Fabriano Tiziano

If you've been reading my blog for the past few weeks, you might remember a post about some Fabriano Tiziano paper I bought on sale.

Well, I'm not one to let any art supply go to waste if I can help it, so I ended up applying a coat of Colour-Fix Primer to one of the sheets and it actually worked! The paper did buckle a little but a quick mist of water on the back then overnight under a pile of books solved that little problem easily.

I bought the CF Primer on a trip to Jerry's ArtaRama quite a while ago and have never used it. OK, I was chicken to try it as I'd heard it could end up streaky and uneven but I didn't feel I had anything to lose with the Tiziano paper. Actually, it went on very easily and while there was some streakiness, it wasn't all that noticeable after applying the pastel. It shows up slightly when the painting is scanned but a scanner will sometimes pick up every grain of sand anyway.

The painting above was done for an OSWOA exchange and I was very pleased with the way it came out especially since it proves that I don't have to let this paper languish in my paper drawer!

Bluebird on Fabriano Tiziano

This is the bluebird painting I talked about a post or so back. It's from my own photo reference and is pastel pencils on Fabriano Tiziano paper - orange Fabriano Tiziano paper to be precise! (as if you couldn't see that!)

This was the pack of paper on sale at Hobby Lobby that my husband insisted I buy. I'm sure it's really a nice paper but I just chose the wrong color for this. The colors range from pale yellow to this deep orange and I chose the orange because of the bird's breast and because it's my least favorite color. I figured if I messed up the painting, it wouldn't bother me much with an ugly colored paper!

Or maybe I should have used regular soft pastels to tone the paper before starting the painting. I'm not sure that would have done much good though as it doesn't seem able to hold much pastel at all.

Oh, well, live and learn. Maybe I'll just save the orange sheets for painting pumpkins at Halloween or something!

New Award, New Painting

"Egret"

Pastel on PastelMat
copyright
Jan Gibson

First of all, I'd like to thank Vic, from Art With A Pencil, for the lovely award. Since I've recently received the award from another artist, you already know seven things about me and seven other artists have received the award from me so I won't repeat them. I do so appreciate the recognition from my peers though. Thanks so much, Vic!

Except for the portrait of Benjamin Capone, I hadn't been painting much up until a few days ago. Then, suddenly, it seems I couldn't get paper and paints in hand quickly enough! lol.

My husband and I went to Hobby Lobby over the weekend and there was some Fabriano Tiziano paper on sale that he insisted I buy. It really was a great deal and I'd never used it before but, it was a pad of colors that I never use so I wasn't going to buy it until he insisted.

So, of course, I had to come home and try it out. What a mistake! I'd picked a sheet of orange (the colors ranged from pale yellow to deep orange) and attempted to paint a bluebird from one of my own photo references. I could not get the paper covered with pastel. No matter what I did, including repeated sprays of fixative and added layers of pastel, that orange kept showing through the painting. What a bummer as I think I did a pretty credible job with the actual painting for a change! Live and learn! That paper doesn't layer well at all for pastel pencils!

Then, yesterday, I got brave enough to try the PastelMat that another artist (Nancy, Reflections From Life Blogspot) and I went in together and ordered from England. I'd heard about how great this paper is and I really wanted to try it but it's not available here in the US at this time.

At first, I didn't like the PastelMat much at all. Since I'd been hearing for months about how great it was, I was extremely disappointed. But, I perservered and eventually found the best way for me to paint on it. It seems to be a matter of filling the tooth to a point where blending is possible. Anyway, the egret above took me most of yesterday (working in bits and pieces of time) to complete but I'm fairly pleased with it as a first effort. The size is 4"X6" or OSWOA sized. Of course, this didn't take much pastel but it did make blending and getting into small areas a real effort!

So, do I like the PastelMat after trying it? A sort of qualified yes. It seems to almost be a mixture of my three favorite supports - PastelBord, ColourFix and Velour - which should make for a super favorite, right? Well, it may become my all time favorite after I've had time to work with it, but for right now, I think PastelBord is still my top choice. Besides, I don't want to get too attached to using it since it's so hard (not to mention, expensive!) to get!