of course these marks are allowed to sit on the surface without any blending at all. A bit more light pink is added. This color is also used to indicate a few of the flowers closest to the viewer. Additional applications of our darker purple intensify the color a bit further. And then lastly a bit of white pastel pencil is added closest to the light source. Now it's time to add our single tree which of course is an important element within the scene. Its placement of course is very important as well. Because of its importance you may be tempted to place the tree in the center of the picture plane. But it's often better to place it in one third of the picture plane. This refers to the rule of thirds which is very similar to the gold proportion. By placing it in one of the thirds of the picture plane we create a more aesthetic and interesting composition. We'll use the black pastel pencil to gently pull up the strokes to indicate each one of the branches and of course the trunk of the tree. Again since the black is so strong a very light touch is used here with a sharpened pastel pencil. Strokes are pulled outward and upward allowing the line to taper at the end. By defining the branches we have much of the structure of the tree in place. Now making small circular strokes we can define the leaves on the trees. We'll stick with the black pastel pencil again making very light marks. We'll allow for some breaks in the leaves allowing the sky to show through. We can gradually and slowly fill in all the leaves of the tree. In some areas we'll allow the applications made with the black pastel pencil to become a bit stronger and more intense. This will create more variety and some indications of shadow within the tree. Now with a light yellow green we can start to define some of the highlights on the tree. We'll go right over the top of the black applications. We can intensify the shadows with an additional application of the black pastel pencil. Then to create the illusion of a bit of glow coming from the light source we'll go back with an orange pastel pencil and overlap a few of the areas of the trunk closest to the horizon. At this point our image is almost complete. The last thing we need to do is go back and intensify some of the highlights in the clouds. We'll use our orange for this allowing the marks to sit on the surface without any blending. Of course a heavy amount of pressure is applied. We'll also use the light cream just to make a small adjustment to the small clouds on the left side of the picture plane. And now our pastel drawing of a dramatic sky at sunset is complete.