Sandy and Charlie - Pastel Demonstration

By Lesley Ann Hartman
http://www.lesleyannhartman.com/index.htm

In response to many enquiries I have put together this demonstration page which gives a little information regarding how to build up pastel artwork.  The picture itself is of a commission which is now in Ontario Canada and is of two much loved family dogs.  When this commission came in one dog 'Sandy' the black dog on the left, had sadly died so she had to be painted using a few  photographs for information.  The client was able to give lots of information regarding their characters which was really helpful.

Pastels that are used are Daler Rowney soft pastel sticks with the occasional Unison.  The ground is suedeboard, (obtainable from framing galleries) which I am using a lot at the moment.  It has tremendous 'tooth' to hold the pastel but is a little difficult to blend on until you are used to it.  Soft torchons are used (rolled paper stumps) and also Faber Castel and Carb Othello pastel pencils to finish the fine detail.

When I thought of putting together this page the completed pastel had already been sent off to the client and so I am using photos which were already on the computer and which could have been a little more detailed.  From this first example you can see that the eyes of your subject are the most important part.  In most cases they need to be worked on first.  If you are not happy with them, then there is no point in going further with the piece.  Colours used in this portrait are D/R blue greys, burnt siennas and purple browns with Unison Light Brown Earth colours.  Black is used sparingly (even on a black dog) over the underlying colours.

In this example you can see that more has been blocked in on the Labrador and the light sandy colour has also been used on the muzzle of the black dog, which helps link them together to make a more pleasing joint portrait.  You will notice that their noses are different colours and sizes.  Make sure that you study your subject well as individual features are always different.

Colours have now been intensified and the decision has been made about where to end the base of the portrait.  Background has also been blocked in using the light colours first and laying the darker colours over them.  Unison pastels work particularly well for large areas and I use them a lot on backgrounds.  Experiment and see what works for you.  

For the finishing touches pastel pencils are used, this will help pick out individual hairs and whiskers. Don't forget to lay the coat hairs over the background colour and over the other dog.

This is a basic, and unfortunately not very detailed, guide but I hope it will help a little for you getting to grips with that wonderful medium pastel.  Good luck.

By Lesley Ann Hartman