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Dried out tubes?
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Posted
I was reading a book about painting realistic pets. They showed the way to do white whiskers. They used a battery operated eraser and after shading all over the area is if the whiskers were not there, they used the eraser with a very fine point to erase the curving lines of each whisker. It looked absolutely brilliant when done and the whiskers were totally white as erasing took it back to the white paper. It was also possible doing it like this to get all the variations in the shape of individual whiskers.
Posted
This is why I love my square pastels. You can get a really good sharp edge on them for fine work like whiskers. They do tend to be slightly harder but I have one make which are as soft as I want them. Since I do mainly animals in pastel they are most useful for that last stage of defining hairs or putting in a few fine details.
Posted
jodafo - 2009-02-19 7:38 PM I have just done a pastel of my daughter's poor departed cat, Eric. Beautiful animal but he went out to play - with the traffic. A good likeness and a reasonable painting but how do I do his white whiskers? I have had this problem before, They really do need to be very white and very bold. They are just about the last thing to paint in. I have tried a white pastel pencil but this is not bright enough and a soft pastel will not retain a sharp enough point for even the length of one whisker. Advice will be much appreciated.Welcome back jodafo...would acrylic ink and a fine steel nib [size5] be of any use?
Posted
I had a problem with whiskers when I first started the pet portraits, but after using a variety of different options, found that the easiest and best method was using the hard square pastels.
Nice to hear from you again Jodafo, always enjoy reading your posts.
Really sorry to hear about Eric though.
Posted
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. I think I will go for a white square pastel next time. I had forgotten that I had some Conté ones that are very hard and make a much whiter mark than a white pastel pencil. I shall do some experimenting. The eraser technique sounds a bit difficult but again needs to be tried. White acrylic ink on pastel may produce a ragged edge. I don’t have any to try but again, possibly worth an experiment.<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">I have found an article on doing a cat portrait in pastel pencils in the September 2007 Leisure Painter by Lucy Swinburne. She has used the following technique:<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt">“Now put the basic undercoat of the whiskers in place. Using a very sharp zinc white, decide where to place the whiskers. Start at the base of the whisker and with a steady hand, flick the pencil outwards. Continue around the face and add shorter whiskers at the eyebrows.” At the final stage she explains: “For the final details, sharpen your white and ivory pencils and touch up eye reflections, whiskers, ear hairs, chin and white neck fur. High impact areas such as the pupils, eyes and whiskers need rejuvenating to give the final “wow” factor.”<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">I must say that her portrait of a tabby cat on 300gsm Canford coffee card is very impressive. I shall have another try – perhaps try her demonstration.
Posted
Just seen this thread. I use Daler Rowney white sketching pencils a lot. They are hard conte and take a very fine point. Work them gently on coloured paper and you get tones of grey. Use them bold and hard and you get a brilliant white. You can even scumble them gently over pastel to get a white highlight. The point can be made sharp enough to push pastel out of the way to leave a fine white mark. It works for hair. Should work for whiskers.
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