Drawing and Rendering for Theatre

Chapter 11

Pastels

Pastel is an excellent medium for lighting design renderings. The colors are intensely vibrant, and the medium, used correctly, creates a sense of immediacy and freshness perfect for describing a dynamic moment in time. Using black or dark colored paper as a base, the designer builds a cue by painting the intensity and color of the light, illuminating only those scenic elements and actors that will be visible to the audience in that cue. A lighting design rendering in pastel can evoke an accurate sense, in miniature, of what the audience will experience visually in a given moment of a play.

Pastels are made of ground pigment, like those used to make artist’s paints, combined with a medium that holds the grains of pigment together. ...