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Joel Spector, adjunct art professor,
provided a pastel demonstration at the Slater Museum, Norwich, CT to close
the Renaissance Show for the CT
Pastel Society.
www.illustration-joelspector.com
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Replications of Greek
sculpture are displayed on the Mezzanine. |
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Joel's work
was on display for the demonstration. |
 Alain Picard '97 had a piece in the show and acted as a juror. |
 Dick McAvoy of Newtown won Best in Show for "Poverty Hollow Bridge" |
Joel Spector makes sure all
elements are in place before he begins. A pastel demonstration begins
with the actual set-up of his model, Heather. |
The colors are draped for the
full effect. |
The pose is perfected. |
And the lighting is staged. |
One of Joel's admirers comes
up to ask questions before the demonstration begins |
Dick McAvoy introduces Joel
Spector and his model. |
| Joel explains that he is an illustrator first
and that when you work for others, you get a lot of feedback - very quickly.
He added that 90% of his work is as an illustrator.
Joel uses Wallace paper which can be bought by rolls (47 2/8" x 11 yds.). He puts the paper on 1/2" foam core. Each project begins with the composition, keeping the image flexible and loose. Today he is starting with vine charcoal, keeping the head life-size. |
 Joel always works on an easel tilted slightly forward so that the pastel dust falls and does not hinder his work. |
 Joel often uses a skewer bought from the supermarket as a measuring tool. After finishing the charcoal base. Joel sprays a Fixodent. |
To get rid of the whiteness
of the paper, he covers the picture with a pastel color and then a turpentine rub.  |
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The Fixodent keeps the
original drawing in place. |
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Joel uses turpentine to cover
a lot of space in a little time with the colors and also to create different
textures. Joel added, "Pastels are a forgiving medium." |
Joel explains that he sells
his reproduction rights to an illustration, but keeps the original.
This gives him the opportunity to sell the rights again. |
Joel paints the background
first, working forward. He adds more turpentine to work the pastels.
He says to keep the picture flexible at all times and to make changes as the
picture evolves.  |
When asked about shipping his
work, he covers the work with two pieces of foam core and when framed, uses
Plexiglas. |
When adding color, keep the
picture connected by bringing the background color into the foreground. Joel added blue to get a sense of air between him and the model. |
| He uses pastel pencils throughout the drawing, going back and forth from hard to soft. As the illustration is closer to finish he works on refining, making it smooth. He paints against the form to give more volume. More successful forms lose the edge (i.e. Frank Reilly). He does not have any hard lines and there is always background foreground interaction. He added that the background must be on all sides of the focal point. He said to also use unexpected color. | |
| Joel said he is looking for the feeling of the jungle, bringing out the warmth of the skin using greens. He then added red tot he skin and start to fine tune the work by adding shadows and indicating the deflected light colors. |
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 Joel uses many layers of color before he is finished.
If paper gets saturated with color, add more Fixodent to get a new surface. |
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He then began to lighten the features and highlights. As he painted, Joel provided business advice. He said that he never signs contracts with an agent. |
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