Josie is fond of cubism and ‘wonky’. She works mainly in acrylics, pastels and pencil and does a lot of animal art commissions for which she takes her own photographs. She brought with her an eclectic mix of objects – her old teddy, a jig doll, a drum, a glass dish, a metallic dish, a green glass amphora and a glass
bauble. There were lots of challenges – metallic reflective, transparent and reflective glass, silky and plush fabrics and wooden surfaces.
These are some of the tips Josie gave:
- Buy good quality pastels
- Scrape back and then add highlights
- Oil pastels are quite chunky so difficult to get details – use pencils to add these
- Use chalk pastels for soft blended backgrounds and textured matt materials
- Use oil pastels for hard surfaces – wood, glass, metal etc
- Use blenders for chalk pastels not oils – useful for getting in the small gaps
- Don’t put chalk pastels on top of oils
- Any opaque paint will work with pastels – but gouache could crack
- Black acrylic ink/ acrylic mix on a rigger flows well for details
- Try ink over oil pastels for a transparent effect
- She does not like fixatives as they can dull the picture
- Brush or blow off loose powder gently
- Mount as soon as possible using double mount with a gutter