Speaking of Art Blog

Have you heard of the term glazing in art?  Traditionally with oil painting, glazing means this: 

“Glazing is the term used for a thin, transparent layer of paint. Glazes are used on top of one another to build up depth and modify colors in a painting.”

Well, guess what? Glazing means the same thing with pastels and it’s not hard to do.

Here is my latest pastel painting, Woodland Textures (11x14").  Look at all those layers, varieties, and colors of green foliage.  Lucky for me, I own a lot of shades of green pastels and I used tons of them in this painting.  When nearing the end of rendering this piece I stepped back to survey whether I had enough depth in various spots of the greenery.  That’s when I noticed that a few little places needed to recede into the background just a bit more.  One of those spots was in the far lowest right corner.  I had used the two pastel sticks you see here to make the tiny leaves that were down low.  Then I used the dark sepia brown pastel pencil to color in the dirt surrounding them.  But the leaves needed to recede even more.  So I took the deep green pastel pencil you see here and I lightly skimmed over the leaves and dark sepia with very light straight strokes, back and forth over that whole little area.  That action is what is called glazing.  It’s a thin layer of color that is applied lightly to a whole area to make it change not only in color but also in value (shading).  And when those leaves get darker as a result, they recede.  Their edges get all blurred up too, which naturally happens when you can’t see something quite as clearly anymore, so that’s OK.  That’s supposed to happen.

The other spot where the leaves needed to recede a bit more was at the lowest left hand base of the tree trunk.  I had used the three tools on the left to create the leaves (two pastel pencils and the pink pastel stick).  Then I used my dark sepia pencil to glaze over them and make them go even further back in space.  As a result, that tree trunk down there seemed to jump forward.  Mission accomplished.

Glazing can also be used to add a light touch of a color, just a suggestion, to any shape.  And it’s a great way to depict fog or mist in the air of a landscape scene by using a light neutral color.  What kind of pastel works best when glazing?  Answer:  A hard pastel or a pastel pencil.  A medium or soft pastel leaves too much color behind even if they are being pressed very lightly on a surface, while a harder pastel or pastel pencil that is not as pigmented will leave behind just a thin, transparent layer of color, almost imperceptible.  That’s why I sometimes need to keep on applying several light touch layers to get enough color to stick and make a difference. 

Patience and very light layering are key.  That’s glazing.  It can work like magic in just the right places.

Prairie Path, 11x14", pastel