Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I'm in Love!


"Cavalier King Charles Spaniel"
Pastel on Velour
Copyright - Jan Gibson


"Samson"
Pastel on Velour
Copyright - Jan Gibson


I ordered some velour paper and it arrived a little over a week ago. I was busy with a couple of commissions so didn't get a chance to try it until a couple of days ago. I have to say that I absolutely love it! The only thing I don't like about it is that mistakes are almost impossible to correct. But, with pastel, like oil or acrylic, you can paint over a mistake.

The first painting of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is from a reference photo from one of my art groups and I think there's more I could do to it. I just didn't want to take the time to tweak it when I painted it.

The second painting is of the little LowChen commission I posted photos of in an earlier blog post. I ended up combining several photos to get this painting. I've just emailed the dog's owner and have not had a chance to get a response back from her as to whether she likes the portrait or not. This dog was made for a pastel on velour, I think. The velour is very responsive to the curved strokes needed to depict his (& the CKC's) wavy hair in a way not readily available in another medium. With the portrait of Samson on the velour, I combined my love for the dog (I just want to steal him from his owner & kiss him all over his face!) with my love for the paper! A perfect combination, huh?

2 comments:

Christine Perry | Graphite Art said...

It is fun to watch you getting into pastels and I like how this is developing for you! Now you got me all excited to try pastel on velour too ;-))

Jan said...

Thank you so much, Christine. You are always so encouraging. I can't wait for you to try the velour also. I've heard that artists either love it or hate it. I don't know how you'll feel about it but bet you love it too!
Let us know!