Lena Rivo

The Contrasts of Winter, Soft Pastel

Woman with a white parasol

“Woman with a white parasol”, 17x17 inches, soft pastel, PanPastel and pastel pencils on Canson Velvet paper. With this soft pastel portrait, I decided to experiment with a slightly abstract background similar to those seen in some pastel works from the early 20th century. I loved painting the colorful shadows filled with reflected light, and the whole parasol theme excites me immensely. I’m planning to create a few more garden pieces in this direction.

I used mostly PanPastel and my favorite Girault pastels for this piece. PanPastel has been a real game changer for me. Instead of working on the background with pastel sticks and then softening the marks to create smooth, unified shapes, I applied the pigment with sponge-tipped “palette knives.” This made the process feel much more like painting with a brush.

It also made the process faster and easier, helped me save my expensive pastel sticks, and allowed me to build up light layers while keeping the paper open for more pastel work. It created a perfect soft, blurry underpainting.

"Quiet Charm", 9x11 in. PanPastel and Rembrandt soft pastel on my favorite Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper.

This piece was an exercise in approaching a pastel painting without a preliminary drawing. Many years ago, when I worked primarily in oils, I discovered that it became much easier for me to judge proportions once I began applying color. It seems that the brain reads proportions more naturally through colored shapes than through outlines alone, which is how we usually construct a drawing with lines.

I noticed many times that after beginning to paint, I had to correct the initial drawing because the proportions of the shapes became much clearer once they were filled with color. Over time, this led me to often begin paintings without making a detailed drawing first.

Another part of this exercise was working with a limited palette. In this study, I used PanPastel for the initial block-ins. Once the surface was covered with color, I added a few small details and selective lines to bring more definition to the piece. Here I used only PanPastel, Rembrandt soft pastels, and a couple of pastel pencils.

I love this approach because it offers a great deal of freedom while still allowing me to achieve a wide range of colors without relying on a very large collection of expensive soft pastels. I will discuss this method in more detail in the soft pastel guide I am currently working on.

Early Morning at Marina Grande - Gouache Demo painting

Boats at rest, Gouache painting demo

Gouache painting demo.

It’s been a while since I last posted my work here. I’ve been busy working on this pastel, which took me a month to complete. It was a lengthy process because achieving color harmony in a scene with light and shadow, and many elements, is quite challenging, as the colors need to be echoed throughout the piece. The women’s skin tones also required subtle variations of the full color spectrum, including greens and purples, to appear realistic. I took my time developing these delicate color shifts, which play a crucial role in the painting.

The piece measures 12×16 inches, which made working on the faces and hands particularly challenging, so I relied heavily on pastel pencils.

Kitchen Light, soft pastel and pastel pencils on UArt board, 12 × 16 in.

“A Lady from Another Time”, soft pastel and pastel pencils on Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper, 9x12 inches. When I create portraits in soft pastel, I rely heavily on pastel pencils because they don’t fill the texture of the paper as quickly as soft pastels. This allows me to establish the correct skin tone values before blocking in shapes with solid colors using soft pastel. With this portrait, my aim was to create the illusion of cool light on the face, contrasting nicely with the warm tone of the paper.

"Woman on a red sofa", 10x12 in., soft pastel and pastel pencils on Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper.

I’m currently working on a new painting. This is a 10x12 inches study where I’m selecting the pastel colors I’ll use in the final, larger-format piece.

Winter Stroll (Winter Study No. 10), soft pastel and pastel pencils on Uart board (500 grit), 11×13 inches. I love painting people and snowy landscapes, so I decided to combine the two to double the enjoyment of the painting process 🥰🤩

Winter Study No. 9, soft pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper, 7×9 inches.

“Above the Frozen River” (Winter 25–26 No. 7), soft pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper, 9x12 inches.

Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you a year filled with inspiration and creative joy! 🌟 Here’s my first painting of the year: Winter Study No. 8, soft pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper, 7×9 inches.

Winter portrait study (Winter 25–26 No. 6), soft pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper, 7x9 inches.

“Along the Snowy Alley” (Winter 25–26 No. 5), soft pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Velvet paper, 7x9 inches. I used an iridescent pastel stick from Schmincke called Silver to add a touch of sparkle to the snow in the foreground.