Mastering the Art of Pastel: Water Droplets on a Swan
How To Pastel Water Droplets On A Swan
Pastelling water droplets is more about the preparation than the droplet itself.
The trick to pastelling water droplets is in the preparation – it’s about what comes before the water droplets. Why? Because the droplets themselves are relatively simple but without the preparation you won’t see them.
Your water droplets are the brightest part of the painting so you need to save your whitest white pastel for this. Preferably a professional soft white pastel, that’s going to give you super rich pigment and opacity.
Why do you need a soft white pastel?
Because you will have added layers of pastel for the swans feathers already and the paper is likely low on tooth, so you’ll need a rich buttery soft pastel like a Unison GREY 28 and Light 1 (they are both white) that will stick to your pastel paper.
A swan is white, so how do we differentiate between the white swan and the white water droplets?
The illusion is that the swan is white but actually the swan is a subtle shade of blue violet and therefore the super white water droplets will glisten on the surface.
Once you’ve added the dots of white you’ll need to create a little shadow- just a tiny spec of shadow, not a line or a circle round the dot. This will enhance the white even further.
Watch the video demonstration below:
The trick to pastelling water droplets is in the preparation – it’s about what comes before the water droplets. Why? Because the droplets themselves are relatively simple but without the preparation you won’t see them.
Your water droplets are the brightest part of the painting so you need to save your whitest white pastel for this. Preferably a professional soft white pastel, that’s going to give you super rich pigment and opacity.
Why do you need a soft white pastel?
Because you will have added layers of pastel for the swans feathers already and the paper is likely low on tooth, so you’ll need a rich buttery soft pastel like a Unison GREY 28 and Light 1 (they are both white) that will stick to your pastel paper.
A swan is white, so how do we differentiate between the white swan and the white water droplets?
The illusion is that the swan is white but actually the swan is a subtle shade of blue violet and therefore the super white water droplets will glisten on the surface.
Once you’ve added the dots of white you’ll need to create a little shadow- just a tiny spec of shadow, not a line or a circle round the dot. This will enhance the white even further.
Watch the video demonstration below:
Watch and Learn: Pasteling Water Droplets on a Swan
In this 3 minute demonstration I’ll show you how to pastel water droplets on the swan. Remember that the water droplets wouldn’t be visible if I had made the swan too white – the key to this is in the preparation.
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