Pastel Still Lifes

Up until now, I had mostly only done portraits with chalk pastels, and the few other drawings I did with them were all based heavily on photos. I hadn't yet tried drawing from life with pastels, so I thought I'd give it a try, starting with a still life.

Seeing that they had a nice variation in color, I picked out a few peaches and set them on the table to draw. Using a red pastel pencil, I very lightly sketched in the basic shapes of the peaches and their reflections/shadows on the table.

I slowly built up the layers, starting with an overall orange layer and then adding yellow to some areas and red to others. In the darkest parts I layered some blue and purple, and then I added the fuzz with a white pastel. For the shadows, I used blue and green to contrast the peaches.

I think this turned out decently, although I'm not super pleased with the surface and the shadows. I also noticed that as I kept adding more layers on the peaches, it got harder and harder for the paper to hold the pastel. I probably should have been more careful with what colors I used in each area to minimize the number of layers I needed to add. I could have also been a bit more careful and precise with the form of the peaches and defined the edges a bit more.

The next week, I learned that our next art project was actually drawing fruits or vegetables in pastel to practice showing form. It seems the peaches gave me a chance to practice! This time I chose an onion, an apple, and a tomato because I liked their warm colors together, and they each had some strong highlights when I set up a lamp next to them.

I again used the red pastel to sketch out the basic forms and the shadows. However, this time I also noted the areas of shadow or different colors, such as the yellow and red sections of the apple, or the highlights on the onion.

I used a reddish-brown to shade in the darker parts of the onion, and then I used a muted orange for the rest, leaving the highlights mostly empty. In some of the lighter spots, I used some yellow. I then blended these first layers together. I went back in with a brown to darken the shadows and with white and cream pastels to lighten the highlights. I continued this until the darks were dark enough and the lights were light enough.

Next I worked on the apple and tomato. Some parts of the apple I started out with red on, and in other areas I started with yellow. I used browns, purple, and the reddish-brown to darken some areas of the apple, and I used white for the highlights again.

For the tomato, I used a mix of red and orange mostly, but I used a bit of pink to transition to the highlights. For the shadowed side I mixed purple with the red. I then used a mix of dark and light greens for the stem. After that I added a bit of texture to the apple where I noticed some speckles.

Finally I moved on to the shadows and surface. I lightly colored the top half of the background yellow. I used a darker blue for the shadows and a medium blue for the rest of the surface. I layered some of the dark blue on top of this and blended it in. Then I added some brown and orange on top of it all to mute the blue a bit.

Here's the finished still life!

I think this one was an improvement from the peaches. The forms were more precise, and there's a little more shading as well as strong highlights, which gives the forms a little more depth. I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and I can't wait to see what other things I can draw from life with pastels!