Face of Symmetry completed

Face of Symmetry

A4

Coloured pencils on Pastelmat

Here she is all finished. Fortunately I scanned it before applying fixative. Much of the colour did sink and darken with the fixative once I applied it, and even though I have touched it up quite a bit, the earlier scan was better - so lesson learnt - no fixative in future!!!

WIP 3 - Face of Symmetry

WIP 3 and I'm not even sure that you can tell who this beauty is yet. Once I draw in her mouth it should be more apparent (hopefully). Sadly, holidays have come to an end today and two of our sons are back to school tomorrow, with uni still not starting up for another month. The holidays have gone all too fast, but I guess we need the hustle and bustle of everyday life to really appreciate the holidays!

WIP 2 - Face of Symmetry

2nd stage of the WIP. Working with the coloured pencils on the Pastelmat, is much slower than working with pastels, but when not pressed for time, I find it really relaxing filling in all the fine grainy texture of the paper and trying to achieve a nice smooth skin tone. The pastelmat takes multiple layers and I find the Derwent artist pencils, in particular, work really well on this surface for getting a creamy looking skin. The Faber Castell Polychromos are then great for the darker details. Working with the pencils on the Pastelmat really allows you to make very subtle changes to the skin tone in a way that I usually only find possible with oils.

WIP - Face of Symmetry

I rarely post WIP images, but we have been away on holidays and so it seems to have been a while between posts and I'm also still in holiday mode so will take my time with this portrait. Can you guess who this is - she is supposed to have the most symmetrical face in the world and she certainly is stunning. I have been a little naughty and just took an image from Google images, but this is more for the exercise of doing a portrait in pencils on Pastelmat. I am really loving this combination of mediums and will probably start doing my commissions this way, rather than on the drafting film from now on. Happy Australia Day to all my Aussie friends too!! :)

Feeling Lucky

Feeling Lucky

7cm x 10cm

Coloured pencils on Pastelmat

Just a quick little miniature art squeezed in before we head off on holidays for the next couple of weeks. The pastelmat does have a very fine texture, but unfortunately when scanning this size image, the texture becomes enlarged and quite obvious. I might try using watercolour pencils under the regular pencils next time to see if that gives a smoother appearance. Life is never dull!!!

Lord of the Manor

Lord of the Manor

6x8 inches

Coloured pencil on Pastelmat

This was just a little experiment to see how the coloured pencils go on the Pastelmat. I have used pastels a few times on this surface and have to say it is my absolute favourite surface for pastels. But generally, I favour coloured pencils over pastels because of the lack of dust, and so wanted to try them out. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was possible to get quite good detail, despite the fine texture of the surface, and was also possible to get lots of layers of pencils which is something new to me, after working on the drafting film so much. My brother took the reference photo of this gorgeous kitty on his iphone at a friend's house and as soon as I saw it, I fell in love, begging him to email me a copy. It looks to me like it is probably a Maine Coon - truly beautiful cats!!!