Woody Woodpeckers

Thought I'd share my woodpeckers with you! I'm a bit in love with birds (we keep ornamental pheasants) but pretty garden birds and raptors always catch my attention. So this is how I start most pastel artwork, with my lovely panpastels. After using just pastel pencils, these save me hours of work. I rarely use the Sofft tools but more often use make up and water colour brushes which leave a soft even layer but doesn't fill the nap so still plenty of room to add the detail on top. So then it's onto adding the detail with lots of pastel pencils. I don't choose one specific brand but I do cherry pick through their colour charts and only use 100% lightfast ones (same for the Panpastels) to ensure my work doesn't fade. As you can see I'm a tad messy but I've been told it's a sign of genius!!! I use a snap off craft knife to sharpen my pencils then an old file to get a really good point. I find pencil sharpeners just don't last long enough, the go blunt too quickly and then start to break the pastels. And finally me signing the piece. I always use a colour that I've used in the artwork and just add my initials as my name is sooooo long it would just distract! I'll add a proper scanned image to my gallery at some point. I should mention I don't use fixative, I create pet portraits and spend hours colour matching but I find fixative can drastically change the colours so I use a paper which grips the pastel instead. Using panpastels means the base layers are very thin and there's a lot less loose pastel then when using soft sticks. Info: Created from a range of free use references all mashed up and some imagination. Size 8x12 inches, panpastels, pastel pencils on wine pastelmat. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. www.artbykarie-ann.co.uk

FB always provides me with lots of arty friends (you can't get better ones!) I've just rebuilt my website on a new program so it's been a bit of a task as I had to start from nothing so thank you for the feedback! Woody1 and Woody2 thank you also!