1st Attempt at Pastel Painting

[Amazingreys]

After quite a few frustrating attempts, here is my first pastel painting in progress.
At least this one is recognizable .... :rolleyes: Much more work on this needed, if I stick with it. Brindle is hard......an aged dog with a greying face even more difficult for me. But this is just a few hours work I did last night.
Here he is, FWIW. 8x10 on velour.

[Angela]

Dana,

It's VERY good!! You should be proud of yourself. The pic looks a little blurry to me, but all in all, I think you've done good!!

[Amazingreys]

The picture is a little blurry.....also the nature of working on the velour paper I think gives it a bit of a "fuzzy" look :p
Thanks for looking and commenting!

[Dorell]

Well done Dana :clap:
FWIW - I thinks he's beautiful :D . Can't wait to see how you work through this. I've never been brave enough to try pastels myself, but I love the look of them.
The front part of the face is looking particularly good :)

[Amazingreys]

Thanks Dorell.....
They are fun to play with (but too expensive!!). It is so different from cp...I've found the transition extremely difficult. But there are so many types of pastels and supports there is something for everyone! :)

Thanks for your comments. I hope to put a bit more work into it tonight if I have the time!

[ex-limey]

Hi Dana! I think "brindle" is great for a first effort in pastels!! :clap: :clap: You could try adding a little more dark on the right hand side of the body it would give more shape to the dog. Did you use pastel pencils or regular pastel sticks? I find, that if you need more color, then you can add it with soft pastels
Jean

[kimbas]

Very nice, still so new to artwork of any kind gonna stick with drawing abit myself....but how brave of you to branch out :)

[Amazingreys]

You could try adding a little more dark on the right hand side of the body it would give more shape to the dog. Did you use pastel pencils or regular pastel sticks? I find, that if you need more color, then you can add it with soft pastels
Jean

Hi Jean, thank you for your comment. I know he needs more work, thank you for the suggestion. I find it difficult because of the grey cast his coat has gotten now that he is so old. I think I understand what you mean however, and I will keep that in the back of my mind when I get time to work on him again.
He is done in regular pastels.....mostly Faber-Castell, with a bit of Rembrandt and Grumbacher.
It is hard because from CP I am used to being able to do so many layers...and the velour does not hold much at all.
I don't have many soft pastels yet because they are so costly.
I know some of the very soft brands are too soft for velour paper.
I'd like something a bit softer than my Rembrandts (I don't have many of those) but I don't like the "new" Prismacolor Soft(Grumbacher) that I have at all!

Hopefully I have enough "fuzz" left on my paper to work a bit more on the fur...if not, time to start on the next practice piece, lesson learned! :)

Thanks Kimbas for your comments......I had to laugh because I don't feel so very brave....but I know I'll never learn unless I get started! :)

[lene]

Hi Dana
looks like you're off to a great start. His eyes and nose are lovely :clap:
The soft pastels from Schmincke are softer than Rembrandts if you can get hold of them. Don't know compared to Grumbacher.
I (still) suggest to also try other papers than velour. The velour is a fantastic paper but the unforgiveness of it could make someone find it harder than necessary to paint with pastels :o .... just a suggestion of cause ;)

[lucky]

You’re doing a great job Dana! Velour is really something to get used to! I agree that maybe some softer pastels could be helpful with this kind of paper. I bet once you deepen the background he’ll really start to pop more.

How are you liking the pastels?

Love his wet nose, and glossy eyes.

[lene]

The velour is a fantastic paper but the unforgiveness of it could make someone find it harder than necessary to paint with pastels :o .... just a suggestion of cause ;)

I meant as a beginner with pastels - like myself ;) My first pastelpainting on velour almost made me through the pastels out of the window .... I tried on a piece of ingress pastelpaper and was a bit more comfortable with that. Then went back to velour with more comfort ;)

[Greg]

Very nice work Dana!! I just wish my first pastel attempt was this good!!

[Amazingreys]

Thanks everyone :)
Thanks Lene......I actually have had the same problem no matter what support I use, probably because I don't know what I'm doing, and pastel doesn't work like CP! So I read a lot and experiment and hopefully eventually it will all "click" into place.
I did try out several types of paper......Canson pastel, Art Spectrum Colourfix, Wallis, Sennlier La Carte to name a few.
I like working on velour actually, I'm just not used to it or the pastels!
From what I've read and also have been told by pastellists who work on velour, that very soft pastels (Sennlier, Schminke etc.) are too soft for velour work...they lay down too much pastel quickly and fill up the paper.
That is just what I've been told, I have no idea. The Grumbachers I have are too "crumbly".....I don't like them at all!
I've read that Giraults (sp) are some of the best for working on velour. They are supposed to have good earthy colors for animal art......or so Leslie Harrison says!

Want to see some pastel on velour that will blow your socks off?
See Leslie's work: www.harrison-keller.com/Harrison.html

It is hard to find good colors for animal art.....some of the pastel colors are so vibrant and beautiful but not very useful for rendering fur ;)!

Lucky, I love working with the pastels, I will like it more when I am more comfortable with the medium. The thing I like the best is the SPEED compared to colored pencil, which gets tedious for me. What I don't like is having to have a zillion different colors, and that the pastels are so expensive! For animal art, I love the look of soft pastel on velour and suede. It gives an incredible "softness" to the animal that I just fell in love with.

Greg, this isn't my very first scribble in pastel, but my first one that was good enough to post! My first few tries were ridiculous! I've been fussing with them for a few weeks now.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and comments!

[ex-limey]

Hi Dana! I can HIGHLY recommend Fabriano Tiziano pastel papers. They come in quite a few colors and they really hold a lot of layers of pastel. I have used them for all of the "dog portaits" that I have done. "Molly", the first dog that I posted on this site was done on it.
Give it a try, you might like it!
Jean. :bye1: :bye1:

[Nancy]

Hey Dana!!! This is very good, especially for a first attempt!! :clap: You should be proud of yourself! I look forward to the finished version!!

Sorry, can't give any tips. I'm brand new to pastels as well.

Off to post my own "first pastel."

[Amazingreys]

Thank you Nancy! :)
I'll have to look into the paper you recommended Jean, thank you as well! :)

[artfulscribe]

You certainly hit the ground running! Great under any circumstances, but first pastel ever...? You should be proud! :)

Roxana

[alessandra rosi]

Hi Dana, your dog is so sweet... seems to me that you captured his personality!! I like it very much, and I think you also choose the best paper for this subject, velvet adds a softness to his fur! By the way, fabriano tiziano is a very cool paper, similar to canson but without the rought side, just nice both sides.
I wait to see it finished!!

[Amazingreys]

Thank you Roxana and Alessandra! :)
Unfortunately I have not had time to work on it further, but I will post an update when I do!
Thank you for your encouragement!