Carson

Super pastel cat Isobel, lovely fur detail

Another lovely pastel painting

Thank you Ros and Glennis for your comments on my pics. Much appreciated. All constructive criticism gratefully received also as I am still learning pastel. I do tutorials by Colin Bradley from his website in order to learn how to use them but when it comes to doing your own pictures and you have to work out how to get the colours, background and the effect you want it is a whole different ballgame.

Super cat portraits. How long do they generally take to complete? Any tips?

Hi Bill. Thank you for the compliment. It normally takes me about two weeks to finish a painting, especially the horses. Usually about half way through I get stuck and put the painting on my easel and leave it for a couple of days just looking at it until I know how to proceed. That always happens for some reason. I learned how to use pastels by subscribing to Colin Bradley's website where he takes you through wonderful paintings of his step but step through videos and you learn a great deal that way. I have found him invaluable. His web is http://www.colinbradleyart.co.uk/ He has some of his paintings on this website too so you can see what a wonderful job he does.

Hi Isobel I was fascinated by reading your replies to comments above about how you got into doing cat and horse and your lovely grandson's pastel portraits, I have checked out Colin Bradley's website and it is really good but as you say when it comes down to it we all have to make our own choices about how to render our work, you are doing brilliantly, can see in your gallery how you have improved as I know I have with mine, it's great to find someone else who has had a similar background although I did not subscribe to Colin's website I did pick up some tips from that and other sites

Thanks for your reply Ros. I like to paint detail which is why I love Colin's website but I would love to loosen it up a bit like yours too. Its good to have a variety of styles :) Off on holiday now and hoping to come back with some good pictures.

Amazingly lifelike! Love it. Especially the eyes.