Hey everyone! I hope you all are enjoying your summer so far and keeping cool in the hot weather. After my last few posts about experimenting with gouache, I figured it was a good time to switch mediums and focus on something else. I have been creating art since I was very young, and one of my favorite mediums to work in is chalk pastels. They are very easy to work with, have nice blendable colors, and produce vibrant pieces of art. However, it can get a little messy over time. Recently, after revisiting this medium for the first time in a few months, I have been looking through my old pastel drawings and thought it would be a good idea to share some of them with you guys!
Usually, when I come up with ideas for pastel drawings, I gravitate towards landscapes, especially those with cloudy, colorful skies. Chalk pastels are great for capturing the soft, fluffy texture of clouds, and it is really easy to emulate their wispy nature. The first piece was loosely based on a reference painting that my art teacher had at her studio. I really liked the monochrome background palette and chose to contrast it with the sailboat’s yellows and oranges. The second painting was based on a picture I took during a boat ride around the lake I go to in the summer. I loved the water’s tranquil stillness and how it served as a perfect mirror of the clouds in the sky. The last drawing was also based on an image that I took outside my house. It was a beautiful sunset, and I found it interesting, with the clouds silhouetted against the setting sun.
Landscapes are my favorite thing to capture with chalk pastels, but I have also done some facial/anatomical studies, as well as still life with pastels. The skeletal hand was done around Halloween, and I wanted to challenge myself to draw each bone and ligament accurately to the best of my abilities. I really like the spooky vibe of the drawing, and I think it came out great! For the candles, my art teacher had a reference sketch of three candles, and I wanted to push myself to redo it in color. I really tried to emphasize the glow of the flames against the deep green background. With the last pastel drawing, I wanted to focus on facial and eye studies while elevating the composition a little more. I remember seeing something online that used a similar concept with the skull in the pupil, and I really liked how it looked, so I decided to try it out myself. At first, I struggled to get the skull’s structure right, but after a few tries, I was super happy with the results.
One of my absolute favorite pastel drawings that I have ever done was of my favorite music album. Over the past few years, I have been listening to Hozier’s music and have fallen in love with it. My favorite album of his is “Unreal Unearth.” I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to draw the cover art in my classes. It was a little hard to explain the concept to my teacher, but once I got started, I had a great time analyzing the details and recreating it with pastels. My favorite part of the artwork is the little daisy; I just love how it looks in the piece.
Looking back at all my previous artworks has shown me how much my skills have grown. I have started a new pastel piece this past week, but there’s not much to share yet. I’ll give a progress check in my next post when I’m able to get a little more done. For anyone who was interested in the progress of my last gouache painting, it is finished! Here is how it cam out:
Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed reflecting on some of my previous artworks with me. I would love to hear from you guys which drawing you liked best and why. Obviously, we all know what mine is!
Until next time!
– Cecelia 🙂