The combination of soft pastels and velour paper is quickly becoming my preferred medium and support for animal artwork, and I thought it would be good to provide some information about pastels as a Fine Art medium.

Pastels are pure finely ground pigments that are rolled or shaped into sticks using a soft binder to hold the particles together.  The pigments used to create pastel sticks are the same pigments used to create all coloured art mediums including oil and acrylic paints.  Pastels as a Fine Art medium have been used for hundreds of years by many of the Masters, including Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Whistler, Cassatt and Matisse among many others. 

Although some people refer to them as ‘chalk’ pastels, this really is a misnomer as pastels are not anything like the chalk sticks you will find in a classroom - nor do they only come in soft light ‘pastel’ colours, they do in fact come in many vibrant colours 

According to Answers ”pigment applied with pastel does not change in colour value, the final effect can be seen immediately. Pastel remains on the surface of the paper and thus can be easily obliterated unless protected by glass or a fixative spray of glue size or gum solution. When pastel is applied in short strokes or linearly, it is usually classed as drawing; when it is rubbed, smeared, and blended to achieve painterly effects, it is often regarded as a painting medium.”

There are several types of pastels available to artists as defined by Answers:

Soft pastels — This is the most widely used form of pastel. The sticks have a higher portion of pigment and less binder, resulting in brighter colors.

Hard pastels — These have a higher portion of binder and less pigment, producing a sharp drawing material that is useful for fine details. These can be used with other pastels for drawing outlines and adding accents.

Pastel pencils — These are pencils with a pastel lead. They are useful for adding fine details.

Oil Pastels - These have a soft, buttery consistency and intense colors. They are slightly more difficult to blend than soft pastels, but do not require a fixative.

Water-soluble pastels — These are similar to soft pastels, but contain a water-soluble component, such as glycol. This allows the colors to be thinned out using a water wash.

Personally I work mostly with soft pastels, with a few hard pastels and pencils for final line work, as the softness is very suitable for creating believeable, almost touchable animal fur.

Finally, pastel artwork (with the exception of art that is mostly line work) is generally referred to as paintings rather than drawings, and due to the delicate nature of pastel paintings, it is very important that they are cared for properly and framed in the correct manner, with an acid free mat and behind glass so that they can be enjoyed for many years to come.

Hahnemuhle Pastel Paper is produced in Germany using inert synthetic fibres on an acid free backing sheet.  This beautiful paper actually feels like velour fabric, and because of the nap (long fibres) it holds most pastels very well.  Of the soft pastels that I use, I choose the harder ones (if that makes sense) as some of the more softer brands are more delicate when used on velour paper. This velour paper comes in a range of colours that are all lightfast (so they are resistant to fading) and they all have acid free backing which prevents yellowing over time.

So there you have it, pastels and velour paper, my new favourite medium and support for animal artwork!

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, velour, pastel, old masters, soft pastel, art medium, dog art, Fine Art schminke Hahnemuhle

Apart from some minor adjustments that I might add in the next day or so, this is the (almost) completed portrait of our Chinese Shar-Pei, Tia.

Achieving depth and dimension with her black coat and all those wrinkles was a great challenge, but I thoroughly enjoyed working on this and I am really pleased with the resulting portrait, although I might need to get a better photograph in better light!

“Tia”

Pastels on Velour Art Paper

10″ x 14″

2006

This is the reference photo I used for Tia’s portrait - as you can probably see I took this photo with the flash on (something that is not usually recommended), just to make sure that I could see all the curves and contours of her wrinkly face! Most of the photos I have of her are either very black, or if she is in full sunlight, her eyes will be closed, so using the flash was the best way to get a nice detailed photo, then it was simply a matter of making her fur darker than it appeared in the photo to make it look like my dog rather than the washed out/faded reference photo.

Shar-Pei Breed Info: Shar-Pei’s are an ancient dog breed, and are still fairly rare, although thanks to tv commercials such as the toilet roll ad with the wrinkly puppy, “Rolly” they are becoming more popular.

The breed is best known for its wrinkled apprearance which is caused by the excess skin they have. generally puppies and young dogs appear to have more wrinkles as older dogs grow into their skin a little bit. (This is actually a good thing, as Shar-Pei’s do suffer from skin conditions do to the wrinkles and rough fur irritating the skin.)

The name “Shar-Pei” literally means “sand-skin”, or loosely translated to “sand-paper-like coat” which refers to the unique characteristics of the Shar-Pei coat - its roughness and its shortness. The Shar-Pei also has another distinctive characteristic that is shared with only one other breed, the Chow Chow (also a Chinese breed) - both breeds have a blue-black tongue!

Of course I am biased, but Shar-Pei’s are an incredible breed - totally devoted to their families, highly intelligent and excellent watch/guard dogs!

More information on the Shar-Pei breed can be found at http://www.sharpei.com.au/

Cheers

Michelle

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, velour, pastel, dog portrait, portrait artist, dog art, Shar-Pei

I am thoroughly enjoying working with this velour paper with my pastels and I am really pleased with how this portrait of Marcus, a Long Haired Dachshund has turned out. I can see that my pastels and this velour support and quickly going to become my favourite medium for working in.

I couldn’t help myself, after finishing this one I have finally started a portrait of my own dog Tia, she is a black Shar-Pei and it is proving to be a very interesting challenge creating black wrinkles that look realistic! I will add a blog entry with her portrait when it is finished.

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, velour, pastel, dog portrait, long haired dachshund, portrait artist, dog art, Shar-Pei

Where has this year gone? I can’t believe that it is nearly Christmas already and I am definitely not going to look at the last date that I updated this blog, so instead I will just share my latest piece, a pure pastel painting on velour paper of a gorgeous Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

This is the first time that I have used the German made Hahnemuhle velour pastel paper and I will definitely be using it again, it creates an incredible softness to the artwork that is particualrly suited to animal portraiture.

Michelle

http://www.pencilportraits.com.au

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork,velour, pastel, dog portrait, cavalier king charles spaniel, portrait artist, dog art,

I’ve just found out about Squidoo, and have officially become a “Squidoo lensmaster”. LOL while that sounds really technical (or maybe just plain bizarre), it really is a very simple way of sharing your recommended links on a particular topic in a portal and possibly earning a few $ through the Squidoo system (you get paid based on Google Adwords, Amazon, cafe press etc).

I strongly believe in coincidences and as I have just recently begun a personal quest researching art history, famous artists, art movements and styles (all the things you propably would learn in art school), I thought it would be a good idea to put all the great information that I find together in a new lens All About Art for my own reference and maybe it will also help out other people who are interested in the same subject. I’ve also added a section for art lessons and demonstrations because, as a self-taught artist, I firmly believe it is possible for anyone with the determination and persistance to develop their artistic talent which we all have if we nurture it!

If you would like to join squidoo and set up your own lens, please consider using this link as your referral and when you earn your first $15, we’ll both get $5 free!

Refferal Link

I finally finished the commemorative portrait of Cleo the Bull Terrier cross that I mentioned in a previous post. I am really pleased with the way it turned out - especially as it was the first time I had attempted to draw a white dog in graphite. It was for a 60th birthday present and Cleo’s owner loved it thank goodness!

Unfortunately I did not have time to scan it and the digi photos I took really didn’t turn out very well, so much of the detail and fine shading was lost. This is the best photo of the lot however the shadows on the original are no where near as dark as they appear in this photo, and there is a lot more detail on her brown ear that is obscured by glare in the photo. Oh, the joys of photographing graphite artwork!

“Cleo”

Bull Terrier Cross

Graphite, 11″ x 14″, 2006

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, graphite, dog portrait, bull terrier, squidoo, dog art, lens, art history, art styles, art movements, famous artist, art lessons, art demonstrations

This is probably my favourite piece that I did in 2005. The look in this dog’s eyes just says it all, he is laying there patiently waiting for his owner to come back.

“Waiting” Coloured Pencil, 11″ x 14″, 2005

This piece was completed purely in colour pencils on cream Stonehenge paper and took well over 55 hours of work to complete. It was worth it though, because it was awarded First Place in the Painting & Drawings: Animals class at the Art Show I entered - pretty amazing seeing as colour pencil is such a new Fine Art medium and because the other entries included oils, acrylics and pastels!

Technorati Tags: art, animal artist, art award, painting, bullmastiff, coloured pencil, color pencil, dog art

We lost our little girl Jack Russell Terrier over two years ago to a brain tumor. She was nearly 11 years old and such a gutsy, happy little dog - a true Jack Russell Terrier in every way. Even though I am a pet portrait artist, it took a long time for me to be able to do her portrait.

Created with soft pastels on black Art Spectrum sanded paper, this is one of those pieces that just seemed to paint itself and I am really pleased with the result. I can now really understand why many of my clients who have commissioned commemorative portraits of pets they have lost as it feels almost like having them back again, that probably sounds really strange, maybe its being able to see that familiar loving face every day. Of course a painting can never replace a dearly missed pet, but it certainly does help to heal the pain a little.

‘Harley’ in pastel: 9″x12″

At the moment I am working on a commemorative portrait of Cleo, a Bull Terrier cross. I had the choice to do it in graphite or colour and decided on graphite, I’m not quite sure why as apart from one ear she is a white dog, and rendering white fur on white paper with graphite is a bit of a challenge! I will post a picutre of Cleo’s portrait when it is finished.

Technorati Tags: art, artist, artwork, pet portrait, jack russell terrier, pastel, pastels, dog art,
bull terrier, art spectrum, commission portrait, pet portrait artist

As the next step in developing my career, I am planning on doing a series of pure bred dog portraits to sell as open and limited edition prints. I am looking for permission to use personal photographs as reference material (credits for use of the photograph will be given) so if you have, or know anyone who has a purebred dog, I would love to hear from you!

There is absolutely no obligation whatsoever to purchase the original artwork or any of the prints created from the reference photos, but if you would like to a discount would be given as thanks for giving me permission to sell prints of the artwork I create from your reference photo.

Obviously some photos will be more suitable than others - because I work in a very detailed and realistic style, I do require photos that are clear and detailed, without any camera distortion and of course of dogs that are a good representation of their breed. The other requirement is that the person giving me permission must be the copyright holder of the photograph - generally the person who took the photo is the copyright holder.

And just in case you you are wondering, I have absolutely nothing against mixed breed dogs, its just that prints of mixed breeds are unlikely to be saleable, especially in the main venue that I will be selling them on.

Thanks!

Michelle

This is my latest commission, a graphite portrait of a gorgeous black Labrador Retriever. Hasn’t she got the sweetest looking face? I’m very pleased with how this turned out although getting good digital images of graphite work is near on impossible!

This scanned image is about the closest I can get to the original, although alot of the delicate shading in the original is not evident, particularly in the highlighted areas.

Labrador Breed Information

Labrador Retrievers are a loving, affectionate, intelligent breed that is one of the most popular dog breeds in Australia. Highly intelligent, loyal, willing, good natured and excellent with children they are ideal companions for families. Labradors are easily trained and need to be treated as one of the family, otherwise like many breeds they can become destructive. Labradors are medium sized energetic dogs that need a fair bit of excercise. Their smooth short haired coat, which can be black, yellow or chocolate in colour, is easy to groom and they should be bathed only when necesary. They have a life expectancy of about 10-12 years

Labradors originated in New Foundland where they were originally known as St John Dogs or the Lesser New Foundland (Newfoundland’s are another breed of dog). Labrador is a peninsular in north-eastern North America situated between Hudson Bay, the Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Labradors were originally developed to assist the fishermen in towing in nets as well as working in the snow and ice. These dogs were taken to England where they were bred as gun dogs and retrievers. Labs are easily trained and their intelligence and lovely disposition makes them very suitable for work as guide, service and customs dogs.

If you would like to be notified of updates to my blog, please click on the orange buttons in the colum on the right to add this to your RSS Feed (atom and feedburner) or enter you email addy and subscribe to recieve updates into your mailbox.

Michelle

Technorati Tags:graphite, drawing, canine, portraiture, pet portrait, labrador retriever, pet portrait,

I’ve managed to do the next two of the “In The Night” ACEO series, #2 is a chestnut stallion “Trojan In The Night” and #3 is another cat (yes I have a real big thing for cats at the moment:) “Boo In The Night”.

Here are a couple more, “Kaiser” A German Shepherd Dog. I’m really pleased how this turned out, especially as the eyes are only about 3mm in size!

A Pink and Grey Galah (a common Australian native bird). I tried a looser more painterly approach with this one, which was created as part of an International Artists swap.

And a Gibbon (a primate) - when I saw the reference photo for this one I couldn’t resist the priceless look on his face. I havn’t quite decided what to do with this one, but need to come up with a suitable title first.

As well as getting these ACEO’s done, I’ve also been able to get everything uploaded to the new gallery on my website, it looks much better now, and should be fairly easy for people to navigate.

And now its back to work:)