Going back to go forward

If Michelangelo and scores of Renaissance painters and sculptors from the past were to visit my workshops and studio, here on a small island in the Caribbean, they would find that my materials and techniques have changed very little since their time. Because my nearest art shop is thousands of miles away I make many of my own materials - just as artists did centuries ago.

Today's picture is of a sketch made on pastel paper of my own making. It has taken no end of trail batches to find the colour and texture best suited to my requirements. Toulouse Lautrec  and other artists from his period found that brown wrapping paper or cardboard suited their needs. This led me to experiment with pulping heavy duty brown paper bags and adding them to my paper making mix. 

Now that I have succeeded in getting the paper to my liking I need to begin making my own pastels in colours that reflect the skin tones of my models and to a degree of hardness that suits my technique.

Incidentally, many of Toulouse Lautrec's oil sketches were painted on cardboard, as shown below.