Saturday, April 17, 2010

Pastel Lion Study

Every now and then, I like to play around with color. I took out my old pastels for the first time since I started charcoal. I've been scrutinizing other artists' pastel work and some online tutorials, and figured the best way to proceed was to lay down an underpainting with the soft pastels (heavily blended), then add detail on top with the hard pastels. Now, I only have a set of 30 soft pastels and 50 or so hard pastels, so I wasn't able to get the depth I was hoping for (my sets were seriously lacking in dark brown in particular).

My reason for doing this, other than a change of pace, was to see if I liked pastel enough to get a large set of pastel pencils and do some colored work in between charcoal drawings. I think I do!

12 comments:

peppoj said...

Hello kitty :)

Heather Ward said...

:)

Anonymous said...

Heather, Your work is very interesting to me. You will love having pastels in a wider shade selection. I use a three-layer set and still have to create what I seek. Black sanded papers are one favorite, but playing with other options is productive, interesting, joyful, and sometimes frustrating.

Mixing charcoal and pastel helps too.In my small fine arts business, portraits are my most frequent commissions. A former Los Alamos resident, lab editor, and McCurdy School teacher, I live now in southeastern Arizona.

Thanks for posting your work for my pleasure.

Heather Ward said...

Hi Anonymous, small world, eh? I've only been here about 7 years myself. Thank you for all the pastel tips! I used Wallis paper for this one and found it hard to blend with anything but my fingers. I usually use smooth bristol for my charcoal work, but fear that is too smooth for pastels with many layers. Well, part of the fun of a new medium is playing around with different things and learning as you go!

ThaliaGrace said...

Wow, your work is REALLY GREAT!! I've loved art as long as I can remember, but this tops any wildlife pastels I've ever seen!! Keep up the great work!

Heather Ward said...

Thanks, Thalia! That's quite a compliment, but you should take a look at Eric Wilson's pastels. Those are incredible.

Unknown said...

Nice Stuff

Linda said...

What a great expression!

Heather Ward said...

Thank you Case and Linda!

Akshay said...

Awesome!

Power Point Slide Shows said...

Great work!

Heather Ward said...

Thank you Akshay and PPSS.