Combining Water Color and Pastels

I have done a few pictures in which traditional methods of correcting a problem just did not work. So if watercolor pencil, gouache, or fluid acrylic can't fix a problem, try using some pastels.

Here are three examples of rescuing a sinking ship with pastels.

This portrait of my youngest grandson, Noah, was begun on Arches watercolor board. I expected it to have the same qualities as my Arches paper, but it did not lift. So when I went to put in highlights in the hair, and the paint did not lift, I was a bit at a loss.

So if you look closely, the highlights in the hair have been done in pastels. And, because I didn't want a glaring difference in mediums, I added pastel highlights in the yellow chair, on the green shirt, and a bit on his thumb. I was having so much fun with it, I had to stop myself from overdoing it!

The masa paper iris below, Myra's Bouquet, got a 2nd place prize in its category at the 2019 regional show, and surprised the heck out of me. I started out with a masa paper wash that I already had and rejected before because it had a big purple blob in an inconvenient place. When it was finished, I felt like that blob still needed some calming down, and the buds needed to fade also. So I used white pastel to calm down those areas. Then, to bring some blues into some areas, I rubbed blue in the sky on the right, just lightly over the creases, to give a slight batik look. 

This little guy I did as a class demo to show how you can use ultra fine sharpie, in this case brown, on masa paper to create a bit of a pen and wash effect. I lost some of the softness around the neck, so I went over it in white pastel. I used some yellow to highlight the beak and legs. I used some oranges, reds, and greens to add color to the leaves. And there is some red pastel in the neck area, brown to create even more texture over the rocks.

I love how pastel and watercolor look together. 

But be careful when you want to mat and frame your piece. Pastel needs to have a spacer between the mat and the picture to allow stray bits of chalk to slide down and not collect on the mat or frame. 

Some people use a fixative on their pastel pieces, and others do not. But they DO need glass to protect them from the elements.