In true Impressionism, shading is done with almost no black -- black is used exclusively as a color -- instead, shading is expressed in cool colors, especially shades of blue. This is understood through "color theory," and is very noticeable in the portrait of Nicole, where one can see the roundness of her face and neck expressed in a slightly purple-ish blue. This "color language" is confusing to some people at first, because they are accustomed to seeing shading expressed in shades of gray and black, as is seen in photographs or classical portraits of the style of Rembrandt. Thus the illusion of roundness, or depth, is not as apparent for those who are more accustomed to one color language, rather than the other. (If you wish to learn more about color theory, some of my favorite books on this topic are listed here.)

You can also see an Impressionist influence in my painting "Someplace Nearby" where the shading under the river grass is a dark green, mixed with some blues and magentas. Conversely, my painting "Outback" makes greater use of black to induce a feeling of shading and roundness, although some magentas and blues slip in here, too! (When you are done reading, why not tour my art galleries?)

When painting in pastel, it is important to not smudge the colors, except under a few very controlled occasions. While carefully blended colors is a hallmark of many painting techniques, it fails to produce a clean effect in most pastel paintings. Since pastels are applied using the technique of drawing, it relies primarily on optical blending of colors, rather than on physical blending.

Optical blending is simply the placing of two colors adjacent to each other in such a way that they are perceived to be mixed, even though they are not. This is used in many Impressionist style paintings, lithographic prints (a technique called "dithering," its the little dots in the newspaper photos), and in egg tempera painting. Indeed, in many respects, pastel paintings are worked in manners similar to egg tempera, in that both make use of layering one pure color on top of the previous. In pastel, layers are achieved by scumbling one color on top of a lower one, "cutting" into the previous layer with the new color, or by simply placing the colors side-by-side.

For philosophical reasons (skip forward over several pages forward to read about them) as well as aesthetic ones, I enjoy this use of color, as it enables me to express the beauty that I see in a much more lively way.