Monday, November 24, 2008

Portrait Drawing Techniques...Pastel 2


The quest to conquer pastel portraits continues! I found an amazing product image in a fellow Etsian's shop and she gave me permission to use this gorgeous product photo.
This practice portrait is on grey mat board, so it is a very smooth surface. I liked working on the medium grey - one of my favorite colors - because I can use lighter and darker colors on the surface - and with the beautiful bright light that is so crucial to the feel of this photo, I wanted to be able to emphasize that glow - I don't think a white background would have been as successful.
Anyway...I still feel like I am getting to know my pastels - each one - whether is is a hard Nupastel or a regular soft pastel - has such a different texture and feel to it. Some are very dense and don't lay on a lot of colors, others are so soft you can hardly control how much layers on the page.
I am learning more about succesful layering - this time I started much lighter with my sketch, so I didn't feel like I was fighting my initial sketch thru the whole drawing. I love when two very different colors work so well in layers - a cranberry under a sap green gives a beautiful glow to the shadowy side of the face.
Anyway...I am enjoying the challenge and LOVING the hunt for inspiration photos on Etsy!




This fabulous photo and scarf is from http://bymariannes.etsy.com/. Thank you for the inspiration!
Oh...and I wasn't alone in my studio today...Jack was hard at work on a watercolor!

5 comments:

Michelle Brunner said...

I just love your art! Pastels are so beautiful but are a complex medium! You do such a wonderful job with them!

Unknown said...

I'm so happy you found my photo inspiring!
Love looking at your work-in-progress posts.
Keep going :)

Robin Pedrero said...

You know I am a fan. I thought this might be fun. I hope you like to play tag. Please don't feel obliged but if you play, I've tagged you and you are it!

Details on this post on my blog
http://pocketfullofcolors.blogspot.com/2008/11/taggedyou-could-be-next.html

Robin

Krystyna81 said...

Hello All...thank you for the kind words! Thank you Marianne for posting - I hope everyone peeks at your gorgeous shop! I'm going to check your blog....

Anonymous said...

Jack is a cutie. I hope I can inspire my kids to be artistic too.