Thursday 14 January 2010

It's a long way down



Pastel 15x20cms


This is a pastel painting of the steep path leading down to a local beach.
It's locally known as the 'Baia dei Francesi' (french Bay), due to the large
numbers of French tourists who stayed there in the 1970's and 80's.
I'm sure it has a proper name and I will have to find out.

Here's a photo from the footpath.looking down. (No hand rail either!)

Pastel is not a medium I've used much, but I did enjoy doing this
one.   I tried spraying it with a fixative from the local art shop and
found that it made the colours darker and dull, not exactly the effect
I wanted.  I wonder if there's better way of fixing pastel or a really
good brand of fixative available?

4 comments:

Gretel said...

We used to swear by hairspray when I was an art student - another way to fix is to hold the artwork (not too close) over a steaming kettle or pan, which has the advantage of not putting an extra element on your work. You'd need to trial and error though.

Leslie Hawes said...

Very beautiful!
I use Krylon "Crystal Clear" spray fixative for colored pencil. It does make the colors a bit brighter, but I imagine it is an effect of the fix and wax in the pencils combining.
I have no experience with that brand of fix and pastel.
Make a 'test' paper with your colors and try some fixatives on it, rather than risk an artwork.
Spray fixing is always the scariest part of any piece for me.

Cathy Holtom said...

Yes I've used hairspray on charcoal and it worked ok, but I've not heard of the steam method.
I will have to try.

There isn't much choice of fixatives here so I will have to order something on internet and I will definately test first.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, can't help with your fixative .... but I love your picture (a resolution I didn't admit to on my blog is to try harder to learn to draw!!). And the photo is just what I need to cheer me up as our horrible weather continues!!