For quite some time now, every time a new figurative piece by artist Laura Mocnik appeared, I would sigh in admiration. And then, one day, I had the brilliant (hah hah) idea to ask if she would contribute an article to HowToPastel. And her positive answer brings you this guest post. Yay!!

If you don’t know Laura’s work, then I’m delighted to be the one to introduce it to you!

Here’s a teaser…

Before I hand you over, here’s a wee bit about Laura Mocnick.

Bio for Laura Mocnik

Laura Mocnik is an award-winning pastel artist living in Michigan, USA. She studied art at a few different colleges. She loves to draw! A Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, she also obtained the IAPS Master Circle in 2022. Her inspiration comes from studying the Masters, particularly Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Degas, and Richard Schmid. For more info, visit her website. 

Now here’s Laura! 

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John Singer Sargent commented that Monet had astigmatism and his colours were the way he saw them. Astigmatism causes light to focus unevenly on the retina. Sargent also had astigmatism so maybe his colours were also the way he saw them. I think most people would agree that both these artists’ use of colour was beautiful. 

All of us have our favourite colours which then show up continually in our work. And certain colours can trigger an emotional response too. 

Why do children see colour differently? 

I read the following: A child told his father that she wanted to go to the blue building again. He knew the building was white, but she saw it blue. Maybe because of the reflection of the sky? But the combination of colour and emotion is especially strong in children up to seven years old. In this group, blue is strongly connected to happiness. 

It seems that in adults, happiness is mainly connected to the colours green and yellow. However, I’m not crazy about the use of green. That’s probably why I don’t paint landscapes. Yet I’m still a happy person. For children, the colour white is associated with anxiety and grief. In adults, it’s black. But I love the use of white and black and it’s not because of anxiety or grief. Renoir thought that black was the queen of colours.  

So, children have a strong connection between emotion and colour, and this is much less shown in adults. We all know how colourful paintings by children are. Maybe if we connected more with our emotions, we might see colour again as a child. But maybe you might want to see it in a different way because, after all, colour is in the eye of the beholder.

My use of colour and the way I see it depends on how I’m feeling at the time. First and foremost, I strive to paint “light.” I never lay out specific colours for a palette when I’m beginning a portrait, except for my standard use of grey, black, and white pastel pencils.  

When I start connecting with my drawing and it starts speaking to me, I find some colours that seem to work and then I continue with those specific colours. I use colour intuitively, maybe grabbing a few more as I go along. 

My palette is usually very limited. However, sometimes I surprise myself and find that the portrait I’m working on needs lots of colour so then I use more soft pastels. But it is never planned in advance. It’s a spontaneous expression. When the work starts speaking for itself, I don’t interrupt.

I tend to use mostly medium grey and tanned toned paper compared to my use of colourful grounds as I find the grey of the paper allows me to get a better sense of value when I’m starting a portrait. I also never start with an underpainting of watercolour or anything else. All my drawings start with charcoal pencil. Then I switch to pastel pencils.  I simplify and omit all but the most essential elements in my work.

Swimming in the Creek was done on grey Canson Ingres paper. I dry-mount most of my work as it gives me a more stable surface to work on. 

I was inspired to do this one from some photos I took of my neighbour’s children swimming on a very hot day in the creek that runs through our property at our cabin in northern Michigan. The photo just spoke to me and I knew I had to draw it.

I started with charcoal pencil and then quickly changed to black pastel to get the value correct. I like using paper that is smooth rather than sanded. I also make good use of the kneaded eraser on both papers. Done in 2019, the progress shot is almost like a finished drawing in black pastel, which I do not do as much anymore. Now I tend to just put in the basics of the drawing and value and then switch to pastel pencils. 

Sometimes I feel like I’m working on the beginning of an oil painting where I can push the drawing around, erase, wipe out, and change it if I don’t like what’s happening. I want to make sure I have a strong drawing. 

I like what Richard Schmid said in a video I have of some of his portraits. I’m somewhat paraphrasing but he said that carved in stone above the French Academy in Rome are some words written in French, which he couldn’t pronounce. 

“What it translates to is…well drawn is well painted. What that means is if something is strong as a drawing, it doesn’t matter how you paint it, it will hold its own. Just, for example, the music of Bach kind of holds up no matter who plays it or how they translate it into digital music or jazz. There is something about that underlying strength of Bach that comes through no matter what.” 

I’ve always believed that good drawing is the foundation of good art. I’m drawn to draughtsmanship. It may surprise people that drawing is not easy for me. It’s something that I really work hard at.

Dare to be Different, which won the Art Collector Award in the 50^th Enduring Brilliance show, was done on watercolour paper toned with coffee. The progress of this one is more the way I work now. 

I do not attempt to do a complete value drawing. I mostly just draw it out and then start right in with the pastel. However, I do lay down my darkest darks and my lightest lights and judge the values accordingly. 

I saw this woman on the beach in Florida. She was dancing to music and in her own little world. I loved her hair and her attitude. I told her I was an artist and asked if I could please take her picture. Turned out that she was also an artist. She was more than willing to pose for me. I have several photos of her that I plan to use sometime in the future.

I made my first pastel by accident in 1999. I was working on a large watercolour using 300 lb. watercolour paper. It was from a photo I took of my niece’s jazz teacher. The painting ended up completely overworked. I washed it off in the sink, but the drawing was still there. 

I had a box of Rembrandt pastels I’d bought that I had never used plus some NuPastels that were given to me and I decided to see if I could turn the piece into a pastel painting. Taking out one of my Degas books, I saw how he layered colour on top of colour and that is what I proceeded to do. I found that the cold-pressed watercolor paper really held the application of layering the pastel. Surprisingly, I liked how it turned out, so I titled it Jazz Dancer. I entered it into a well-known local art show. It took 3^rd Place and was purchased by the artist who won 1^st Place. It was also the first painting I ever sold!  

My goal was then to win 1^st Place which I did in 2000 at the next show with my pastel The Final Bow, also created on 300 lb watercolour paper. 

I read that Degas would sometimes use gouache with his pastels. So, I toned the paper with a brown gouache and used NuPastel and Rembrandt again. This was my last pastel and, I thought, the last time I did any artwork. I had decided to continue only with my piano playing.

My whole world turned upside down when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006.  After chemo, I turned to my art again. But this time I used it as my therapy. I felt the need to draw again so I bought more pastel pencils and more Rembrandt pastels, and I started entering more local art shows.

There is nothing special about how I create my portraits. For me, it is still my therapy. It is about the peace I find when I am drawing.

Painting and drawing figures and portraits is something I love far above any other subject matter. I work from photos that I put onto a larger screen. All my drawings are freehand and site-size drawings. I used to draw from life with other artists, but my eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be. I need to be up close to the model, which is hard to do with a group of artists. 

I take photos of my family and friends. I ask to take photos of people I see walking or sitting on the beach in Florida, and most of the time they say yes. I look for an expression, something that connects with me, something that tells a story. My work begins in my imagination and spirit where I strive to blend technique with emotions. I try to convey not only the image but the mood and atmosphere as well.  

One thing that is consistent when I begin a portrait is that I draw first using Derwent light, medium, and dark charcoal pencils, then black pastel, and sometimes grey pastel. When the drawing and value are correct, then I use Stabilo CarbOthello and Derwent pastel pencils. 

I like a long sharp point on the pencil. It enables me to be freer and not hold the pencil so close to the paper that everything becomes so closed up. I bought the Afmat charcoal pencil sharpener which gives me that long sharp point that I like. I sometimes use it to sharpen my pastel pencils too. But I usually sharpen them with the Derwent pencil sharpener. If I am using a black conté pencil, I use a regular old Boston pencil sharpener where I can adjust the width to fit the fatter conté pencil. 

I probably have five different brands of soft pastels. The brands I like the best are Sennelier, Terry Ludwig’s Greys, and Unison Colour. I really don’t have a great deal of soft pastels as I work with a limited palette. I find I can mix a lot of greys with the black, grey, and white pastels along with the soft pastel colours. But I sometimes need those intense colours. I recently found some intense, smooth and high adhesion soft pastels by Maimoufin that I really like. And I especially love the Terry Ludwig soft pastels for that intense colour I need.  

At this point in time, I feel I’m not at the same place I was 10 years ago. I continue to experiment and expand on what I know already, which doesn’t seem much to me and that’s why I keep searching.  

“You must aim high not in what you are going to do at some future date but in what you are going to make yourself do today. Otherwise, working is just a waste of time.”

Edgar Degas 

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Wow! Such draughtsmanship. Such beauty. Such capturing of light. Such sensitivity. All with a limited palette and intuitive use of colour.

I hope you’re as enthralled as I am!

Laura Mocnik and I would now love to hear from YOU! Do you have any thoughts or questions for Laura? If so, please leave a comment below!

Until next time!

~ Gail

PS. Here’s the image used as the feature Image. Laura included some interesting info about it so read on!