PPP

I generally jump from one project to the next.....and I don't always produce compelling art....but I sure like to play and experiment.  And...I'm always drawn to the bright shiny object in the room. The most recent shiny object was Roseann's gift of pan pastels.  

Pan pastels have very little binder....so they are nearly pure pigment and come in a pan...kind of like watercolors. They are low dust and very soft and blendable...so the possibilities are endless.

I have a few pans...mostly blues.  I found this coastal scene I did with them from a long time ago.  

I used molding paste to create the white texture in the water. I intended to mount it on a wooden paint panel....and really should do something with it. 

I found a youtube video by Carolyn Dube using pan pastels on a gelli plate and wanted to give it a try.  Pastels are easy to blend...and because they're dry....I could take my time blending colors. You have to work fairly quickly with acrylic paint.

Just recently....I also found some helpful information/videos on the Pan Pastel youtube channel:  
https://www.youtube.com/@PanPastel

I thought I would share a step by step of one of the projects from my PPP (pan pastel play) on the gelli plate for those who might have interest. The rest of you can get on with your day.

I placed a stencil on my clean(ish) gelli plate and used a makeup sponge to add color around the stencil....blending the colors as I went. 

Pan pastels stay dry....so you have all kinds of time to blend or add more color.  You can even remove some color with a soft cloth.  Just as I'm writing this I realized I could have blended colors on the side and been able to get more variety of color and actually see better what I was mixing. I'll try that next time. Here's where I stopped in this rainbow scheme. The second photo is how it looked when I pulled off the stencil off the plate.

Using my brayer I covered the plate with a thin layer of zinc white fluid acrylic paint.  No too much paint....I wanted to be able to see the design...but have enough paint to pull the print. Zinc white is translucent...I didn't want there to be color in the background....but regular white or cream would work well too.  I layed down a piece of copy paper pressing it onto the plate....I'm pretty sure any paper would work. I let it dry for about 30 to 45 seconds or so...then pulled the paper off.

This was the first print. There's a little bit of grunge...which could be residual paint on the plate...or just me over mixing the colors. I also used the same sponge...so once I put down all the colors...I created brown mud here and there when I did more blending. 

There was still color on the plate so I put down another thin layer of paint and repeated the process two more times.  This is the second pull and third pull.....the color gets softer and softer each time.

I wanted to create some textured paper without the pattern of a stencil....so I smeared on some color and did some blending.  I can see here that I didn't really blend it all that well...and I didn't really like the first pull...but it will be useful and I can always do another layer. The one on the left is the pastel on the plate...and the right is the pull. (Since I did this...I learned that there is a colorless blender pastel that would help a great deal for something like this.)

For second pull I spritzed a little water on the paint...just to see what would happen....and I like it better. It's got much more interesting color and texture and I'll definitely be doing that again. You never know until you try.

Here are a few other prints in blues and greens.  I will always go back to using acrylic paint on the gelli plate.....but as a general rule...I think the pastels are a little more muted...and a little grunginer than acrylic paint.  When you use pastels right on the paper they will rub off so you often need to use a fixative.  But this process of combining acrylic paint and the patels builds in the fixative right in.

One last tip: I learned that you can clean the pastel off your plate with baby oil.

Thanks for the bright shiny object Roseanne! 

I keep thinking of things to try with them!