Category: Pastels - Nancy Freeman Studio | Chromatic Fanatic

Nancy Freeman Studio | Chromatic Fanatic

Color Grid from Square Pastel Box project

9/7/2014

Square Box Color Grid

When I sort out and organize my pastel boxes, I make these grids to compare this piece of pastel with that one, to eliminate duplicates and near duplicates.
I like to make art with whatever I'm doing, so I make these color grids.

This Color Grid is from my most indulgent box of pastels, the Square Box. Not only is the box itself square, but all the pastels are square or rectangular - NuPastels, Terry Ludwigs, Great American, and so on. I prefer these shapes for the clear variety of strokes sizes they can make, and for their sharp edges.

Square Box of Pastels

Step-by-Step Pastel Painting video

6/7/2014

Source Photo

"Purple Lava" finished pastel painting

"Purple Lava"
from the
Cabbage Family series

Pastel painting demo.

I've been working on converting some of my step-by-step pastel demos into short videos.

Here's one, about 45 seconds long. It's made from stills taken with my iPhone, so it's a bit choppy., and the colors are all over the place.

This is the revised version, with captions.

"Roadside Sentinels"

1/15/2014

"Roadside Sentinels"

Accepted to the Chicago International Pastel Competition.
Approx. 16" X 12"
Based on a photograph taken on Skyline Drive one foggy day.

The Yellows are Finished!

12/29/2013

The Yellows!

Too many yellows!!

The yellows are finished, finally. Whew, what a process!

Yellows are always problematic because at full saturation it is at a value nine, very high, and has nowhere to go in the value scale when white is added. Very top heavy. Messes up all the color charts.

The Yellows!

It's Green day!

12/17/2013

Yellow-Green to Green range, taken in ambient light. This photo is more accurate.

Same pastels, rotated a quarter turn. taken under a bright easel light. A good reminder that photos can tell all kinds of tales, and so can light.

The Great Square Box Renovation Project of 2013

12/14/2013

Sorting pastels ... this is the hard part

This is my most indulgent box of pastels. It consists of nothing but square or rectangular shaped colors, which I prefer for the straight edges. It was too full, and I couldn't find anything. Then I just had to treat myself to a nice set of Terry Ludwig pastels, which are very soft and a perfect size and shape.

On the left are some of the new pastels to add in. In the middle is part of the purple-to-red range.

In back are the grids for testing the colors. As long as I'm going to all this work I may as well make art , too. I've been obsessively making color grids since college.

This is the red-to-orange range, roughly sorted into values. You can see the little squares in the tray where they have to go. Looks like about three times as many pastel as there is space. Ugh.

Two finished grids. For some reason these really appeal to me.

And the two finished columns that correspond to them. Whew! Four to go...

Two New sets of Pastels - Great American Pastel review

12/12/2013

Great American "Outdoor Assortment" 1/2 stick set

Great American "On the Terrace" 1/2 stick set

For a little present to myself, I invested in two 60 piece half stick sets of Great American pastels. I'm a big fan of the recent trend toward half stick sets. It saves a lot of time unwrapping and breaking the pastel sticks, and half is plenty for most colors.

Great American pastels are very, very soft, and come in square sticks, which are particularly handy. I had a fair number of them already, but they came out with these new sets with excellent color selections. I surely do not need any more pastels, but it's like getting a brand new set of 64 colors of crayons as a kid.

The packaging was about the best I've seen. The bottom part of the boxes are made of something like balsa wood, very sturdy, and there was plenty of foam under, over, and all around. They also included color charts for you to fill in for color identification, very useful. The pictures show the sets with color charts filled in.

First the good news. The color selections are indeed luscious, with a full range of hues, values and saturations. The size is actually more than half stick size, more like two-third stick size, which is about right.

The bad news, which isn't all that bad, is that a few of the colors were oddly and unpleasantly hard, which was quite unexpected. There were only four of them out of the 120 new sticks though, so maybe they had a bad batch of something.

Next step: to integrate them into The Square Set.

I actually cleaned out my studio pastel set ...

12/11/2013

...I actually cleaned my studio pastel set ...

This is the second largest set I work with, after the Wow Box. In the heat of battle the colors get all mixed around and covered with dust, so it's always a bit of a chore to restore it to order. Following the good example of one of my talented friends, I even cleaned [most] of them. I'm liking it much more now, and it will last for awhile at least.

I designed the trays and they fit in a drawer under the big work table when not in use. This set doesn't travel.

Studio pastel set

"Virginia Creeper" Pastel Painting on Exhibit

4/5/2013

"Virginia Creeper"
Pastel painting 12 X 18"

Accepted into the April "Flora and Fauna" juried show at the Art League Gallery in Old Town Alexandria.

Studio Pastel Painting Station

3/4/2013

Studio pastel station

Here is the pastel station in my studio. The natural light isn't great, so there is a full-spectrum clamp-on lamp above the easel. I like to have the pastels selection right in front of the painting for finding the right color. The cabinet is a Stanton Cart from HomeDecorators.com. They no longer carry that particular configuration, although they have many others. It is only 14" deep, so I don't have to reach very far, (I'm short), which reduces shoulder strain. It's on wheels which occassionly comes in handy, although it is quite heavy full loaded. There is a little dust catcher tray that I made from foam-core under the drawing board.

Some Pastel Sets
Here are a few of the sets I've put together. The one on the far left is the one at the studio painting station. The one on the lower right is my smallest travel set. The trays are made with foam-core. You can see that they are all arranged with the same color configuration, so that no matter which set I'm using, I know where to go to find the color I need.

At this point I have far more pastels than I will ever use up. I still want to get more, of course, just to make sure I have the right color. It's like getting a brand new box of crayons.