Hillside Path

[Trier]

An early one some time ago,homemade pastels on rough side of hardboard.

Almost a PA, since I did it looking out my kitchen window after the loggers decimated the hillside.

24 x 18 ins pastel/hardboard

Kinda dull, but I didn't make any really nice brighter colors and I was restricting myself to using only my homemade pastels + charcoal.
C&C of course

 

[Artyczar]

Oh wow, it's beautiful! I love that little spot of red too. Homemade pastels? I don't think I know what you mean.

...Looking at this is just remarkable Trier. It's really fantastic. Every mark you made!

 

[snoball]

Very, very nice Trier, and the texture on the back of the hardboard says maybe your kitchen window had screen wire on it.

 

[Trier]

Oh wow, it's beautiful! I love that little spot of red too. Homemade pastels? I don't think I know what you mean.

...Looking at this is just remarkable Trier. It's really fantastic. Every mark you made!

Thanks Arty..Glad you spotted the red ! That is actually some wild roses up there, and I considered strewing them down the path, but that would depart too far from what was really there.
I may yet make an abstract of this, and really throw the red roses around.

"Homemade pastels? I don't think I know what you mean."
Here is a photo of the pastels I made, and the big glass mixing piece I used (really an old microwave turntable).

hope that clarifies it.

 

[Trier]

Very, very nice Trier, and the texture on the back of the hardboard says maybe your kitchen window had screen wire on it.

Yep, it did.

 

[Artyczar]

Those are neat as hell. But I am still confused as to how you made these. They are so cool. You made them from "scratch?" I guess I want to know everything.

 

[snoball]

There are many recipes on the big Interweb Arty.

 

[ntl]

Nice. I like the touch of white on the trees on the right.

 

[Nufocus]

This is wonderful Trier! The texture of that backside adds another dimension to the softness of the delicate scene.

 

[Artyczar]

OMG, I've been living under a rock. I had no idea.

 

[Trier]

This is wonderful Trier! The texture of that backside adds another dimension to the softness of the delicate scene.

Thanks ! That texture gave me a hard time until I gave up trying to make strong unbroken marks and just went with the 'delicate' soft approach, which I grew to like.
Hardboard with that textured backside is not to be found around here anymore, the backsides are just slightly rougher than the smooth fronts now. So unless I can find some old pieces lying around, I won't be able to get that same look as this one.

 

[Trier]

Arty, the link with an included link that Sno posted is excellent, and is roughly what I did.

I would think that a person with your neat and organized methods would be really successful in making them.

I was following mostly the procedure posted by D. B. Clemons, who was on WC. , and using the methyl cellulose binder. It was very time consuming, and I finally quit trying to be so exact and neat and just sort of guessed what would work, which resulted in some almost unusable pieces.
One saving grace was that I found that by grinding up the bad pastels and adding more pigment or binder as the case may be and re-making them, that most all could be salvaged.

I started with pigments from a local clay pottery supply store that were pretty cheap, but not up to the quality and purity of artists paint pigments. They were plenty good enough to start with.

No masks, no gloves(mistake), no neat(yellow and red oxides floating through the air), no notes(now I can't remember exactly what worked) = no brains; but Hey!
Other war stories available.

 

[Bongo]

oh man - this should be your niche.

When I first started using hardboard panel to paint on - the internet was swirling with the pros and cons of using tempered vs untempered hardboard. Tempered hardboard has been soaked in linseed oil and is a dark brown color - vs lighter brown of untempered.
You don't hear that debate anymore. As I remember I think newer processes have eliminated the off-chance of splotches seeping onto the painting. The lighter hardboard is much more common at Lowes/HD and less expensive. I've not had one problem with them over 10plus years of using them. The rough side boards and the lightly textured ones don't seem to be around anymore. You could always texture it yourself, or look into the plastic panels they have now with various textures.

In any event, I'd like to see more Hillside Path - type paintings.

 

[E.J.H.]

Home made pastels, that is very cool!
I love to make stuff like that; my willow charcoal I burned myself from the willows we have on the farm.
What kind of binder do you use in your pastels?
We have marshes here where water comes up with high iron content, there is this very fine iron oxide mud (in midieval times used to actually make iron from). It has been on my mind, could probably be used as an earth pigment, it has quite an interesting reddish color....

 

[Trier]

oh man - this should be your niche.

When I first started using hardboard panel to paint on - the internet was swirling with the pros and cons of using tempered vs untempered hardboard. Tempered hardboard has been soaked in linseed oil and is a dark brown color - vs lighter brown of untempered.
You don't hear that debate anymore. As I remember I think newer processes have eliminated the off-chance of splotches seeping onto the painting. The lighter hardboard is much more common at Lowes/HD and less expensive. I've not had one problem with them over 10plus years of using them. The rough side boards and the lightly textured ones don't seem to be around anymore. You could always texture it yourself, or look into the plastic panels they have now with various textures.

In any event, I'd like to see more Hillside Path - type paintings.

Thanks Bongo -
Yeah, I remember the discussions about tempered vs untempered hardboard. I did a little research and found out more than I care to know about the making of it.

I also looked into using plastic panels lately but they are too expensive for me, so I will try texturising whatever I use next.

I'm glad you like the painting, and between you and Nufocus, I get encouragement to take that approach some more.

 

[Trier]

Home made pastels, that is very cool!
I love to make stuff like that; my willow charcoal I burned myself from the willows we have on the farm.
What kind of binder do you use in your pastels?
We have marshes here where water comes up with high iron content, there is this very fine iron oxide mud (in midieval times used to actually make iron from). It has been on my mind, could probably be used as an earth pigment, it has quite an interesting reddish color....

Thanks E.J.H. -
I take my hat off to you for getting usable charcoal from your own resources, mine was not a success.
I used methyl cellulose for the binder, but it was pretty complicated to make the different solutions and keep track of what pigment needed what solution, so I sort of did it by eye. I got half of them about right. It would be a waste with expensive pigments I think.. Then I discovered that wallpaper pate is mostly methyl cellulose. Next time . . .

I think I saw that Iceland is pretty rich in mineral pigments, and I would be excited to be able to get some, like that iron oxide you mentioned. Give it a try !

 

[laf.art]

A very soft gentle piece.I like the green it makes me think of moss

 

[Trier]

A very soft gentle piece.I like the green it makes me think of moss

Thank you Lyn.