Painting a Simple Background

When painting a picture, the thing that people fear the most is putting a background on. A background to a Pastel Pencil painting can make or break the picture. When I first started out using Pastel Pencils, I experienced this same fear and my first few paintings were background-less!However I soon realised that a background would enhance the subject, particularly with animal or human portrait work. Let me start by explaining to you how you should approach a very simple background which is a good place to start.You choose a pastel pencil colour that you have used in the picture, this would be one of the lighter colours such as Ivory (103), Light Grey (270 or 230), Pink (132) or White (101). The reason you do this is to create a base colour in which the medium or stronger tones can be applied on top. Rub the first colour, say ivory, apply it liberally to the whole background area and rub this well in with your finger. For difficult to reach areas you can use a colour shaper or a blender in place of your finger. On top of this base you then add 1 or 2 more colours such as ochre or mid grey and this can be then rubbed into the Ivory base. This is all you need to produce a simple background.The colours referenced above are available in the Faber Castell Pitt Pastel Pencil range which are available from our store here. To learn how to do simple and complex backgrounds, sign up to be a member and watch our tutorials.