4 Easy Steps for Underpaintings / Pastel Painting Tutorial

[@PABragg]

I watched this from my chemo chair today at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Goodyear, AZ! Inspirational!

[@deeaholman6872]

Hi Susan I love the blue flowers. I have used a wash to under paint my paintings but I have not used pastels. I will have to try this. Thanks for sharing your work.❤🥰🌟✨👍

[@monetcafe]

Awesome Dee! Have fun sweetheart

[@karencamille7910]

You are a very great artist.

[@monetcafe]

Thank you so much, @karencamille7910! Your comment blessed me.

[@lucyspastels]

I love seeing the underpainting and your working large. Working with an actual underpainting satisfies my love of using a brush to spread color and value. It also helps me to see how often you extend grasses and flowers reaching toward the horizon to give more feeling of depth, and detail in the foreground. The Brandenburg Concertos are one of my favorites and bring energy and lightness into the painting experience. Thank you!

[@jeanettebarnard944]

Hello from South Africa. Thank you Susan. I learn so much from you. I shall be trying the underpainting idea until I totally embrace it. Thank you for sharing your very inspirational tutorials with us.

[@rodfletcher356]

Thank you for this. I like the detailed explanation of why you did things in the underpainting as you did them. I just wish there was a pdf or reference to these principles in a book that I could check back with. I also liked the speeded up painting section with the important process notes. We're fickle creatures sometimes needing slow detailed explanation/demonstration, whilst at others getting the overview - the sense of direction is more important. Thank you again.

[@rrrr1798]

Amazing😍😍😍😍😍😍😍thanks a lot we will try it 🌸🌿🌹❤️❤️❤️

[@angeladaquila3495]

Super swell! Thank you!

[@zeminder1]

I used to do watercolour a lot. About 4-5 months ago during the lockdown while watching something on the KZbin I switched to pastels. And I think I found the real call😂 Watching videos on the Monet Cafe, I learnt a lot. Thank you so much. I learnt a lot about under painting and the need of it. God bless you for being so generous, sharing your experience.

[@monetcafe]

Wonderful... that makes me happy!!

[@mjpete27]

A Wonderful painting and showing us how to get that under-painting working for us! Thank you Susan for continuing to show your viewers way to accomplish the basic's of pastel artwork construction!

[@andreatorraca8755]

Wow…beautiful

[@PABragg]

That was beyond inspirational. Anointed. Beautiful.

[@dsmith9572]

Oh, now you're just rubbing it in. : )

[@MindyZielfelderArt]

So beautiful! I love this in the larger version (smaller one was pretty, too). Thanks for sharing!

[@starla09able]

I love all your detailed tutorials.

[@Debnfl]

Beautiful and very informative. Thank you! ❤️

[@michellef1847]

Thank you so much for doing this! I learned a lot!

[@natalykenny2069]

A very good tutorial to understand the underpainting principles. Thank you, Susan! I loved the painting process and the background music ❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏

[@mariannekeller7504]

This is beautiful!! I'm beginning to see the value in doing an underpainting, thanks to all of your explanations. However, I'm still very confused by the color choices in the underpainting. For example, at the end I see how the reds influenced the outcome, but I would not have thought to use reds. Do you have a video that goes into more detail as to choosing colors for underpaintings? Thank you again so much for all you share!! God bless!

[@monetcafe]

Yes, I actually do have a video that goes a bit more into underpaintings… How to do them and color choices. This is part of a four part series called pastel, 101 and this part is about under paintings. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXuWlKWCjJ2fn9U&feature=shares

[@mariannekeller7504]

@@monetcafe Thank you so much!!

[@canadaverydry]

I am in love with pastel but it is so hard to achieve!!

[@shirleyatkinson5780]

I have never used pastels and find your tutorials intriguing! This is really lovely! It is amazing how you layeredthose colors and brought this to its beautiful, end product! Thank you for sharing. When your painting is finished, what do you use to preserve it?

[@monetcafe]

Hi Shirley, thanks for your sweet message. When I’m finished with the pastel painting I do not spray fixative on it because it darkens the final piece. Sometimes I will use fixative during the painting stages but never at the end. I actually use clear plastic bags to store my paintings in with a piece of foam core board cut to size for support. I buy my clear bags from www.clearbags.com. I’d like to buy them a little bit larger than standard sizes and I will place my painting inside with the foam core board and fold the sides over and tape to keep it snug.

[@paivicajan8083]

Thanks, this is an awesome tutorial that I'm going to come back until I learn underpainting! I like your written info you provide when we need to notice something special. I have a question about framing; how much of the painting is lost behind the passepartout? I like the skyline here and was thinking how the framing is usually done.

[@monetcafe]

Glad you like the tutorial, and I usually consider that about a quarter inch of the outer perimeter of the painting will be covered by a frame or a mat. So I try to keep that in mind while painting, but sometimes afterwards I will make small adjustments to be sure it has the most pleasing composition. That’s a great question by the way.

[@putrikania6196]

I, um, it...yours started from smudges and transforms into a beautiful painting. Mine... um, stays as smudges 😂😂😂.

[@monetcafe]

Ha ha Putri! Keep at it! It gets better in time.

[@putrikania6196]

@@monetcafe Thank you!! Hopefully I'll get better at it step by step cause I do love painting 😄

[@zainylainy1]

Susan, I’m brand new to painting and I’ve bought my first set of pastels which are 90 Rembrandt’s. Even though there’s that many pastels, their still isn’t any of the lovely darks that you use in your pictures. Is there a set of darks that you recommend or maybe just some individual colors I could buy?

[@monetcafe]

Rembrandts were my very first pastels, and I noticed the same thing. Even though they are not cheap, I recommend the set of Terry Ludwig Darks 1 (they have a set 2 but 1 is best to start with)... and if that's too expensive you could identify some of the darks in the set and buy them individually. One of my favorite darks is the Terry Ludwig Eggplant color. It looks almost black, but it's a rich purple. Even though it's really dark you can lay it down and layer over (with a light touch) with other colors to lighten up a bit. It's true that good darks give a painting a nice range in values. Have fun!

[@jimthompson2836]

Do you ever frame and hang your completed art?

[@monetcafe]

Yes, at least for the ones I want to keep. Typically I keep my paintings in clear plastic bags with a piece of foamcore board for support prior to selling ;)

[@jimthompson2836]

How do you seal the finished piece?

[@monetcafe]

I usually protect my pastel paintings in clear plastic bags with a piece of foam core for support. It works great and there’s no need for using fixative. Actually, I never use fixative at the end of a painting because it darkens the final piece.

[@robinsamuelson3626]

I use panpastels as an underpainting. Would I still use the alcohol method?

[@JLPrice-kc2uy]

I love roosters... The only male animal I like growing up. He had a purpose but he became very mean. Need I say anything else? like all our animals we had; if it didn't have a purpose, it belonged to someone else. Some stories are better left untold, but at age 16, a young cousin came to visit; I always carried a full choke 10 Gage shotgun. I heard mother and my aunt screaming. Well... his feathers looked really good sticking out of my sun-hat, untill friends began to nickname me. I definitely earned grumpy owl; I watched over everything. 💓 from St. Pete.

[@monetcafe]

Ha ha ha.... that’s a funny story my friend. My great grandma raised chickens for food so it was nothing for her to walk out in the yard, grab an ax and chop a chicken head off to make dinner.

[@megatexification]

How long will a pastel painting last?

[@monetcafe]

It’s been proven, that because the pastels are created with a simple combination of pigment and binder, their colors remain brilliant and last long after oil paintings begin to crack and fade. I just wish I could set a 200 year old oil painting next to a 200 year old pastel painting, and let the buyer SEE that pastels do indeed retain their color longer than oil paintings.

[@user-sjeifn3c19ajekk.qc-sjek1m]

Hello, what percentage of alcohol is it? high purity is dangerous for eyes and skin. Is it okay to just use 83 percent for COVID-19 disinfection? I am a student who is studying your video in Korea. thankyou.

[@monetcafe]

Hello Martin, yes, you can use the 83% alcohol. It will work fine. So neat that you are in Korea. Happy Painting!!

[@user-sjeifn3c19ajekk.qc-sjek1m]

@@monetcafe thankyou sir. your video inspires me a lot. have a nice weekend. :)

[@mianapretorius4183]

why don't you use plain water, wouldn't it be much easier to get a hold of?

[@monetcafe]

Water works great too, but I find that the pastel blends a bit better with the alcohol… Plus it dries much faster.

[@mianapretorius4183]

@@monetcafe okay thanks , i've just been watching your videos for not so long and i like them very much.

[@mianapretorius4183]

were do you get the strong colors you used for the blue flowers in the foreground?