Underpaint Your White Spots Away
by Candace D. Fenander

You’re start with a white paper and layer in your paster. In fact, you’ve probably did a few layers, but still those little white spots of paper continue to show through. Pretty distracting you think. So how do you get rid of them?

One way is to use your fingers or a tortillon. But rubbing your fingerprints off if you happen to be using sanded paper just doesn’t seem like a fun thing to do. And tortillons don’t seem to do it quite right. Starting with colored paper would be going in the right direction. But that doesn’t help you now, does it. What do you do with all those white spots in your painting?

Try using a bit of turpenol (the one in the blue can), a small amount of water, alcohol or thinner. Pastels are essentially powdered pigments and any solvent will do. Just be sure that the surface you’re working on can take it. For instance, too much water will buckle regular pastel paper. But water is fine on Ampersand’s Pastelbord, a sanded surface on masonite. Simply apply the solvent to your painting with a brush, cotton swab, paper towel or rag. You’ll be surprised at the effects you can generate using this method! And no more white spots!

Next time, try starting with an underpainting by using either watercolor or pastels and solvent. In fact, once you’ve completed the underpainting, keep going. Add your pastels while the surface is still a little damp for a different effect. It’s truly like painting with sticks!