My Art Journal

Thanks ladies, I'm really proud of this one!
Now I have to get back to some commissions again, its dangerous when I have too much time on my hands and get let loose with a bunch of beautiful photos!!

Beautiful pastel work I love the new picture!
Posted via Mobile Device

I am constantly amazed at the level of fine detail you get
Do you use some sort of pastel pencils for that?
I'm intrigued
Wonderful work

Jaydee I occasionally use pastel pencil for some of the finer work, but mostly I work in pastel sticks with a sharp edged medium-hard pastel for the fur and eye detail.
For the last two portraits, I didn't use pencil at all.

Thanks for reply - I'm actually contemplating giving this technique a go if only as a challenge - just need to find the time to do it

Well, my first attempt at a human in pastel, with no glasses to cover the tricky eyes!!
A young girl and her beloved pony, ready for her birthday in 2 weeks time

My favorite of your pieces BY FAR!

I love getting some free time to work on pieces just for my own peace of mind, lilruffian ;)
The commissions are great to keep a bit of income coming in and I enjoy doing them, but I REALLY love working on my own pieces because it lets me loosen up and have a little bit of artistic license.

I am so jealous of your guises gift!!!!!!!!!!! I'm a painter and I do some pretty stuff but you guys are undeliverable and amazing! It looks like you guys are using oil pastels? I'm thinking about terning to pastels. You guys influenced me! Do you guys have any tips or secrets that might help me do well? And what will I need? Also that paper you use what is it? Thank you so much! I will continue to look at all of you art on here! WOW

I use primarily chalk/soft pastels with some pastel pencil for the very fine detail when required. My paper of choice is velour, but I would not recommend it for someone starting out in pastels as it is extremely unforgiving and only holds limited layers. I suggest you try a paper like Canson Mi-Tientes for starters.
My pastels are a range of brands depending on my needs - I use primarily Unison and Rembrandt's for the bulk of my work though. Rembrandt's are pricey but probably the best for starting as as they give good coverage and you can man handle them a bit more than the Unison's and Schminke's.

As far as tips, well, just experiment. You will need a good toothed paper if you want to work with chalk pastels - the pigment will fall straight off other papers or canvas.
I work in layers, and my base layers are more often than not very bright colours such as reds/blues/purples/greens depending on the colours in my subject. I then build on those base layers to create a more true to life colour. The base layers give the colour some more depth.