April has truly started off on a high note: 3 days of warm weather (a rare occurrence in an early Chicago spring), I finally did double-backs to the floor at gymnastics, found out I won a few art contests, and I got my first COVID vaccine! It's nice to have things starting to work out, even if it is just temporarily.
I wanted to draw a crowned animal with a crest on top of its head. Originally , this was colored with colored pencils but I didn't like how it looked so I tried to save it by painting over it with acrylic paint.
I first bought some cheap soft pastels back in 2018 and did a couple of sketches. I bought a nice set of Rembrandt pastels a few months later — didn't use them. I bought some pastel pads, none if which seemed right. September 2020, I bought a couple more sets of bargain pastels and tried a couple of pieces — no good, still couldn't bring myself to use them. Jess bought me pastel pencils for Christmas — I was too scared to use them. I even bought a pad of Pastelmat which is supposed to be THE paper to use for pastel paintings in January. I was too scared to use that as well!
FINALLY, after a few unsuccessful attempts at working with watercolour (brush issues), I cast aside my fear and thought I'd mess around with pastels. Some time later, and this was the result. I've finally broken through my pastel fear-barrier.
I've got to say, I love soft pastels and I'm excited about doing more pieces in this medium.
Pentre Ifan is a megalithic dolmen located in Pembrokeshire. I sketched at a point when I hadn't sketched for some time and felt like I should. I didn't give it the time it deserved and didn't even erase the pencil marks. Definitely one I should re-sketch at some point.
(HB pencil on 120mm x 100mm paper) A dreamscape piece (automatic drawing) which seems to have an almost planetary feel to it with the glowing orb and the line of spheres which developed.
