Part 1 Follow tips and techniques to help you sketch and paint buildings in pastel, by Rebecca de Mendonça

Pastels

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

■ One and two-point perspective

■ How to add character to your sketches

■ Techniques to mix pen and pastel

Heading Home , Unison pastel on Sennelier sand card, 10x11in. (25x28cm). This depicts an early evening in the midst of Christmas shopping in the rain. I used Sennelier sand card, as I wanted to achieve an intense glow of light from the shop windows. As this picture is about colour and light, I was very loose with the details. To give it a sense of structure I emphasised the verticals.

The atmosphere of a street scene is a lovely subject to capture with a quick pastel sketch. It can seem daunting, however, with technical issues to deal with, such as perspective and figures. With all the overwhelming amount of detail, we can forget what first caught our attention.

If, like me, you use pastels for other subject matter, it is an interesting challenge to adapt your style for architectural scenes, when detail and precision can seem more important. Here, however, I want to show you a few ways to use pastels to create architectural scenes full of atmosphere and life, and how combining pastels with other media can result in interesting effects.