A Picture ReDo

I think sometimes it pays to look back on your artwork and really look at it.  If you’re not happy with a piece after it’s all completed, sometimes it’s good to set it down and wait awhile and really look at it and see if it could be improved in some way.  Maybe make the colors more saturated, try another media to see if it works a little better with the picture itself.  Whatever.

Well, that’s what happened here.  I love pastels, but I tried rendering an old watercolor picture of Santa singing with his reindeer (originally designed for my husband’s Christmas birthday)  with pastels.  I never really was happy with it.  Pastels work lovely on portraits, but when I have a lot of detail work in a picture, it just doesn’t cut it.  I can’t work in the tiny details, and it looks like there is no “punch” factor….it just sort of sits there, almost like a bad copy of a picture.

See for yourself here as I have attached the original pastel and the new watercolor.  I think I will take the watercolor.  It’s so vibrant and I can see all the detail work.  This is also what the art licensing companies look for, vibrancy.  So that’s what I am doing now.  Taking my portfolio and re doing all the old pics that just “sort of sit there”.  Hope you like this new one!  Enjoy!

Pastel Angel Girl In Progress

I am now taking a needed break from watercolor and trying my hand at doing pastels again.  I love pastels!  I can do them rather quickly and I love the realistic result.  I just love adding highlights here and there and making the wispy pieces of hair.  The pictures  seem so alive.  I can’t wait to finish this one.  I am having a hard time trying to decide what color the background should be, and just praying I don’t mess this up!  Oh well, back to the drawing board.  Hope you like what I have done so far.

 

angel girl in progress

Magic Of The Night Pastel Drawing

This picture was just a whimsical piece I needed to add to my portfolio.  I love snowmen, and love to draw them at odd angles for interest.  This was perfect.  For days I had the drawing half done, with the snowman just looking off into blank paper.  I couldn’t figure out what to put as the background, so I left the drawing half done and off to the side until this idea came to me.  It’s just a cute random Christmas drawing.  It was fun to just not be so picky and have fun with this.  Like I was back in grade school with my blank manila paper and crayons.  Love it!

Hope you like it.

Magic Of The Night

Copland, A Pastel Picture

Here is my first attempt at trying pastels on velour paper.  This paper is a bit trickier than regular pastel paper as you can not erase on it.  It is not easy to blend as well and so you have to build up layers of color from darkest to lights.  But if it comes out right, the look is so soft and amazing.  I must say, I am not so afraid of it anymore, and I will attempt another picture of a dog for a friend.  I will let you know how it goes!  Hope you like this one.

Here is Copland

Final Pastel Beach Picture and Two More

Hi everyone.  Here is the final pic of the pastel beach picture.  I like it although I do want to try this same picture in crisp watercolors to see what effect  I get. I have watercolor paper all sketched out and ready to go.  I will try it soon.

I also attached a first attempt at watercolors in a floral theme and a pastel pic of a cute snowman in pastels looking up with hope at a Christmas star. How’s that for diversity????  Hope you like them all. Enjoy!

 

 

Pastel Beach Picture in Progress

I am in the  process of finishing a pastel picture of a girl on the beach. This is a little difficult,  as I am at a stand still right now trying to figure out what color I should render the sky in.  The ocean is so blue already, I am wondering if I should do a pink sky.  I don’t know.

I just can’t wait too finish this and start on other projects!  I will let you know when I finish.

Girl on the beach

Vintage Halloween Girl in Pastels

Just finished this picture for a Halloween card, flag, or other.  I like the way this turned out, but I may try my hands at watercolors next time for such detailed picture.  Pastels are great for getting that realistic look to portraits, landscapes and animals.  But for some reason, when you have to do tiny details, it is not the best.  The color is not that intense either.  I know they would be more bold in watercolor.  Maybe I will try this picture in watercolors and see what you think.

Back to the drawing board!

Vintage Halloween Girl

Retro-look Ice Cream Picture

Just finished this picture.  It was so much fun!  I took a picture of my son who was about 6 here, and turned him into a retro-look ice cream advertisement sign.  Retro is in  and this is what made me try this.  His face is so cute, he could sell mud pies!  Think I will make him into a flag!

Anyway, I would love to do my daughters now. Caitlin could do pies, and Kelsey…cupcakes or cookies.  So much fun!

Retro look Ice Cream Sign

 

New Cupcake Chef Pastel Drawing

Here is the newest, now on to the next one!  I love doing chef pictures…I always loved them and now it’s nice I can make my own!  This robust guy loves making cupcakes, hopefully not one at a time!  This time I added white text to the picture with another program.  Hope you like it.  Bon Appetit!

The Cupcake Chef

Bon Appetit

Here’s a new pastel picture.  Something a little different than I am used to drawing, but I hope you like it.  I like pictures of chefs and cooking, etc., so it felt kind of good to see that I could make one of my own.  Next, I would like to try a drawing of loaves of bread and wheat and call it “Daily Bread”.  We’ll see….