Newberry Workshop About   Mentor  Art Classes  Contact

See art in a fresh way.

Fluid, effortless, and shimmering mark making are qualities I strive for in my pastel drawings. The finished image should look as if it materialized out of thin air, guided by the lightness of telepathy. Unfortunately, the process is not always so facile. Some serious ham-fisted mark making can mar the image - bad enough to render it worthy of the trash bin. It is kind of heartbreaking if the image has many great qualities, but this problem can be solved in a fairly easy way.

The best method I know to fix mark making blunders is to lift the culprit off with tape. 

I discovered this great technique from Donna Aldridge's tutorial on the subject:  http://www.aldridgestudios.com/610-RemovingPastel.html. On her site you will find some very practical advice on art techniques.

Here is my pastel drawing on black paper of a modernist apartment building in Santa Monica. I prefer the style of working in very gradual steps from dark to light. In the area of where the sky meets the edge of the building, I went light too quickly, throwing me off my rhythm. So I used the tape method to lift off the marks I didn't like.

My goal is to lift off the too light pastel marks and go back a few layers to the darker tone. Later I can redraw the area with a fresh yet different color pastel, reestablishing the easy looking mark making. Donna recommends clear tape, but I find that drafting tape suits me. Here I delicately laid the tape on the surface, pressed lightly with my finger, and lifted up the tape - along with some of the last layer of pastel.

After carefully starting the lift off process, I am able to sense if more pressure is needed to lift off the right amount of pastel.

In some cases I will use my fingernail and scratch the tape in drawing motions to lift off even more.

Word of warning - lift the pastel, not the paper. Do not apply tape to the naked paper or it will tear the surface.  If the paper is coated in pastel, you will have no problems. 

(Note: in my technique of pastel drawing, there are only so many layers of pastel marks that continue to look fresh. In that way my process shares a similarity with watercolor technique, in which too many applications result in a lifeless, overworked look. Hence the advantage of using tape to lift off layers.)

After lifting off most of the light marks, I am now primed to redraw the area with a different color pastel.

Here is the finished pastel, and you can read my impressions about it by clicking on the image.

101 Ocean Avenue, 2009, pastel on dark paper, 19 x 26 inches

This pastel is part of the group show, Landscape with a Modern Edge at the Newberry Gallery, October 17 - November 21, 2009.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a solution in a fresh way.

Michael Newberry
Santa Monica, September 2009