Firery Schnauzer - dog pastel portrait

                                                                      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 like that I don't have to get into an in-depth background.  Most of this piece was done with pastel pencils, so at least stayed kind of true to Colin with that.

What are your thoughts on this style?

Thanks for stopping by and hoping your week is starting off to a strong start.

Comments

Mellowood Gallery said…
This is super, Nelvia! The looseness give a great sense of movement - or potential movement. I can imagine him taking off after what ever he is looking at. Not your usual style but definitely worth pursuing. Well done!
June 20, 2017 at 11:52 AM
Sheila said…
Love the pose. Seems to give a glimpse of the personality. It is playful and... sort of regal at the same time. Makes me think of those imposing "Lord of the manor" paintings you see in castles. Loove how your strokes give a hint at the musculature but are also semi-abstract. Terrific!!
June 20, 2017 at 4:45 PM
Joan Tavolott said…
I like the different strokes you used...not quite as detailed as the previous ones. I'd like to see you do a few more this way. He is a cutie!
June 20, 2017 at 9:23 PM
hmuxo said…
I love the short strokes you used on him....very nicely painted Nelvia!!!!
June 20, 2017 at 10:14 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bold woman's portrait

Image
Bold Ok, for today's portrait I went out of the box and decided to try a different look and approach. This is on watercolor paper, I applied a layer of paper collate over it (you can see that some of it started lifting - so got to use more medium to glue it next time)  Anyway then I tried to leave part of that under collage showing, even in the face.  Went back in and applied several more light lawyers of transparent and opaque paint and then put in the hair using my dagger bus.   Gosh that brush makes hair so much easier While this might not the best example what are your thoughts to taking portraits this more dynamic direction? Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more

Her Highness mixed media woman portrait

Image
Her Highness   I just absolutely loved the expression on this lady and knew I wanted to try to capture her elegance and serenity.  I knew that I didn't want an exact portrait and decided to try another mixed media piece.    I added blobs of paint and used my large scraper to make the areas of color.  Just put paint on a piece of watercolor paper.  Then I inscribed and mixed the colors together with the end of my brush and got all the wavy lines (in real life they actually stand up so there is a 3D effect to the background).  Where I thought I wanted the face I really scraped most of the paint off, and ended up with color blotches and tones, and if you look in the forehead you can sort of see the design that was left.  I thought it would add some variance to the skin tones. I also want to keep her very soft so I tried to stay in the pastel tones, even with the lips.   Once I got shadows and lights added in, and went over it with some skin tone and more blue colors I let
Read more

In The Garden acrylic painting Redo

Image
In The Garden Original painting Well, thankfully I have some folks who tell me what they think.  I value their objective opinions very much and appreciate that they feel strongly enough to tell me when they feel something is off.  In the original painting no one liked the addition of the yellow flower, and felt it pulled the eye and overshadowed the focal point.   Well, I sat on it a bit and starting playing with how I could work it back into the composition.  I wanted the third flower, but I couldn't just really dull down the yellow.  As you an see I ended up making it darker in shadows and then burying it into the foliage.  I like it better because it now looks, to me, like it is part of the picture instead of just being put on in the corner.  Moral of the story, fix it first because it is hard to come in and match colors later. What do you think of the changes - for better or worse? Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more