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| Manhattan Nocturne by Frank Federico, pastel painting, 20 x 24. |
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I have a tried and true love affair going with color. I'm
drawn to it across the spectrum, but I'm a late bloomer when it comes to pastel
painting, which has to be some kind of crime considering how much interesting
stuff can be done with color in this medium.
In the pastel drawings that I've started to explore in
museums, galleries, and online, I see painting pastels used in such unusual
ways: pinks, reds, grays, and whites making up skin tones, or how a sunset
evening is captured in a pastel drawing with indigo, fiery orange, yellow, and
white.
I'm also happy to report that I learned a boatload of pastel
painting lessons from Frank Federico, an artist and pastel painter from
Connecticut, who shared his dynamic approach to color in our latest free eBook,
Pastel Painting Techniques with Artist
Daily: Making Color Work in Every Pastel Drawing.
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| McLaughlin Vineyard by Frank Federico, pastel painting. |
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Federico is inspiring to learn from because he loves color
as much as much as I do. And he has the experience with color to back it up. He
discusses how all paintings--landscapes as well as portraits--need creative and
exciting color choices. For him, that means starting a painting with a layer or
glaze of color like yellow, to see how colors that are put down after will
appear next to this ground. He also creates his
underpaintings with just two blues, two yellows, two reds, and white. With
these alone he gets a range of hues and values that allow him to paint anything
he wants, but with bold effects.
Federico also stresses that color can be used as shapes and
values, so an artist only needs to place them thoughtfully and see how they
interact with one another. It all grows from there. To get all the details from
Federico, download your free copy of Pastel
Painting Techniques with Artist Daily: Making Color Work in Every Pastel
Drawing now and enjoy!
P.S. If you have a fellow artist or painter, or color junkie
like me, who would love to see Federico's work and explore his color approach,
by all means send Pastel Painting
Techniques with Artist Daily to them! They will owe you one!