What I've Been Working On

I used an old photo of mine for a reference on this portrait that I started a few months ago. Yes, it's a really old photo :-D
I wanted to try working on Pastelbord again. I had an 8 x 10 grey board onto which I transferred this outline.




I neglected to take any scans as I began, so in the next photo, there are already quite a few layers of colored pencil applied.

I tried something new before applying the pencils. I lay down a light scribbling of watersoluble Neocolor crayon in the skin areas. I applied water and brushed it evenly around the face and neck area. The idea was to cover up some of the grey color of the support and make it easier to get to the right skin tones. It did help, though I was too tentative and the color wash was pretty thin. I still had to put on many layers of color with very sharp pencils to get the coverage I wanted. I think the idea was a good one, I just need to make this under painting much more opaque next time.

You can see some of the faint color wash that extends in to the hair. It's pretty transparent.



I guess the best solution to avoid the hassle in getting good skin tones is to stop using the grey boards for portraits. After all, Ampersand does make a tan pastelbord, which is the kind I used on my Mom portrait. I'll just have to use the rest of my grey boards for still lifes, or maybe actually use the pastels on them.

Here is the latest. Lots more layers of Prismacolor Deco Pink (so glad this color is being produced again), Peach, Light Peach, Colorsoft Soft Pink and Blush Pink and Luminance light tones.