Hunter's Moon pastel portrait of wolf

                                                                     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 I want them to be, I tried, even though I am working on paper, to scratch out the fur (think I will actually try my scratch tool from scratchboard next time) and also used a very sharp fine graphite pencil to separate the fur texture.  Graphite also has the benefit of adding in some gray tones which this fur was full of - it helped to give that salt-and-pepper effect.  The background/moon is pan pastels and the wolf pastel pencils.

I have to admit I haven't done any celestial skies but it is kind of fun to try to get the stars and galaxies in.  Think the hardest part was to get the moon round - better, but not yet perfect.  I had to go through the pots and pans to find a lid that would be the size I had already drawn.  Ah, yes, took me back to toddler days when we used to play with pots and pans as toys - no electronics toys then.

Thanks much for stopping by to take a look.



Comments

Log Cabin Studio said…
Really lovely, your fur is perfect.
June 3, 2017 at 3:40 PM
Helen said…
Love the using of pots and pans to get the circle! We do what we have to do, don't we.
Helen
June 3, 2017 at 6:17 PM
hmuxo said…
This is so beautiful Nelvia! The fur looks so real...SO soft that you want to pet him! You captured the wonderful texture that a wolf has.....Excellent work, my friend!!!!
June 4, 2017 at 8:47 AM
Joan Tavolott said…
Your fur is just so great!!! Nice capture of the short hairs, the bristly hairs...all of them. Super job!
June 4, 2017 at 10:05 PM
Mellowood Gallery said…
This is wonderful Nelvia!You did a super jobe even though the behind the wolf is so light you still managed to showcase his fur so well. BTW I don't think you need to worry about the moon being perfectly round as we often see it as it is on the wane and not quite perfect. Well done!
June 4, 2017 at 10:25 PM
Unknown said…
This is awesome! Absolutely beautiful. Fur, the eyes, all beautiful.
June 5, 2017 at 8:33 AM
Jane said…
A gorgeous piece, love the wolf in front of the moon , and the galaxy is perfect. Stunning work on the fur and the eyes , wow wow wow !
June 5, 2017 at 5:00 PM
Nancy Goldman said…
This is amazing Nelvia. I haven't visited blogs for a long time, so it's nice to see all that you have been painting. I really love all of your pastels and you are making me want to break mine out and try them again. It's always been a medium that is a struggle for me.
June 27, 2017 at 10:06 AM
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