I started off using a Derwent dark orange charcoal pencil, and roughly drew out the shapes, very loosely at this stage.

I had set my display up in front of a low window, so I was fortunate to have the shadows of the fruit falling onto the chopping board - this is always a bonus, the introduction of shadows can and will give you another dimension to your work, so I indicated these at this early stage.

As the shadows were important, I took the opportunity to make these more solid using W&N Nut Brown ink.

I then tried out a few shades of pastel here and there on the chopping board and fruit - I’m more interested in conveying an artistic interpretation than trying to convey absolute accuracy. I’m not referring to the initial drawing here, that does need to be reasonably accurate, more my colour choices!

I continued adding different colour pastels, drawing fairly vigorously, looking for interesting mark making rather than everything being smoothed out and flat, which can often be seen in pastel drawings.

Whilst I don’t do like to see everything too smooth, some blending is of course necessary, I try and use lost and found edges where possible, which basically means hard and soft, as it helps in creating interest.

You don’t want everything to have a hard edge around it, be creative and blend some edges so they’re soft and less prominent.

Pastels and charcoal can be a bit messy, but it comes off easily. I prefer to use my fingers for blending, although I do have a selection of those ‘tortillon’ sticks, more commonly referred to as paper stumps. Fingers are good for blending, but these paper stumps can be rather useful in reaching into small areas that need some attention.

The photos do the talking on these final two stages, because basically it’s a continuation of working in more pastel, again not getting obsessed with smudging everything, but letting some of my chalk marks show through.

I also introduced a drop or two of Liquitex acrylic ink applied with a rigger brush, just to tighten up a few edges.

I thought about how to approach the background. I didn’t want anything too detailed but felt it needed something. I eventually opted for a lightly patterned collection of tea cloths which I found online. They had just enough simple detail on them to set off the still life.

Finally, and after some careful thought, I touched in a few areas using various mixes of gouache. Gouache dries to a matt finish so makes a good combination with pastel.

Total time taken would probably be around three hours stretched out over two days - any longer and I’d end up fiddling and adding unnecessary detail, something that I’m very good at doing!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this simple demonstration, mixed media can be so rewarding. The good thing about it is that you can easily make good any mistakes by simply adding more pastel or body colour in the form of gouache.

Alan writes regularly for The Artist and has produced a large number of demonstrations for PaintersOnline which can be seen by clicking here. Enjoy endless inspiration with access to past and present issues of both The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines, plus exclusive video demos, tutorials and more, with our Studio Membership! Discover how you can join today. 

Sometimes we may include links to online retailers, from which we might receive a commission if you make a purchase. Affiliate links do not influence editorial coverage and will only be used when covering relevant products.