Pastels are versatile, colourful and attractive. This book is designed to help the painter get the most out of pastel painting by answering all the common questions and problems associated with this medium. The problems discussed cover a wide range from purely technical ones, such as mixing and blending colours, or deciding which paper to use, to composing a picture, or setting up a still life. Other questions arise from the subjects themselves, and some professional "tricks" are shown for dealing with difficult subjects , such as moving water, reflections, foliage and skies, with close-up details of the methods used.
David Cuthbert is a painter who uses mainly pastel, acrylic and watercolour. He and his wife Rosalind are joint directors of the Mendip Painting Centre, a small private art school to the south of Bristol. David exhibits in London and the West Country and has paintings in private collections all over the world. David contributes to several practical art magazines and has previously written a book about figure painting called ‘ Seeing Things Simply: Figures’.