sometimes the paint makes it on the paper » pastel

when it rains…

leandra — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:44:42 +0000

I was asked to do another demo at Jerry’s Artarama this past Sunday and although I didn’t take any photos, the portrait is almost done, so I’ll have her up soon. And last week, a woman contacted me about doing a pastel portrait of her dog after finding my Pups in Pastel website. I also volunteered to head up a group paint at the Pastel Society of North Carolina this past Saturday. So, I have painted more in the last three days than I have in a month and I am loving it!

prepping for my live demo tomorrow

leandra — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:00:55 +0000

Getting a painting started of my brother-in-law’s cockapoo, Holly, for my live demo tomorrow at Jerry’s Artarama from 1-4pm. I plan on finishing this one and starting one of my aunt-in-law’s golden retriever, Katie.

Utah aspens

leandra — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:18:54 +0000

A new moleskine painting is up on Flickr. This one is from Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. The beautiful cathedral is directly behind me.

tickseed

leandra — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:34:00 +0000

A finished a new drawing in my moleskine a while back and finally got around to posting it on Flickr…

pups in pastel

leandra — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:57:33 +0000

Check out my new website for my pet portrait business!

All pricing and contact info is here.

lucky, the chihuahua, finished

leandra — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:39:56 +0000

I am really happy with how this portrait turned out, what a cutie!

lucky, the chihuahua, almost done…

leandra — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:53:32 +0000

Ok, where were we?

I added some more detail to his face and some texture to the fur on his body. I also extended his back end a little bit.

I normally don’t like backgrounds in my work, but Lucky is going to look pretty silly curled up on blank space so I’ll need to at least suggest a solid surface beneath him. I decided to go with a mere suggestion of the couch, in order to let the dog be the main focus.

The last step will be to finalize some detail to the ears, fine strokes of fur to the body and face, and add whiskers.

tulip magnolia, finished!

leandra — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:37:15 +0000

I decided to erase the black outlines and go for a more realistic look as opposed to a stylized illustration. I added more white, pink, and magenta to each of the individual petals until all were rendered to my liking.

I am very happy with the finished product…

tulip magnolia

leandra — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:41:44 +0000

To continue on my flower kick, I pulled out this photo of a tulip magnolia Eric took at Duke Gardens back in the spring. I asked him to take a few different shots of this branch specifically so I could paint it at a later date.

Because I am using blue paper and not black, I am much more careful in the vine charcoal sketching stage… especially since I plan to leave the background alone. Most of the charcoal can be erased, but it’s hard to get rid of a huge area if I mess up.

So far I’ve added the white and pink shades and colored in the branch, but I still have quite a bit of the black outline showing. I need to decide if I want to erase the black edges or emphasize them, depending on the direction I want to go with this painting.

lucky, the chihuahua, more detail

leandra — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:07:25 +0000

After I added all the white patches, I filled in the rest of the body and head with a reddish-brown pastel.

As the face is the most important component of a portrait, I started adding detail there first. The original nose placement made the face too long, so I moved it up some. I had the right eye in the correct place, but needed to move the the left eye down.

I’ve got a good bit of detail done in the face, but after looking at my reference photo I can see that I need to extend his body in the back a little bit. I also want to work on making his tucked front leg a little more convincing before I start adding the final details.