A brand new box of 30 pastels in Umber Shadows and Shades by Terry Ludwig arrived yesterday. Today, I took a big breath, broke them in half and tested them out.
Wait! Did you just say you break them in half? What?!?!?
Yep. I break them in half.
Why???
Three reasons.
- I find them easier to use when the are a little smaller – less likely to break from using too much pressure.
- One half will go in my studio box and the other half I will try to squeeze into my plein air box (it’s already bursting at the seams).
- The smaller size is plenty for plein air.
Umber Shadows and Shades by Terry Ludwig – 30 Pastels
So, how are the new colors?
In one word, scrumptious!
Ok. I should have photographed them before I put them to use. They are so much prettier when they are brand new.
Each shade comes in three values. Once I fill out the color chart (provided). I then take a photo of the color chart and convert it to black and white to see the relative values.
As you can see, they are dark and mid-value – perfect for shadows. In fact, I think several of these will be perfect for painting sandstone rocks – one of my favorite subjects. A few sky colors and some lighter values for highlights, and this will be a ‘go to’ set.
Here is the painting I completed using only this set of pastels. A good challenge for sure with so many mid-values. I let the lightness of the paper come through just a bit to create highlights.
“Un-Hinged” is now available at auction. You can click here to bid.
What do you think?