Painting with Pastels: Pumpkin

Three weeks ago, I started an art class in pastels. I used to dabble in art in high school and college, but I stopped after graduation. Art has a meditative quality which I love and miss. I also enjoy having an end product to share with others. I always had a preference for paint but pastels fit into my schedule the best. The class title “painting and drawing with pastels” was close enough to what I love too.

Despite thinking the class would be boring with its focus on plants and nature, I am enjoying it. The subject matter has the added benefit of producing works my mother would appreciate. She found my high school artwork to be scary. On my first visit home from college, I found my favorite piece (involving a shaman, wolf and other animal heads) stuffed behind the couch. Not above, but behind. I was more amused than offended. My mom prefers birds, trees, pretty things. I can draw the ugliest bird and tree and my mom will love them. Moms are great.

Anyway, my class did not meet today. However, it was such gorgeous day that I was motivated to sit in my backyard and paint with pastels.

The source:

I'm round, ridgey and cute!

I purchased this sugar pumpkin from the farmers’ market on Wednesday. If you ever want to make friends with strangers, I highly suggest walking around with a cute pumpkin tucked under your arm. If I were more extroverted, I could have made many new friends. One man smiled and commented, “I like your pumpkin.” Most people asked if I were going to carve it: “Nope, I plan to eat it.”  I didn’t mention that I wanted to draw the pumpkin the instance I saw it in sunlight. I thought the ridges were a great detail and I loved the yellow spots.

This is my third week with pastels and my fifth piece. I have concluded that I am better at drawing round objects than other shapes. The first week, I had worked on an apple and a bell pepper. The second week was very frustrating when we worked on leaves and branches. Challenges are good but art is supposed to relax me. Drawing this pumpkin was very relaxing.

Where's the glass slipper?

Pastels involve a lot of layering. I learned my first class that there is always a weird (to non-artsy people such as myself) base color. I didn’t know what to use but decided that blue and purple were too dark; orange and yellow wouldn’t work because they are the main colors and would need to be on top; red would be too red. I ended up outlining the shape and filling in with a pale pink, then peach. You can blend pastels with your fingers or a tortillion, but I follow my instructor’s preference of using pastels only for blending. The darker parts have red, brown, blue, darker orange. The rest had lavender base, yellow, and lighter orange. There are probably many other colors I do not remember. I am beginning to really like pastels. The layering is very soothing and reminds me of painting. In fact, pastels are better because there's no need to wait for drying time.

I made sure to include the yellow spots underneath the orange; this detail may not be apparent in this small picture.  The shadow is underneath and hidden behind the pumpkin rather than to the left pictured in the photograph. I had to move twice because as the sun moved, the trees kept casting shadows on my pumpkin. The sun was directly behind me in the final position.

After finishing the piece, I cooked dinner for a friend and the week. Since it’s another ohsheglows recipe, I will skip blogging about it. Instead, here’s a picture of the black eyed pea I found in the adzuki beans which made me strangely happy:

Do you have a hobby or interest you would like to start again? Any savory suggestions for my pumpkin?