Jenny has asked Unison Pastels in Northumberland to box up her favourite landscape colours into this set of 18. This is a great starter set, from which you can produce complete landscape paintings.

The colours in the set are
Grey 7, 9,10, 28
Blue Violet 9
Additional 7, 10, 21, 23, 43, 45, 47
Yellow 15
Brown Earth 6, 9,
Green 14, 17
Red Earth 7

In combination with Fisher 400 art paper these pastels are excellent for creating both vibrant colours and subtle tones.

Pastel is a lovely medium for creating wind torn clouds. In this painting I have done very little blending, apart from some parts of the sky and the distant hill, consequently some of the paper shows in places. This gives an interesting texture, especially in the foreground.

The colours used are all in the starter set and the surface is Fisher 400. I used a sharp charcoal pencil for some of the fine detail.

Dramatic skies can be a challenge. Using pastel simplifies the process and softening the effect is easy by just blending the clouds.

Dark colours were used in the trees and foliage of this painting to provide strong contrast with the thatched building, caught in the sunlight.

Again this painting was produced using Jenny's starter set and Fisher 400 Art paper.

Apart from the figures on the beach the tones in this painting are quite high key. To create a sense of space in a landscape it pays to use cool colours, less detail and paler tones in the distant features. Some sweeps of lighter pastel were dragged across the foreground sand to give texture. Reflections are a joy to paint in pastel.

One again the pastels are all from the starter set on Fisher 400 paper.

Many people ask me how I achieve the very fine detail in my work when the pastel sticks are so thick and clumsy.

The answer is pastel pencils and colours shapers.

Pastel pencils are ideal to drawing in small details such as the glazing bars of windows or the sunlit side of chimneys. Charcoal pencils are perfect for fine branches on trees. White, Grey and Charcoal pencils are the most useful colours

Colours shapers are very useful for manipulating the pastel on the paper. The flat chisel shape is wonderful for tidying up scruffy edges and for many other purposes. The most useful sizes are No2 Flat chisel and No 6 Flat Chisel.

To purchase either of these items
click on the pictures