Pastel Fabric Study (2025)

This piece was part of my ongoing technical studies, created to better understand how light folds across draped surfaces. Fabric is one of the most instructive subjects for a painter — its curves, shadows, and reflective subtleties demand precision while rewarding intuition.

Working from pastel tones and a controlled palette, I aimed to capture the quiet glow of warm light on soft cloth, allowing the brushwork to remain visible rather than smoothed. Each stroke follows the tension of the material, suggesting form without relying on heavy detail.

The study became less about accuracy and more about rhythm — about learning how folds move, breathe, and hold light within their depths. It also served as an early foundation for the drapery and textile rendering techniques that would later appear in my portrait and still-life works.

Painted digitally with a focus on pastel tonal ranges and warm neutral hues, this study used direct brushwork with minimal blending. The dark background heightens the luminosity of the cloth, allowing chiaroscuro to define structure. Palette samples were recorded within the composition to preserve the specific range of muted rose, cream, and sienna tones for future reference.