Playing with Pastels

[Amazingreys]

My pastels finally arrived!

This isn't anything special, I was just playing around, and had so much fun scribbling all the colors.

These are pastel pencils on velour.
This was a free hand study of a cat's eye that took about 20 minutes (because I wasn't sure which colors to use). Yes, I am bound and determined to paint a cat so that I can do that portrait for my DVM at work!

This will be a lot of fun to experiment with! Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me to try these and thank you Rose for getting me started with pastels! :)

I feel a bit silly posting this in light of all the gorgeous pastel work here, but we have to start somewhere! :o

[lene]

Hi
this looks very nice :) Good luck on the cat-painting.
Do you have other kinds of paper than velour ? Velour is wonderful, a bit unforgiving though. Try out different kinds of papers to see and feel how different they are to work on :)
Remember the colors change very much according to the color of the support, test them on the actual paper before applying to your drawing ;) :bye1:

[lucky]

Wow, Dana, I don't know why you're so timid with the pastels I think this is fabulous! The hairs are done so beautifilly the way they overlap so realistically and look so soft. And the colors of the eye are gorgeous! I can't wait to see what you're going to do in the future!!!

[kimbas]

Very nice...great that your experimenting! I'm not that brave yet :)

[Toni]

Dana your off to a great start. No need to fret over it, just get in there and get some play time in! You'll get a good "handle" on them that way!

What kind of pastels did we get?

TJ

[Katherine]

Well, heck girl, I don't see a thing wrong with it. I think you and those pastels are going to get along just fine! ;)

[Angela]

I agree, Dana! You're off to a great start.

Just keep on chuggin' along and in no time you'll be a pro!

[Amazingreys]

Thanks Katherine,Lene, Toni, Lucky, Angela and Kimbas for the encouragement! :dance3:

Kimbas, don't be afraid to experiment and play! Learning is supposed to be FUN! Don't sweat it. I've been working for hours every day in cp and have yet to produce anything that didn't go in the circular file. So what? I learn something every time I put my pencil to the paper. So far pastel has been the same way. Enjoy, play, have fun! No bravery required, I promise! :D
That is why I post my work (such that it is) here on ST. I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain for submitting my scribbles for c&c. ST is a great resource, take advantage of it. :) I'd love to see your work!

Lene: as far as paper goes, I had all that velour that I bought on clearance so it is the cheapest stuff I had to play with (and that is my goal to be able to work on it). I also have some Wallis samples, some colorfix, and some Canson pastel paper (my least favorite so far).
I think my pastels came with a very tiny piece of Sennlier Pastel Card that felt good, I will make a few doodles on it as well. I understand what you mean about the colored papers as well. I have been trying to play with all different support media and colors. This cat was on a greyish velour.

Toni, for pastels I have a starter set of 30 Rembrandts (thanks Rose) but not many colors applicable for animals. They look lovely and rich on the velour but I've found it hard to get any sharp detail from them.
I bought CarbOthello Pencils, they were a great deal on sale.
I also got the Faber-Castell Polychromos sticks because also they were on sale at a great price, and have a huge range of colors. I love the size and shape of them also They are a harder pastel of course but I think will be good for doing detailed work such as fur on animals.
I also have a very small landscape set of the Grumbacher (now Prismacolor Soft) half sticks. I do NOT like these at all. Or at least not yet. They were very cheap on sale otherwise I would not had tried them, and everyone says wonderful things about Grumbacher and soft soft pastels. I am too enthusiastic, and crumble the silly things when I mark too hard.

I guess it depends on what you are trying to do with them. And since I am just now learning, I might change my mind once I get more practice.

I of course feel most comfortable with the pencils...although perhaps not considered "true" pastels by some, they will be very good in combination with other pastels, or so I hope. :)

[Dorell]

This is a beauty :clap: . Looking forward to seeing more!

Dorell.

[Rose]

Dana, that is a very alluring and beautiful eye to start a cat portrait! I say keep going! Don't give up, you have great materials and you are learning as you go, so just post whatever you're working on and go from there! Seems you have nothing to lose and all to gain! It takes courage to put work on here for c&c (at least that's how I felt when I first started), but it's the only way you're going to get better ;-)

Remember, cheerleaders are here for ya! :clap: :clap: Rah, rah!

[Amazingreys]

Thank you Dorell and Rose!

[ex-limey]

This is great. :clap: :clap: :clap: Please try a complete cat picture! If you can do the eyes this well then I don't think you will have any trouble with the rest.

[Lynn]

Great goin' Dana. :clap: Don't be so hard on yourself!
(maybe I should practise what I preach!!)

[Debee]

This is an intense work in its own right. You've done a beautiful job. :clap: :clap: :clap:
Go for it girl!

[Brenda]

Look at Dana GO!!! You're doing a marvelous job with these. You are inspiring me.

Dana, I must say... You are a very special person. You are cheerfully persistent and doing all this practicing so you can do something wonderful for another person. There are not enough people like you in the world.

[Amazingreys]

Thanks everyone for your kind and encouraging words.
It is fun just to play and experiment.

That is very sweet of you, Brenda, thank you.
I see you have remembered the driving force behind all of this cat art. :hug: