Snowy Night
15.5"x12"
Pastel
Many thanks to Paul Sherman, at PMP, for such a beautiful reference photo to utilize. He is an excellent wildlife photographer. I am pretty fascinated with all the big cats, but the snow leopards are one cat that is so secretive that they aren't usually seen, so much is unknown with this cat. He has tremendously big feet and such soft looking fur that you would just love to have a quick pet. We are lucky to have a cat to observe when we go to Washington DC. They actually have a log that is at the front of the cage, that is warmed in the winters, so the cat sits right up, close and personal.
While I had a super photo for the cat, the background is more elaborate than the original and I am hoping that it reads like a branch with clumps of snow on it in front of the cat. It kind of gets lost because the cat is so light in color as well. I always struggle with these cats because I haven't figured out the right color to give the "carmel" look many of these coats have.
This is another foray into the world of pastelmat for me and does take some getting used to. It does hold many layers, probably more than paper, but not sure I put more layers on than I generally use. It does give nice detail and I think it will hold onto the pastel better than paper. Right now this is the hottest paper going for many pastel artists. I used pan pastels again in the background, and had some issues. It doesn't smooth around like it does on paper and you tend to get hard edges when you first apply and blenders don't really work well, you can use paper tortillions however. I think also I was using too small of an applicator and will try a larger one next go round. The cat itself is primarily pastel pencils with touches from a softer stick to fluff him up.
Many thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
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