Pastel Underpaintings

I wanted to try one of Richard McKinley's underpainting techniques. I used Pastel Multimedia board and added a quick value drawing with a hard pastel. Then brushed on Liquitex clear Gesso on top to seal the drawing and add more grit. It was difficult to brush on the gesso without completely smearing the drawing. Once I had a layer of the wet gesso on, it was easier to get the gesso more level without disturbing the drawing.

After the gesso dried, I put some transparent watercolor. I should have used more pigment as it dried pretty light.

 Then I started layering the pastel. I was having difficulty in getting the pastel to cover the way I wanted and it was just laying on the top of the grit.

 It looked really messy. I finally pressed the loose pigment into the surface using a piece of foam.

I continued on and finally gave up at this stage. Although it doesn't look too bad in the photo, in person, it seemed really messy.

I worked a bit more with a pastel pencil and was happy with the final result. (And everything looks better in a nice mat and frame! haha)