I Hate My Job

I really do hate my job sometimes.  Like now, today.  I just finished a portrait of a beautiful Rottie named Crissy.  Some of you may remember her from a blog post about a demo at the Raleigh Street Gallery where some of my art is shown.  There were some aspects of the painting that I just couldn't seem to get right so I put it away until about a week ago.

Crissy was the beloved pet of our friends.  She was young.  She was very healthy and lively.  But something happened and Crissy became paralyzed.  The vet said a piece of her vertebrae chipped off and became lodged in the spinal cord in an area they couldn't get to to operate.

Our friends held out hope that the chip would work itself out but that didn't happen.  Yesterday they decided to euthanize Crissy feeling that she no longer had the quality of life she deserved.

I loved  big ole slobbery and sometimes silly Crissy and that's why today, at least, I hate my job.

Just Squint - Pastel Landscape

Yeah, I'm still trying to make order out of the chaos that is my studio but I just couldn't go any longer without painting something!

I've recently been studying how to loosen up yet still keep a realistic (but painterly) look to my work.  The advice I see most often is to just squint.  Squinting supposedly helps you see the important and blurs out the unimportant. 

That's fine, I guess, but it's really, really hard to sustain a squint long enough to finish a whole painting! lol  Anyway, my first effort at just squinting!  I think this is one of those things that requires a lot of practice!

Pastel on sand colored Ampersand PastelBord, 5 x 7 inches, mostly Rembrandt sticks and various pastel pencils.

Toddler and Chicken - giving up

Well, this looks a little over-saturated to me but looked good on my graphics software so I don't know how you'll see it.

Sue and Christine gave me some good advice that I tried to follow but am not sure how successful I was.  I guess it's not bad considering that I'm not a people portrait painter and it's terrible if I were!  lol  We'll just call it somewhere in the middle and also call it finished as I don't have the heart to keep messing with it.  It's already getting somewhat muddy.

I've not shown it to the parents nor to anyone else, for that matter.  I'll do some slight smoothing then email it to my vet and see what he says.

Now, on to other things - I still have the Rottie to finish and also have a commission for two Coton de Tulears to paint.  I go to meet the Cotons next week and I'm excited about that as it will be the first time seeing that breed in person.

Until next time!

Toddler With Chicken WIP

I don't know if any of you remember the pastel I was working on quite a while ago but I've picked it up again and made a small amount of progress.  This one is really frustrating me because I really like the reference photo but can't seem to get my painting to measure up to it.


For what it's worth, here's a small update.  Any help gratefully received!

Oh, one of the items I bought at Jerry's was a small Conte' crayon and pencil set.  One of the pencils was the color "sanguine" which seems to be working well for the ruddy complexion of the child when overlaid with a peachy skin color.  The skin color still isn't there yet but nothing is finished at this point.

Various pastels/pastel pencils on Ampersand PastelBord - 5x7" size.

Art Walk Featured Artist

Well, last night was the Third Friday Art Walk in beautiful downtown Siler City (NC) and I was the featured artist at the Raleigh Street Gallery.  I have to admit that it sounds a little more impressive than it actually was but maybe my experience will help others who do a public demonstration of their art.

Siler City is a small town to begin with and the only restaurant usually open in downtown during the Art Walk closed its doors this past week.  I didn't realize it would have that big an impact but there were very few people out last night.  At the last Art Walk there were large crowds and it was one of the hottest evenings on record so I was expecting at least a crowd that large since last night was somewhat cooler and less humid.

Ok, so the crowd was disappointing but it was still sorta, kinda fun to be painting in a public place.  I think I was more comfortable doing it since there weren't many people watching me.  There were a few people who did stop by to watch and everyone was very complimentary so that also helped.

But, I want to tell you artists more about the process than the results so you might be better prepared than I was.  The gallery owner had said to have at least a start on whatever I was going to work on so I put in the background and eyes of the beautiful Rottie that I was going to paint.  I didn't want to have too much done but I needn't have worried about that - I barely got started before it was time to leave.  Not only that but I got it to the "ugly" stage about the time people actually started to come in.  So, I advise you to get your painting to a recognizable stage then work on the details at the demonstration.

Another thing that bothered me and hindered me in working was the fact that I was given a table and chair as my work area.  I'm told that artists are less intimidating and more approachable if they're sitting down so that was good.  But, I normally work standing up at a cabinet-height work table.  I do this so I can step back and get a better overall view of what I've done.  Sitting down sort of skewed my perception of where I needed to go with the painting.  Not a huge problem but it was a bit unsettling since I was already nervous.  It might be a good idea for you to practice working in a setting similar to what will be provided at the demo area.

All in all, it was good experience and I think I'd do it again.  I'm grateful for a terrific band last night as I was seated next to the area where they were performing.  They were playing some good oldies songs but they weren't blasting me out of the gallery.  The band was called Nitro Express and they were wonderful to listen to.  If you have need of a band to perform at some function for you, I'd recommend them.

In conclusion, I got a decent start on Crissy, shown above.  She's being painted on Ampersand PastelBord with various brands of pastels and pastel pencils.  The Ampersand is one of my favorite supports anyway but I specifically chose it because it is a board and it's just easier for me to deal with in this kind of situation.  In fact, I was amazed at how little I had to pack up and carry to the gallery for the demo.  Another plus for this medium!

CiCi - Finished? Thank You, Jane!

I think I'm finished with CiCi's portrait but will let it sit around for a few days just in case I see something that needs to be tweaked.  Oh, the colors in this scan show brighter and more pronounced than they are in reality.  Also, the shadow area around her mouth isn't really pink but I used a mauve-y gray there and when I sprayed with SpectraFix, the area became more pink and shows up worse in this scan.  This is the first color change I've had using SpectraFix and I think it's because I used it heavily as Teo 21 suggested in a comment on Poppy.  I didn't get any spots though!

I have to thank my dear friend, Jane, for helping me see why I couldn't paint our babies before.  I'm still not sure about this one, whether it really captures her or not but my husband thinks it does and he's the "customer" in this case!  At least I finally finished a portrait of our fur child so Thank you, Jane!

If you all see anything that could be better, don't hesitate to let me know!

CiCi Again - WIP In Pastel 2

Found a bit of time this afternoon to give CiCi's portrait a few strokes and it's taking shape but it will still be a while before it's finished.

Had some electronic issues so we took advantage of our state's "tax free weekend" last Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get some computer stuff we wanted and needed. 

I had asked some of you about your printers and I thank everyone who gave me input - it helped me decide on the one I felt would be best for us.  I know Teresa at least is curious, so I'll tell you that we got a Canon all-in-one as the price and quality was too good to pass up.  I had pretty much decided on a Canon but didn't want to go with their "professional" model as I don't do my own prints and really don't print a whole lot of anything except the few note cards I give as a "thank you" for those who order portraits and a few note cards that I stock in a local pet food store.  If I need a large amount of them, I have them printed as that's just more economical. 

Anyway, I had decided a regular photo printer would be best for us but no one had any in stock that had the resolution and quality that I'd wanted.  However, this all-in-one had the desired resolution and the test prints looked great (but don't they always!  lol) and it was on sale so I went ahead and bought it.  So far I'm very pleased with it.  I actually think the scanner does a better job than the stand-alone scanner I have.

We also ordered a laptop as they were also on sale.  I thought this would be the year that I could finally get a Mac but my husband insisted on a Dell.  I have a sister who is a die-hard Apple fan and she insists that once I use a Mac, I'll never buy a PC again.  I don't know about that - sometimes I wonder if all the hype about Macs is true or not.  I think PCs have taken great strides in quality in the past few years but I know in the past there were some really junky PC's with high prices out there.  I'm sure Mac users will jump all over me but anymore it seems that Macs would have to be gold-plated and never break down to be worth the price difference.  But, I've never used one so I probably shouldn't say that.

Oh, well, the new laptop is supposed to be here next week and I'm sure it will do very well for us.  I'll let you know how we like it.

And, I'll let you know as soon as I finish C's portrait!

CiCi - WIP in Pastel

All righty folks, step right up and be the witness to a first.  I'm attempting a portrait of our "new" little dog, CiCi, and those of you who have followed me for a while know I've never really done a portrait of one of our own pets.

I always wanted to, and I tried, but they just never looked right.  A dear friend suggested that I couldn't paint our own babies because I knew them in many different moods and many different positions and poses and one static painting just couldn't portray them in my own eyes.  She may be right, and if she is, perhaps that insight will allow me to finally paint one of our own.  Understanding is often the first step in breaking down certain barriers.

So, here goes!  It's pastel on a dark gray Ampersand PastelBord, 8x10 size which is still almost larger than life-size for her!  Right now I'm just laying in some under colors.  I asked my husband if he wanted me to paint her with her tongue in her mouth but we both agreed that it would not be her without her tongue hanging out.  Also, most of the time her tongue just sticks out a little bit but when her head is tilted in that cute way, it does fall out further and we decided to go with that even though she may look slightly demented to other people. lol 

For those of you who don't know her story and the reason why her tongue sticks out, here is the reason why.  We got her from a rescue agency back in May of this year.  They told us that she was probably a purebred Maltese used for breeding, about 4 or 5 years old.  She had been found running down a very busy highway outside of Raleigh, NC.  They said she was dirty, her hair matted, her nails grown into the pads of her paws and her teeth so rotten and infected that they all had to be pulled.

Without teeth, a dog can't keep it's tongue in its mouth very well and that's the reason CiCi's tongue hangs out much of the time.  We don't care about that - she's really sweet and not a yappy little ankle-biter like many small dogs.  She eats soft dog foods but can actually eat just about anything a regular dog can eat if she has enough time to really gum it!  lol  Seriously, she really fits our household well and even if she does look funny with her tongue hanging out, we still love her and besides, just think of all the money we save on teeth cleaning!

But back to the portrait at hand.  There's still a lot to be done and my time is pretty limited right now so I'm posting this wip in hopes you all will hold me accountable.  It's actually going fairly quickly and I hope I'll remember to get photos of the progress.  Sometimes I just get to painting and it's finished before I remember to scan or photograph!

As always, if you see anything that needs adjusting, please let me know!

WAAAAY Outta My Comfort Zone!

Hi all.  I have been painting but just not posting all that regularly and this time, I think I've really over-reached myself!

This is a painting that I've started of my vet's son holding a chicken that's almost as big as he is- isn't he just the most precious thing you've ever seen?  The child has evidently inheirited his father's love of animals and when I saw the photo, I just had to try to paint it (& "try" is the operative word!).  I was given permission but now I wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew! 

You all have never seen a portrait of a human from me for a reason - I totally suck at them!  But, I'd really like to finish this one and do well with it.  So may I please get some advice from those of you who do such wonderful portrait work?

You can tell that this isn't finished but I've run into some problems.  The main thing is the shadow work - there are several very deep shadows on this fair-haired child but when I add them, he just looks dirty.  I've tried browns, red-browns, violets (purple ranges) and some green underpainting.  So, my main question is - how do I get those luscious deep shadows without the painting looking dirty or just downright weird?

Secondly, how do I keep the portrait fresh looking - the face especially looks as if it has makeup on it?  I'm seriously debating washing it all off and starting again but I know if I do, I won't ever go back to it.  BTW - this is pastel on Ampersand PastelBord.

I hope someone will answer but I won't be able to get back to this for a at least a week as I have a lot of things on the calendar for the foreseeable future.  I doubt that I'll even be able to post any more here for a time either.

Sooooo, think about it and please offer any suggestions you think might help - maybe with your suggestions and some fresh eyes, I can finally say I've painted a portrait - a human portrait!

Playing in the (Pastel) Dust

There's a pastel technique I've wanted to try since I first started using soft pastel and that's to use the pastels wet.  On first thought, you wouldn't even venture a wild guess that pastels could be water soluble, after all, they're called "dusties" for a reason, right?  But I've seen some beautiful backgrounds and special effects from spritzing the pastel painting with water or pushing the pastel around with a wet brush or even using a pastel on a wet surface.

Most of the time, I don't put much of a background on my pet portraits because many of them are on a colored support and don't really require one.  But, I've started a new floral painting on Ampersand PastelBord and it really needs a nice background.  The painting is a little larger than I normally work and it was getting tedious trying to put in the background with just dry pastel sticks.   So I scribbled in the various colors I wanted and used a wet bristle brush to move the pigment around.  It works beautifully!

Why am I so surprised?  I shouldn't be as pastels are nearly all pigment and that pigment is very finely ground to boot.  It stands to reason that if that same pigment used in watercolors will dissolve in water, then it should dissolve in water even in another form.  And it does! 

I wish I could show you what I've done so far as I'm very pleased with it.  I hope to have the memory card reader fixed soon and am planning to go look at scanners today so maybe I can do a little demo for you later.

If you use pastel as a painting medium, I recommend that you try it wet at least in one painting.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

New Portrait - Japanese Chin

I've started a new portrait commission of a sweet little Japanese Chin.  Unfortunately, this is a memorial portrait and I'm always so sad to get these as it means the dear pet has departed.  This little girl is being done in pastel on Ampersand PastelBord at about life size which is 8x10 inches.  I haven't prepared any of my own boards in an 8x10 size and since I had one already from Ampersand, I'm using it.  I'll also use the glassless framing process to seal it as it has to be shipped to California - all the way from one coast of the US to the other - and I don't want to chance that it will get damaged.  I'm using my usual pastels:  Richeson sticks for the layout and color blocking, Rembrandt soft pastels for most of it and pastel pencils for details.

The reference photo was from a camera phone and isn't the greatest so I'm going to just have to do the best I can with it.  I just started it this morning and am making good progress with it so I hope to finish it in the next day or so if not sooner.  It's a rainy, cold and nasty day so there's not a lot I can do except paint (or clean house) so I will work on it as much as I can.  

I'll keep you posted on the results.

A Colored Pencil Painting!

If you've known me any length of time at all, you know that the colored pencil medium is not one of my favorite mediums to work in.  Don't get me wrong, it is one of my favorite mediums to look at and long to do well, but the mastery of it hovers slightly out of my reach.  I think it has more to do with getting bored with a painting before it's finished than anything else.  I also think the average non-artist would be amazed at the length of time a really good colored pencil piece takes to do really well.  And that's the rub for me - I just don't seem to have the required patience and stamina to do a colored pencil work as well as it should be done.  Take this cat, for instance.  I started it way back in September, I think.  It's only 5 x 7 inches and is on Ampersand's PastelBord so a background wasn't necessary to paint.  There is a bit of detail in the face with several color changes but, really, it shouldn't have taken this long to finish!  And, no, I wasn't working steadily on it the whole time.  Frankly, I'd gotten bored rather quickly and had put it away soon after starting it and only worked sporadically on it since.

So, I found it when I was trying to straighten up my studio and decided to finish it.  It's not at all perfect as I didn't have the colors I really needed to "optically mix" the colors I wanted.  But, I did finish it and am proud of that fact!

Maybe one day I'll decide that I really want to pursue colored pencil but for right now, I'm content just to have finished this one!

Libby - Almost There?

Well, I think I'm getting into the short rows with Libby's portrait. I emailed a copy to the lady who has commissioned the portrait and I hope to hear back from her soon.

I can see a couple of things that need changing now that the ref photo and the portrait are side-by-side - mainly that her face may be a tad too wide. I've used eyes from another photo of her but they weren't very clear in that photo either so the eyes and nose are a lot of guesswork.

So, critiques are welcome. This is my first white animal and I think white animals are way more difficult to render than black ones!

This is pastel on Ampersand's Pastelbord and when the painting is finished, I plan to seal it for glassless framing. This is a gift that will have to be shipped and since it will be framed also, we don't want to have to ship it with glass. I've been experimenting with a method used by Jana from Phinearts and it seems to work better than others. I basically use her method but don't work on canvas so don't have to prepare the canvas as she does. Please pray that it all goes well when the time comes to actually seal it!

New Award, New Painting

"Egret"

Pastel on PastelMat
copyright
Jan Gibson

First of all, I'd like to thank Vic, from Art With A Pencil, for the lovely award. Since I've recently received the award from another artist, you already know seven things about me and seven other artists have received the award from me so I won't repeat them. I do so appreciate the recognition from my peers though. Thanks so much, Vic!

Except for the portrait of Benjamin Capone, I hadn't been painting much up until a few days ago. Then, suddenly, it seems I couldn't get paper and paints in hand quickly enough! lol.

My husband and I went to Hobby Lobby over the weekend and there was some Fabriano Tiziano paper on sale that he insisted I buy. It really was a great deal and I'd never used it before but, it was a pad of colors that I never use so I wasn't going to buy it until he insisted.

So, of course, I had to come home and try it out. What a mistake! I'd picked a sheet of orange (the colors ranged from pale yellow to deep orange) and attempted to paint a bluebird from one of my own photo references. I could not get the paper covered with pastel. No matter what I did, including repeated sprays of fixative and added layers of pastel, that orange kept showing through the painting. What a bummer as I think I did a pretty credible job with the actual painting for a change! Live and learn! That paper doesn't layer well at all for pastel pencils!

Then, yesterday, I got brave enough to try the PastelMat that another artist (Nancy, Reflections From Life Blogspot) and I went in together and ordered from England. I'd heard about how great this paper is and I really wanted to try it but it's not available here in the US at this time.

At first, I didn't like the PastelMat much at all. Since I'd been hearing for months about how great it was, I was extremely disappointed. But, I perservered and eventually found the best way for me to paint on it. It seems to be a matter of filling the tooth to a point where blending is possible. Anyway, the egret above took me most of yesterday (working in bits and pieces of time) to complete but I'm fairly pleased with it as a first effort. The size is 4"X6" or OSWOA sized. Of course, this didn't take much pastel but it did make blending and getting into small areas a real effort!

So, do I like the PastelMat after trying it? A sort of qualified yes. It seems to almost be a mixture of my three favorite supports - PastelBord, ColourFix and Velour - which should make for a super favorite, right? Well, it may become my all time favorite after I've had time to work with it, but for right now, I think PastelBord is still my top choice. Besides, I don't want to get too attached to using it since it's so hard (not to mention, expensive!) to get!

Memorial W.I.P. - Update

"Sadie"
pastel on velour
copyright
Jan Gibson

I've only done a small amount more to the portrait of Sadie but it's beginning to take shape. Still working on the darks which are the basis for the pale topcoat. Sadie was definitely a beautiful champagne blonde!

Well, I think my OH may have peeked into my blog and the secret is out that I wanted to go to Jerry's ArtaRama! So, I'll just tell you (& probably him too, lol!) that a friend and I did go today. Gosh, I'll bet we spent over an hour wandering up and down the aisles looking at the all the art supplies! I was very good and only bought a couple of pieces of Ampersand PastelBord and some ColourFix primer for making my own boards. I'm told ColourFix can be sanded so it's not quite so rough when you prime it yourself. The primer wasn't outrageously expensive so it's worth a try.

I think I did very well driving in Raleigh. I freely admit to being a real country bumpkin when it comes to driving in big cities but at least I knew pretty much where we were going and how to get there and we made it just fine. But my friend wanted to stop by JoAnne's craft store on the way home and we did get lost leaving that shopping center! However, it was just a few blocks out of our way and we ended up where we needed to go without getting creamed!

I'm soooo glad we live in the boonies! It may take an hours drive to get anywhere with any shopping or amenities at all but mail order works just fine in my book! Shopping convenience just isn't worth the frustration and stop and go wear and tear on my car!

New Pastel - Yorkie Puppy

"Yorkie Puppy"
Pastel on ColourFix
copyright
Jan Gibson

This is a painting I worked on this weekend. It's pastel on ColourFix, a sanded paper that I'm not real fond of using although I do prefer sanded supports over plain pastel paper. I think ColourFix would be just fine for land or sea scapes but it's really difficult to get good detail on subjects that need it. Also, it was next to impossible to get the little wispy bits of fur even with a very sharp pastel pencil. I think that could be pretty much solved by almost filling the tooth before adding the "wispies" but then it seems the pastel pencil just digs a trough instead of adding color. And that could solved by using a soft pastel on top but I don't own any and am hesitant to buy any as I don't particularly enjoy soft pastels. The pencils are great because my hands stay fairly clean and the dust is minimal. Regular soft pastels are too messy for my taste.

So, that's why I prefer velour or PastelBord for animal portraits - they just look softer and more realistic.

As I've said before, I like experimenting with the different media and materials and am definitely finding my favorites!

More Glassless Framing Experiments

Pastel Experiment

I've played around a bit more with the glassless framing and pretty much combined advice from several sources to try to find a method that would suit me and my way of working.

I like the idea of using the Golden materials as suggested by Gary Ruuska but dragging out all the air brush paraphernalia and the air compressor (which is actually my husbands and is noisy and bigger than I like) just isn't my idea of fun. The Golden products have UV protectants in them though and I do like that so I used the Preval sprayer per the directions in the email from Bob Palmerton. That sprayer is the cat's pajamas for the small amount of spraying that I'm doing. It's easily found in automotive parts or hardware stores or can be ordered online. It's not expensive at all and a canister of propellant seems to last and last. The spray is fine enough to give a nice finish to the art work too.

Since I have messed up so many Ampersand Pastelbord panels (and Ampersand isn't backing my experiments!), I decided to do my experimenting on regular matboard pieces and that seems to be working out well. The flower above is on a dark green matboard and I want to try a light color just to see if the colors darken as much when sprayed. BTW, the colors shown are pretty much the colors I ended up with after spraying. They darkened considerably and I did use progressively lighter colors but ran out of lighter colors that would work.

Teresa Mallen left a comment on my last post here and I wanted to reassure her about the Lascaux fixative and suggest she talk to Nicole Caulfield about it on colored pencil. I use pastel pencils for the most part which are water soluable to begin with. Colored pencil has wax or oil which would resist moisture plus, I read that Nicole uses a blender on top of colors that tend to change color or melt which preserves the color when sprayed. I may try that on top of my pastels just to see if it helps.

But, actually, right now, I think the process is much too long and too much trouble to make it worthwhile for pastels. Maybe in the future some product will come along that doesn't darken the pastel but will still seal it so that the art can be varnished and framed without glass.

As it is, I'm doing a pastel painting, spraying it with the diluted Golden Soft Gel as an isolation barrier, letting that dry then going back over the darkened areas with a lighter color (if I have one), respraying, letting that layer dry & on & on until I have a painting I'm satisfied with. Perhaps a landscape would be different as color changes maybe wouldn't be as obvious, but people expect their pet to have the correct color. Maybe at some point, I'll automatically know the light color with which to replace the color that darkens and avoid the back and forth of using progressively lighter colors. But, I wonder too if the build up is necessary to end up with the right color?

I'm not giving up entirely. I'll continue to experiment since I have all the necessary mediums to do so but I'm just not holding my breath that there will be a huge break-through in this area anytime soon.

Again, if anyone has any information about varnishing pastels, please feel free to contact me!

Into the Light

"Into the Light"

Pastel on Pastelbord
copyright
Jan Gibson

This was done for a challenge at Let's Make Art and it was a challenge for me. It was a challenge because I haven't painted that many cats and this is another painting on Pastelbord by Ampersand which is a fairly new support for me. It was also a challenge because of the cat's face emerging out of the dark and into the light. I wasn't sure that I could get that effect right.

But, I'm fairly pleased with this painting. I'm not so pleased with the darkening of the pastel when I spray it with fixative. You may remember the little bunny that I did. I sprayed it with a common, rather cheap fixative and it also turned very dark.

This time I used the expensive Lascaux fixative because I'd heard that it didn't change the color of the art. I followed the advice of many artists who have said to use very light layers of spray and not to saturate the painting with the fixative. Unfortunately, even with that advice, the pastel still darkened quite a bit and also left my dark background very flat looking.

The pastel pencils I use are water soluble and I'm beginning to think that any moisture whatsoever is going to melt the pastel enough to darken it. This would render glassless framing pretty much out of the question unless I can find some pastel pencils that won't melt with moisture.


So, this little kitty will get framed the old-fashioned way and I'll continue the search for a way to frame pastel without glass!

Bunny Rabbit

Bunny Pastel
copyright
Jan Gibson

I don't know why, but I've been wanting to paint a little bunny for some time so I finally finished one this morning. It's only 5"x7" but it took as long as a regular, large-sized painting. I guess it was all that "ticking" in the bunny's fur. It was a matter of going back and forth with one color then a second or third color then back to the first color then repeating the process a few times. I've been told that pastels are painted like oils going from dark to light, but I found it much easier to go from light to dark then back again for this bunny. I do think I'd like to work on the background some more though as you always see things to change once a piece is posted online!

I'm still trying to find more information on framing pastels without glass and emailed someone who has been experimenting with framing colored pencil paintings without glass. The artist, Gary Ruuska, was kind enough to email me back very quickly with information he had presented in an article in FMP, Ann Kulberg's online magazine for colored pencil artists. It would be wonderful to find a method that works well and doesn't darken or change the painting during the sealing process. I had planned to use this bunny for experimenting but since I waited so long to paint him and actually like the way he came out, I think I'll wait to experiment on another painting that I don't like quite as well!

No Update

Sorry, I don't have an update on the little English bulldog. It's just not going well enough right at the moment and looks like a mess. I suppose I should take heart and just consider it in that "ugly stage" and work through it but I just can't make myself do it right now. The actual dog is going pretty well - it's the grass he's sitting on that doesn't look quite right. I think that may be because I only have a few shades of green in my pencil case and there are so many subtle shades in it. I've tried adding the complements or highlighting with yellows or darkening with blues but it still doesn't look like grass. And, no, I'm not trying to paint each individual blade although it might go better if I did! lol

Anyway, I've set it aside for now to keep from getting mud and have started to work on a little bunny rabbit. It's being done on Ampersand Pastelbord and I find I'm liking this support very much. I would like to use glassless framing for this piece as an experiment but am just not sure of the best way to do it.

I have an article from the Pastel Journal by Sandra K. Jackoboice downloaded from her website where she describes her method of sealing and varnishing pastel works on board for glassless framing. I'm told that Tricia Messenger also has a method for paper works but I've been unable to find anything about her method at all.

I'm also in awe of the work done by colored pencil artist, Nicole Caulfield, who uses a glassless framing method for her beautiful colored pencil paintings and I would like to explore using her method for pastel. Sandra Jackoboice says that the sealing process darkens her pastel paintings considerably and I just feel as if there should be some other means to accomplish the seal without excessive darkening of the painting. Of course, I will be using archival products so, hopefully, any method I end up choosing will result in a lasting piece of art.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I plan to research more before attempting anything though. The Ampersand Pastelboard I'm using is from a package of 4 (Ithink!) 5x7 inch boards in different colors. It was inexpensive enough that I feel I can experiment a little with it. But, it may be a little while as the bunny isn't finished yet anyway. If anyone has any good ideas for glassless framing, please let me know!

Until next time!