Ginger Jar with Clementines

"Ginger Jar with Clementines", Pastel, 10 x 8"

I've been wanting to do another progress demo for folks that follow my work.  So, this time I remembered to stop and take photos as I did this pastel painting.  Yes, some are a little crooked in the progression demo below - but hey, I was focusing on painting, not photography!

Anyway, I knew I wanted to paint this dark blue ginger jar again so that I could try out my new Terry Ludwig Intense Darks.  Oh, do I like them!  I don't like to use black in paintings, so these just fit the bill perfectly.  And this week I got the cutest little bitty Clementines at the store, so a bunch of them spilled nicely into this still life set up.

I also knew I wanted to use my little piece of chamois to blend the background.  I've found it works best on Ampersand Pastelbord - so I used an 8 x 10" grey-toned board for this painting.  It works so well to grab lots of pigment and allows me to rub in and remove pastels very nicely.

There's quite an ornate design on the ginger jar with birds and flowers.  I chose to simplify it somewhat as working this small with large pastels is challenging with so much fine detail.  So, suggesting the design was the plan here while mainly getting the shapes, darks and lights of things right.

I do like all the rounded shapes and have learned to soften edges to create the 3-dimensional form more clearly.  It was a fun painting to create...but then that's true most of the time I get to be at the easel!


Gif animators