Finished pastel

Today I finally finished my pastel project!! Yeah! 

Little details

I think his toes are one of my favorite things about this pastel

And here's a close up of the little boy's outfit and his mama's arm lovingly wrapped around him.

Tomorrow hopefully I will get to those hands (well, one hand and a teenie tiny part of the little boy's hand. Then that's it. I will spray it to fix it and then it will be done!! Praying the dog doesn't eat it. She's been trying to snatch my pastels throughout this whole process. She got a few, but fortunately she's ok (the pastel, not so much).

Charlie

Today I decided to take a break from pastels for a couple of reasons. First, there are sometimes when I work so long on something that I start to feel discouraged and forget to have fun. Art should be fun. So, I'm taking a "fun" break.  Second, my nephew and brother have birthdays coming up and I wanted to whip up a little something to send them, so I painted this picture of their dog, Charlie.  It was fun, so mission accomplished!!

Pastel in progress continued

It's amazing how much concentration and effort goes into a fold which is what I spent most of the day doing. I love the shadows and lights though that you see in clothing. I love trying to create texture with just color and value. Obviously not finished, but here's my latest progress.

Pastel in progress

I decided to post progress pictures of this next project. I loved pastels in college but haven't worked a lot with them in a while. So, I'm teaching myself as I go. 

I started with a line drawing. This project is 24x30 so composition and is very important to get right from the beginning. This is actually not my original composition, 

This was actually the first sketch, done in watercolor just to see about colors. It was ok but it didn't feel just right, so hopefully the new one will work.

Here's my work station. Trying to absorb the light as I work best with natural light. I live in Washington, and the rainy days are coming😁...I better get busy!!

So, I say to myself..."just do it" and since I'm right handed, I start on the left so I don't smudge the whole thing as I go along. Pastels are very smudgy.

I put the paper so I don't smudge if I do get some on my hands. I get a lot on my hands. I think this is messier than paint!!

And that's all for today. I am really liking this project. 

Ok, it's a new day now. Here's today's' work. It's amazing to me that a highlight or a line shifted ever so slightly can change the look of a person entirely! And that dreaded 3/4 view of the face is ever so tricky! But it's coming along and as I see it in pictures I see more what needs to be accentuated or de accentuated.

Yes, I changed the shirt color to green. 

So, my light is fading and my kids are home, so more to come tomorrow.