As you’ve gathered am taking a little break from acrylic painting to go back to other media I also enjoy working with but seem to have neglected in favour of the more chaotic layer-by-layer mixed media work. Yesterday it was was watercolour. Today it is about pastel sticks. Soft pastels tend to be quite dusty as well as messy so it was a good idea to work outside and make the most of this fine though hot weather.
I also wanted to take a break from “self portraits” and “mini me” characters (I’m not a narcissist, I swear!) and draw animals and nature again. Few days ago I painted a big fish so thought I’d develop it further and come up with the idea of a cat surrounded by fish. Just being silly again!
After initial outlines using a charcoal pencil, I filled in the areas and the entire background with soft pastels. This time I used smoother paper so you don’t get those annoying stripy impressions typical in paper used for pastel drawing purposes. After completing that, I used a layer of fixative spray before adding the details in oil pastels. I find that instead of the soft pastels, oil pastels make such details much bolder and more distinctive.
Seeing that the drawing looked rather flat and lacking in dimension, I briefly added some shades and shadows. I didn’t want to work on it too much and preferred to keep it clean and simple. Again this is quite an uncomplicated drawing which is quite a nice change!
My Kawaii Quarter 