Albert Handell Workshop, Day One

Day one was spent with a morning lecture about pastels and color theory. It included demonstrations on how to divide up a pastel box into six different values of colors, from light to dark. I had never seen a pastel demonstration before, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was definitely an eye-opener.

Albert works on Kitty Wallis paper, on 12 x 18 size paper. Anita uses panels. Panels do not let light shine through when painting outdoors.

Anita mentioned that you can keep pastels clean by shaking them up with cornmeal and drain the meal off in a colander.

To figure out if the values are the same, you would put two colors up against one another and look for an edge. If there is no edge, it means that they are in the same value group. If they are the same value, you can use them together and you will not get muddy color. But, you must keep to the same value. Albert started with the darks and then lay in the lights. He said to be aware of the temperature. A good varied temperature includes 2-3 darks, 2-3 midtones, and 2-3 lights.

Albert also spoke about the direction of the sun and how it looks on paper. A flat look is one where the sun is behind the object, a rimmed look is where the sun shines on the front of the object, and the half view is when the sun is shining across from one side. For the half view, you must quickly do the patterns of shadow before they change. It is important to capture proportion and placement.

Another thing to consider is lost and found edges and space. Things that are behind a subject get softened.