NELVIA'SART.COM

                                                                         Splash                                                                         11"x14"                                                                          Pastel English Spaniels are water dogs and Izzy is no exception.  This is another shot of Izzy by her Mum, Sandie Bell at PMP.  Sandie is a very talented photographer who shares her shots for artists to use copyright free.  Just one of her favorite subjects is her dog Izzy. This is pretty much black and white, some grays made by combining the two, using pan pastels on black Artagain paper.  Tried to keep it minimal.  Did use some soft white as the last layer to try to get some brighter white accents.  Again, I am trying to get that free/loose look.  This was moreuaing lines rather than blocks of color.  I hope that the foreground does read like she is splashing through water.  It has really been quite a bit of fun working on the black paper

                                                                          Izzy's                                                                         9"x12"                                                                      Pan Pastel I pulled several pictures of Izzy but absolutely fell in love with this one.  Actually there are a couple with this branch that is almost as big as she is.  Sandie says she carried it all over the beach that day, hers and she wasn't letting go.  But I loved seeing the stick possession coupled with those big feet that she finally grew into.  Many thanks to Sandie Bell of PMP who shared so many of her dog's pictures. I wanted to do the chunky looser look again but as you can see I have aspects of it but then tends to go more in a controlled direction.   We have really gray weather and I can't seem to get a photo that really shows all of the color in the white and really reflects the vibrancy that this picture has.  I t

                                                                               Wolf                                                                               9"x12"                                                                            Pan Pastel Well apparently it doesn't take much to keep me entertained.  We are in a really rainy pattern right now and that means I can take some time not in the garden and not feel guilty. I am still playing with the looser, bolder, chunky look.  Thought I would try this with the pans as the applicator encourages a looser soft look.  Still trying to find those bold swatches of color.  Again working on the Artagain back paper which the pans really like and want to pop off of.  Tried to keep this to a minimum of 4-6 colors.  With the black paper this actually came together in a couple of hours.  It always astounds me at how quickly you can get a picture completed it you aren't going totally for the "realistic" l

                                                                      Schnauzer                                                                         8"x10"                                                                         Pastel Well Colin had talked about his lesson doing a Schnauzer, that he has found some neat technique.  Since this is one breed I haven't drawn I originally set it up to do it straight and just a head shot.  But found a program suggesting different effect and a way to play with it a bit and blow off some steam.  I still didn't get as loose as I would like, since I am still in pastel it tends to be tighter, but am going to definitely try this again with a brush.  This definitely isn't my usual style, but I like the look of it.  Hoping that I can do a bit more of these and maybe some of it will rub off into my work. I really love working on the Artagain black paper, it brings the pic together so much quicker, and of course really l

                                                                  Inside/Out                                                                     12"x9"                                                                    Acrylic While I was casting about trying to get inspired I decided to take a look at PMP's group monthly challenge.  It was inside/outside, you need to view something where you could see both inside and outside of the piece.  What???????  Definitely not a subject I would have thought of my myself to try.  Suggestion was to do an interior shot looking outside, but ... well that is a bit too much like landscape for me.  So I decided to take a look at what I could find, and I remember I enjoyed my other glass piece so thought I'd look under glass.  Found this beautiful photo from Lorna Webber,  a very talented artist on PMP.  She had another piece of Venetian glass that I have to work up to trying as it is just gorgeous, but I think a bit beyond me ri

                                                                   Naughty Henry                                                                         14"x11"                                                                          Pastel Henry is the prime suspect in Carla's mystery whodunit of "Who Ate the Goldfish in the Garden".   Henry was seen in her yard for several days and does seem to have a self satisfied look gleaming in his eye.  He was grateful enough, however, that he stayed posed and allowed her to get quite close to take pictures. I started out planning to use colored pencils on the DurALar.  Quickly it didn't work, I just couldn't get the grays dark enough before the tooth of the paper is filled.  This is a mylar paper, synthetic and transparent.  While you can put about 4-5 layers of pencil on each side it does fill up fast.  So I switched from CP to pan pastels.  Due to the sheer manner of application this worked pretty well

                                                                     Hunter's Moon                                                                          14"x11"                                                                           Pastel This week's project is a combination of photos from PMP, so thank you to Rvanunen and Freda Austin Nichols.  I think I am going to try to do a series with the big moon as I have a couple more ideas of what might work.  This piece is on Ingres sand color paper, it is not sanded paper, but the paper that Colin Bradley uses, more along the lines of MiTeintes.  I guess having done pastels so long on this type of surface I will continue to do so as it does feel nature, in some ways more so than in pastel mat or sanded paper. I have another month with access to Colin Bradley videos, so I am continuing to watch videos on fur but tried a few of my own tweaks in this one.  Since I have to use blades to get my pastels as sharp as