Aristotele, Eudoxus, and a bay of Mare Serenitatis

[SwiMatt]

I had a go sketching the Moon with pastels yesterday evening. I was looking for an easy subject to start and ended on Aristoteles and Eudoxus, close to the terminator for shadow contrast but not on the terminator to avoid complications.

I told myself to ONLY sketch the craters, to not go close to the terminator. However, the moment I started to put down shadows and see the sketch come alive, I got caught by a weird mania and I ended up sketching the mountainous chain surrounding Mare Serenitatis. 

It was a wonderful, although interrupted time: I started the sketch at 21.35 but finished it only at 23.15, because in between our newly adopted puppy needed to go outside. Seeing was not great and getting worse prompting me to switch down from 200x to 120x mid-way. 

If anything, I feel that pastels require more patience than pencils, and a strong trust in the process. While I was putting down the white lines, the sketch looked like nothing could come out of it, but the shadows transformed it under my eyes, especially when I started adding the boulders between the craters and the terminator. It was a great feeling to see the painting becoming somewhat alive!

[josefk]

i love that @SwiMatt - fantastic. I particularly like the rendering of the mountain range in the lower part and the shadows of the individual peaks nearby. Feels very vivd.

[Ceramus]

Very impressive, thanks for sharing.

[SwiMatt]

Thank you @josefk and @Ceramus! I love how rich in texture and contrast pastels are, not only for astro. Recently I tried to work more with pencils (easier to bring on the field), but I keep coming back to the beauty of this medium. 

[YogSothoth]

Good work, very impressive sketches

[josefk]

13 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

Thank you @josefk and @Ceramus! I love how rich in texture and contrast pastels are, not only for astro. Recently I tried to work more with pencils (easier to bring on the field), but I keep coming back to the beauty of this medium. 

i have "field pastels" and "desk pastels" here - the field pastels can get a bit soggy/sticky in damp autumn/spring nights. I also put mine on  a heater some mornings to dry them back out 💧💧💧

[SwiMatt]

4 minutes ago, josefk said:

i have "field pastels" and "desk pastels" here - the field pastels can get a bit soggy/sticky in damp autumn/spring nights. I also put mine on  a heater some mornings to dry them back out 💧💧💧

Can you name any brands? I'm eyeing a gray-tones set by Lyra. My pencils are Koh-i-Noor, but my main white is a Rembrandt, and it's simply amazing. The highlights pop even if you laid down a thick coat of black (although that will also depend on the tooth of the paper). 

[josefk]

Hi @SwiMatt nearly all my pastels are Faber-Castell Pitt Pastels. They in the pencil format - i.e not pastel sticks - that would be messy fun in the dew!

Are the Lyra ones you mention also in the pencil format? I like trying new ones...

Edited May 16 by josefk

[SwiMatt]

4 minutes ago, josefk said:

Hi @SwiMatt nearly all my pastels are Faber-Castell Pitt Pastels. They in the pencil format - i.e not pastel sticks - that would be messy fun in the dew!

Are the Lyra ones you mention also in the pencil format? I like trying new ones...

They are in stick format. So is the Rembrandt. I haven't tried them on the field as of yet (and we don't generally get too much dew here, luckily - but we get wind) so it might still work well for me. I will keep you posted. I find pencils great for detail work, but at least the white I have does not pop enough for what I want.

[AlcorAlly]

Great sketch @SwiMatt, I love the drama you captured in it. Thank you for sharing, keep them coming! 

 

[SwiMatt]

3 minutes ago, AlcorAlly said:

Great sketch @SwiMatt, I love the drama you captured in it. Thank you for sharing, keep them coming! 

 

Too good! Thank you 🙏