Labrador Retriever (photo from Wet Canvas)

Pastel on Velour paper

  This is my first pastel painting as well as my first time using a velour paper.  It was pretty scary, because I was using the “good stuff” on a practice run using student grade soft pastels with artist grade thrown in the mix.  I didn’t see much difference between the student grade and the artist grade (shhh, don’t tell anybody) really I didn’t…it may have something to do with not having any experience in the medium but both kinds had rich colors and went down the same. A problem I did have was that I put my lights in first then the darks and midtones.  It was hard to blend in and I think (at least in this instance) that I should have went from dark to light then add the detail.  I couldn’t get as much fine detail as I would’ve liked, but I know what to do next time.

     Now the paper?  My goodness it was beautiful!  I used Hehnemule Velour paper and it felt like I was drawing on fabric..it’s that soft, pliable and thick.  I see why a lot of artists use it.  I picked a color that was  almost the same color as the brown in the Lab’s ear.  The color was just too close and washed out the whole portrait, so I chose a purple pastel as the compliment color.  I have to say that I don’t care much for the background and I wish I were a little wiser about choosing a paper color…BUT Live and learn:)  Also, you can’t use a fixative on this paper..so I had to wrap the drawing in tissue..

    Overall, I really liked using pastels, and I hope to become more acquainted with this medium in the future.

Be Well and Happy!