Pastels...

I finally got the Conte Pastels that I've been wanting. I used these in High School and for years after, to do portraits. Well, I haven't used them in like 20 years, so this is my first attempt with them. It is a portrait of Bas, my baby boy. But in this one his eyes are too close together, and I think his nose is too small.

Can we say "waterhead retard" here???


This is my second attempt. I did this one in an hour. The eyes are MUCH better. But I am having the hardest time with his foot!! It looks like a "club foot"...but it's hard to get right since he does have more toes than most cats. And in the picture there is no separation from his leg and his neck. It's all just blended together. I know I'll try it again!!LOL


Normally when I would use pastels the colors would be blended together for a very smooth clean look. But as I was doing this, I liked the loose feel of the strokes, it made it more like fur and is more like I would do in pencil.

Next I think I'll do a portrait of a person, so I can do the blending and see if I can make it more realistic, like I used to do.

Oooo, after looking at it on here, I need to fix the left side of his nose too!!:)