On My Mind, On My Easel

A few months ago, as I was beginning to clean my studio, I decided to organize my pastels in a different way.  I can’t quite put my finger on why, but the traditional way of organizing them by color and value—e.g., all the greens together ranging (supposedly) from light to dark--was no longer working for me. Perhaps it never did, and over time I’ve started to notice something that is a little difficult to articulate, but here is a simplification: some pastels, of any color, have more pure pigment of that essential color, not simply more black or white or neutral ingredient, than others.  Many so-called “lights” or “darks” are not all that light or dark, and many “neutrals” and “grays” have more dominant color than expected, and lay down more as a midtone of the color—ochred or grayed, to be sure, but too strongly pigmented to be considered other than falling in a value range of its color. Putting all, say, “greens” together made for quite a hodge-podge of warms, cools, yellowed, blued, ochred, greyed, lighter, darker, etc., greens—very difficult to differentiate among in the moment.

So I decided to reorganize by value first and foremost, which became inextricably linked to  pigment load in a particular color.  I knew that distinguishing those mid-range “colors” from those neutrals and grays would be tricky, so I decided to separate out those that laid down as ochred or grayed into their own category. I also decided to keep separate all the pastel brands that I use mostly for underpainting and blending (I don’t like to call these hard, because frankly, NuPastels are not really very hard at all, but that’s another story—again, about pigment load). Finally, I decided to separate out my day-glow (fluorescents, which I use a lot) and iridescents/metallics (which I rarely use) pastels.  Here is a little diagram I did before I started:

Reorganizing this way was challenging—a very slow, analytical, and brain-frying process. As a conservative guesstimate, I spent maybe 40 hours over many weeks. So if you try it, I recommend the following:

• Have lots of scrap paper of the same type handy for testing and comparing colors, which you will do constantly.
• Assemble containers of equal size so they can line up nicely, and label them; I labeled according to my diagram: 1-2, 3-4, ochred/grayed etc. This will all help you with selecting and returning pastels to their spots. Depending on your own range of pastels, some containers will be more sparsely filled than others. You may need to have two or even three containers for one value segment; for example, I have two for the 5-6 range, and probably should have two for my 3-4 range. This method, however, makes it easy to add containers for just that value segment, rather than have to rearrange the whole shebang.
•  It is easiest to start with your lightest lights(1-2), darkest darks (9-10); next, do your ochres/grays, putting aside those that you think are too highly pigmented to be included with your midtone colors later.
• Expect to be able to work on this only two or three hours at a time; it’s exhausting.
• Things are not always as they appear. You need to test everything because things that look light or dark or gray or whatever are often more or less so when laid down.
• Be prepared to struggle in the ‘tween ranges around your 5, or pure, high-chroma color; the 4s and 6s are tough, partly because this is where questions about ochres and greys come up most often. Do your best; you can always move something later.
• Use the key (5) color as your reference point for making decisions, especially when trying to do those borderline colors and the ochred/grayed colors, but even for your lightest lights and darkest darks. How much pigment is there? If it reads blue when laid down, even though it looks more like a blue-gray, put it with the blues of similar value. Similarly, if it reads quite yellow even though it came as part of a lights or highlights set, it’s probably a 3 or 4. Let go of what the box tells you.
• Attend to brands, if only to gain a general and ultimately intuitive sense of which are more highly pigmented than others, and is often at a higher value than it at first appears, and vice versa.

Was it all worth it? I confess that in the middle of this reorganization process, I wondered: what if this doesn’t work? What If it’s not better, or, god forbid, if it’s worse? Going back would be, à la Macbeth, just as hard.

But after working with my new configuration for a couple of weeks now, I can say unequivocally that I absolutely love it. I’m actually a faster, more fluid painter. I am able to find and pick up the “right” color much more quickly; I know just where to look, undistracted by everything surrounding it. Similarly, I feel comfortable putting pastels back quickly, even while still working on a painting, knowing I can readily find it again if I need it. This means I have fewer pastels piling up on the palette, which in the past has led me to losing track of what I’ve used for what. I can easily select colors for layering cleanly. As an added benefit, I can see any imbalances in my collection: I knew, since I am a huge fan of high chroma colors and super lights, that I had a a lot of those, but what surprised me was how many neutrals and greys, and how relatively few mid-darks I have. And now that I have done the major part of the work—the first sorting—I know it will be easy for me to recategorize some if I discover they belong somewhere else, and to add new purchases to their proper places.

Should you spend your time trying this out?  It is definitely not something to do on a whim. But if you, like me, have found yourself spending too much time searching for the right color, or felt that some of your colors were just one big indiscernible jumble, or laid down a color only to find it was much lighter or darker or grayer than you thought, you may find  the investment has a very high return.