Leafdays

A couple of months ago, I gave in to impulse and bought myself some Faber Kastell soft pastels. But, as it often happens with impulse buys, I never used them and felt horribly guilty about having made a useless purchase. So when I read that Mixed Media Monday’s next challenge was Child’s Play, I knew I had to take part in it for no better reason that it would give purpose to my pastels—one of the suggestions the site gave was to use mediums like crayons or fingerpaint.

Out came the box of pastels, a 4×4 piece of watercolour paper, watercolours, and of course my numerous collage bits (high quality copies of ephemera and trade cards, the background papers I design, plus various embellishments). But, beyond selecting the materials I’d use, I didn’t really plan this piece at all—I let it evolve organically just like I see my children do when they ‘make art.’

Seen as the whole point of this challenge was to use the pastels, I started with them first. They had a slightly chalky consistency that initially put me off but I valiantly overcame my reservations and started applying them to the watercolour paper, alternating phtalo blue and turquoise. I wiped the paper, first with a tissue, then with my finger, to blend the colours together.

My ‘canvas’ ended up looking really vibrant—perhaps too vibrant for my taste, as I usually prefer more muted tones, but suitable for the theme at hand. Even better, the exercise made me realise one excellent advantage of pastels over other mediums: it takes very little time to have a workable canvas because you don’t have to let anything dry.

Torn bits of ephemera and collage papers made a good starting point for the background, but I wanted to give them a bluish hue to match the pastels, so I washed them with watercolours. Then I stamped the whole thing with a floral stamp from my Non Sequitur Memories of Italy plate (which I am using a lot, lately).

My focal image, usually the starting point of my work, came almost by accident this time round. I started looking at my Victorian trade card collection, spotted this little girl playing with a doll, and thought it would be perfect. The girl and her doll were a bit lonely on the 4×4 canvas, though, so I added some flowers and a butterfly to keep them company.

The last touch was adding a little sparkler—again, something that was inspired by my children, who like to add sparkly stuff to their creations. Et voilá, Child’s Play was ready.

Now, for the big question: will I use the pastels again? I am still more at home with watercolours and acrylics, but pastels are a great option when you need a background in a trice.