I am at a busy part of my life, what with AS levels and it is important for me to get the balance of my work and this blog, therefore I will be concentrating my posts on giving advice and oacsionaly posting my work. It does feel that this is the way that the blog was going foreword so therefore this how I want it to carry on and I feel that you guys will not find the posts by any means random. Hope your enjoying my posts and if there is anything you want me to write or talk about drop me an email or message me :)

First ever soft pastel portrait

At first I very much struggled with drawing this however I stayed with it and with a little bit of patience and a few layers of pastel I think I have just about managed my best and only portrait and my first every pastel painting. I found that the key is to block in or draw the main facial features, you then begin to develop the skin giving different contrasts, adding the darks first. The next stage was to see colours which people necerceriley would not have seen when they first looked at the photograph I was working from, such as blues and purples. I then begin to do the hair, at this stage I knew I had no real idea what I was doing however I worked out what to do from layers, first layer was all the dark browns, never use black unless it really is black, with a hint of Prussian blue, I then highlighted it giving the hair direction and depth with a bright yellow pencil and in the lightest areas a white. I will be selling this to any keen buyer so if your interested please contact me, it will be framed and mounted. I completed this at the age of 16 and I have dated the painting.

I think that over all the real thing that made painting this easier for me was an easel I bought, for the first time I could put my head back see my mistakes and it just felt right.