I Can Spell Schnauzer! Pastel on Suede Paper

This little guy was the source of some controversy as I had gotten the reference photo from Paint My Photo, a group I belong to.  I had started the painting but gotten busy and put it aside until today when I finished it.  I had intended to finish it in a loose style and enter it into a challenge at PMP but the person who posted the photo had left the site and removed the photos they had posted. 

The challenge is to paint a photo from the site in a loose manner but, as you can see, I failed miserably at looseness with this!  At PMP, all paintings posted must be from a photo also posted on the site.  I guess it's ok that the person left and I can't enter this in the challenge as it's not a best effort.  I began it to play on some suede paper I'd bought and had liked for other paintings but it was difficult to get the colors right on this bright red paper. 

It's another painting that I'm not particularly pleased with but I'm posting just to show you that I am painting. lol!

BTW, it's still ok to post the painting even though the reference has been removed from PMP - it's also posted on MorgueFile.

On a Painting Binge

I've been on somewhat of a painting binge here lately and just finished the portrait on the left yesterday.  It's from the Paint My Photo site and is from a reference photo by Carrie Layne Mashon.

This is Conte, soft pastel, and pastel pencils on some suede paper from a scrapbook supply store.  I've been wanting to try the suede matboard that some artists use but it's not available locally that I can find and it's pretty pricey to order since there's a 10 sheet minimum.  The paper I bought is acid and lignon-free and I thought it would do well for experimenting.  The size is about 8 x 10 inches.

I really, really like the suede for use with pastel and the painting went very quickly with little to no dust!  I used a brown color paper for this painting and the light-colored, harder pastels didn't cover that well and that's really my only complaint with the paper.  I have one Sennelier soft stick in white that works well so I can see that if I intend to use the suede much, I'll have to invest in some softer pastels!

Oh, just thought of the new suede paper from ColourFix!  It's still not available where I shop but I'm really hoping it's as wonderful to paint on as this was!   Just think, I can get new paper and new pastels!  I'd better hurry up and finish the commissions that are waiting as I see a shopping binge coming to match my painting binge!  lol