Just Plain Pix

I began painting in pastels as a way of "hurrying up" my colored pencil portraits.  I LOVE painting in colored pencil, but got very frustrated at the length of time it was taking me to complete one painting.  An 8x10 portrait was taking up to 6 months.  I use up to 25 layers on each piece of work, so you can just imaging the time period needed to fill in a sheet of paper with a very sharp pencil point 25 times.  

So I ordered some pastels online from Dick Blick and attempted to paint my first pet portrait in pastels.  This is the result. 

 Wasn't quite what I was looking for, but it still hangs proudly on my wall nonetheless.  I quit the pastels for a short time but rapidly came back to them after continuing to be frustrated with the colored pencil.  After purchasing a larger selection of pastel colors, some sanded paper, and a lot of reference materials, I began to like getting my fingers dusty.  Unfortunately, I was having a lot of difficulties transitioning from pencil to pastel.  I was unable to use as many layers I was was accustomed to, and thus my paintings were not turning out to my liking.  It wasn't until I attended a pastel workshop with Dianna Ponting, that the light-bulb finally clicked on.  Needless to say, I don't need that many layers at all - it is simply a matter of painting differently.