Sunday, May 23, 2010

A Colorful Pastel Portrait. How I built up layers of color.

I am working on a Pastel portrait on a large piece of Aubergine colorfix paper.


This a very amateur slide show of how I got to this point...but ignore the fact that each photo was taken in a different light setting and you'll be ok :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L-ZIedNAso

Thanks!

11 comments:

Jay Andrew Allen said...

Wow, thank you for that. I've been striving lately to add more color depth to my pastels, but have been lost as to where to begin. Love seeing how you layer color to end up with an incredibly rich portrait!

AmyC ~ said...

That is Beautiful! I love the colors!!! How do you know what color to use where?

Margaret Mayer said...

gorgeous! I watched the you tube video too. I love the emotion that you put in your work.

Krystyna81 said...

Thank you for the kind comments - I'm so glad you like it.

AmyC - I was lucky enough to snap a great photo - one that had a lot of reflected colors from her sweater, her blouse, her hair, the surrounding bushes as well.

When I printed out the photo, I photo-shopped a little - intensified the colors so that they were a little more obvious. This really helped me get the idea of what colors should go where.

If something got too intense, if I went over-board with a green or a red, I would lightly layer a soft lilac or a light blue over it to soften.

A lot of color can be fun, but can also turn into a distraction if not balanced well.

AmyC ~ said...

That is an awesome 'trick'. It is beautiful! Great work.

Cathy Rodgers said...

Terrific! Thanks for sharing this - I'm impressed with the slide show ;-) !!!

You've inspired me to play with watercolors and I'm having some fun with them, even though I don't know exactly what I'm doing!

Krystyna81 said...

Cathy...trial and error, my dear! That's what I've been doing :) And reading...grab a Watercolor magazine - lots of great tips, and a variety of ideas.

I like the watercolor pencils, too!

luigi bluoso said...

Ciao, ho osservato il video, molto interessante il processo,impegnativo e complesso, affascinante il risultato, mi piace moltissimo. Un lavoro eccellente. Spero che tu lavorerai ancora con i pastelli...

Mel said...

the colours and her features are so delicate!

Krystyna81 said...

Luigi - I'm glad you liked the video. I hope it shows that the drawing is not going to look perfect right away. When working with pastels, I love to think of layers of color. It doesn't look "right" until almost the very end!

janice said...

thanks as always for being so generous with information about your process and materials. i love this portrait~