Sunday, October 27, 2013

Painting of Northern Cardinal (male) in pastel

I love painting birds but I find the feathers are a challenge to render with pastels on sandpaper. I am resisting the temptation to go back and tweak a few tufts of cheek feathers as I am never truly satisfied...


"Dressed in Scarlet"
Northern Red Cardinal
pastel
4" x 6"
 Available for Purchase






Friday, October 25, 2013

Pastel Painting of cardinal update

I started working the feathers of the body and wings on this little bird painting today. Much more layering is going to happen until I am satisfied with the results. Thank goodness this paper can accept up to 25 layers of pastel!
 
northern cardinal wildlife pastel painting progress on the easel

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Cardinal painting in progress

Here is a better image of the bird painting progress. I am pretty much done working on the head, which has had many layers of pastel to achieve the proper hues of the red feathers.

cardinal painting on the easel

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Winter bird painting on the easel

With winter fast approaching, I am inspired to paint a snow scene. I've always wanted to paint a cardinal and so he is my next subject to be featured on paper. I am using pastels and Wallis sandpaper for this piece and it will measure roughly 3"x5" when done or, perhaps a bit larger.  It is not always easy to create the feather detail on that scale...the image shown is bigger than actual.

northern cardinal bird painting on the easel

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Golden Retriever Portrait; commission painting in pastel



Portrait artists oftentimes have to make due with less than desirable photographs to work from when creating a painting.  This can lead to frustration or artists' refusal to work with such images.  I often have to work with such images and while I admit I've had my share of frustrations, it forces me to use my artistic judgement rather than solely rely on a photograph. Of course, I always take the client's feedback into consideration, as they sometimes guide me in the process, and as long as they are happy with the likeness of their pet, it was worth the effort on my part.
 
Here is the latest dog portrait just off my easel, and recently approved by the client.  It gives me great pleasure to be able to create a lasting memory that the owner can treasure and remember their beloved pet.
 
 
Golden Retriever dog painting portrait in pastel by Colette Theriault
"Dixie"
Golden Retriever
Pastel
18" x 24"


dog pet portrait photograph
reference image 4" x 6"


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

More and more fur!

I am starting to get lost in all that fluffy golden fur! It's easy to loose track of the fur pattern and so I keep adjusting until I feel satisfied with the look...but I have more work to do! I have to use some of my artistic judgment for this portrait because of the quality of the reference image.
 
For size comparison, you can see the pencils on the easel at the bottom of the portrait. 
 
Dog fur progress of pet portrait painting commission by Colette Theriault