Using hard pastels vs soft pastels - "Grebe"
How do you use hard pastels in a pastel painting? What are they good for? What are their benefits over soft pastels? What brands are best? What features define the best brands of hard pastels? I've only recently started using hard pastels. When I first tried very soft pastels (Schmincke) I thought they would be all I would, or could ever need in terms of types of pastels - the pigment is so smooth and buttery and the textures you can create are so similar to painting rather t
Blending landscapes with pastel - "Sunset" WIP1-3
Looking for an easy way to paint landscapes? Wondering how to quickly create that expansive sense of depth over a large canvas/sheet? Perhaps you should try blending techniques with pastels! I'm pretty new to painting landscapes - most of my previous work has hinged on wildlife portraits, with minimal backgrounds. A couple of days ago I decided to test my theory that pastels are great for blending colours (better perhaps than any other medium), and hence should be good for bl
The complexity of proportion - "Lazy Days" WIP3-7
Ever realized part-way through a painting that the proportions are all wrong? The eyes are too small, the face is too long, the angle is off? How do you go about fixing it? I was happily mulling along, part-way through my pastel painting of a semi-napping spotted quoll for the painting "Lazy Days" when I stepped back and took a good look at the quoll's head (after all, it is the focal point). When I did, I realized it was completely out of proportion! Instead of looking like
Blending acrylic paints (1), filbert brushes - "Kookaburra mugshot" WIP1
Ever found you can't get the blended effects you're after with acrylic paints? Perhaps you're using the wrong brushes! I was inspired a few days ago to start a new acrylic painting to test out my new set of Atelier interactive acrylic paints. I took the kookaburra reference photo (see Fig. 1) a couple of weeks ago at one of my base-camping photography/birdwatching weekends at Mebbin National Park (NE NSW, Australia). The kookaburra was a bit of a character - very determined t
