Doodling hares

Started out doodling in my sketchbook. A4 size. Gotta love hares!

Portrait in pastel

Happy new year! I hope your start to 2015 has been a good one. I've been a bit under the weather, but I've been keeping myself occupied with a pastel portrait of my niece - it's been a long time since I've attempted one of these (and it shows!).

The likeness isn't great to be honest, but it's kept me busy, fiddling here and there. I've decided to call a halt though I can see lots of things I could fiddle away with!

A4, pastel pencils and pastels on Strathmore 500 Series Charcoal Velvet Grey (which is actually a warm browny grey).

Baby James

Hello!

Here's a quick portrait I completed the other night, while sitting in front of a lovely roaring fire. I couldn't bring myself to leave the room and head up to my 'studio', so I brought all my stuff down and enjoyed the painting and the fire at the same time :-)

I'm never too sure about pastels - I always seem to go a bit mad with the colours (maybe I need to invest in a better range of colours), and I tend to overblend them, but maybe that's something you can get away with when the subject's such a cute baby (I am biased, this is my nephew!). But it's nice to have a change of medium every now and again.

Various pastels on pastelmat paper, 8 " by 8" ish (cropped from a bit bigger, 9 by 12ish).

Edit: I've replaced the pic with one that's a bit more true to the original (the first pic I uploaded look rather orange!)

Tough little cookie

Hello!

Well, the challenge ref for an online portrait painting group I belong to was a toughie this time round - cute kid, but very even, soft light and not too many shadows, which always makes it harder to convincingly model the shapes of the face. I decided to give it a go in pastels.

So, I went a bit mad with the colours... But I do kind of like it...


Pastel on pastelmat, approx 7 by 10". Reference by babasteve on flickr, thank you once again!

Giraffe, at the zoo

In super-quick time, another little pastel from the zoo residents appears (can you tell I'm having fun with these!)

Another 9ish by 6-ish inch pastel painting on pastelmat paper, from a photo I took at Twycross zoo at the weekend. It's a bit bright, a bit soft, and a bit comical, but it makes me feel cheerful and puts a smile on my face ;-)

Prairie dog pup, at the zoo

Now for something a bit cuter than the last post!

I went last weekend for a visit to Twycross Zoo, in the beautiful English Midlands, and took loads of photos of fab animals. I decided to try out some pastels that I've had lying around for ages, and used a ref of a Black-tailed Prairie Dog pup, almost too cute for it's own good... Pleased with how this turned out, as it was really only an experiment to try out the pastels and some newly acquired pastelmat paper.

I haven't used pastels very much but I enjoyed this, so no doubt I'll be adding some more zoo animals along the way.

Pastel on pastelmat paper, approx 6" by 9"

Pastel portrait

Here's a portrait done with pastel pencils, for the portrait group. This is a very close crop of the original photo reference, from Redfloor at Stock.xchng

A4 pastel paper.


I'm playing with a couple of other crops of the ref, just to see how different crops can produce different moods etc.

Portrait in pastel

Another first for me - here's a painting done with pastels. Not a great likeness; I might do a bit more work on this one (now I've seen it up on the screen!). Fun to do, though you do end up very dusty.

Size is A4, with Conte pastel sticks (a small portrait set that I was unable to resist last time I was in an art supplies shop...)