Friday, March 4, 2011

Sara Monarch and ZZ #2


Sara#2, originally uploaded by debifitz.

pastel on suede matt board
actual size 24"X34"

Actually this is day 3... lots of interruptions! (We are having our shower redone before it falls through the floor! So I have been dealing with tile people and picking up materials... Fun!) But this is probably the hardest part of this piece. Or maybe I should say the most time consuming... those darn dark horses... in this case pony! Luckily my favorite dark pastels came in just in time to help me with this one! I had to replenish my stock after the last few dark horse pastels... been doing a lot of them lately!

4 comments:

  1. Hi there, you do some amazing work as well! So what are your favourite darks? For a lot of people they are Unisons...for you too?
    Great work.

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  2. Hi Sophie! Thanks for checking out my blog! I have a few unisons.... I like them for the under layers... but it is hard to get the details with them. I need to get a few more to try... I don't think I have the right ones yet. I am going on a business trip to a Raleigh, N.C, in a few weeks... where the Jerry's Artarama is located... I will go through their stock while I am there. My favorites darks are Girault Brown Lake (265) and Mouse grey (397). And also Holbein Old Rose gray #1... I also like #2 and #3 old Rose Grays for high lights. I love the old Rowney purple grays... Not as crazy about the new Dale-Rowneys... they are a lot like the senneliers... very soft.

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  3. It is so interesting. Those Giraults and Holbeins are hard to get in the UK. My ‘workhorse’ pastel is always a Rembrandt. I can do some accents with Schmincke (buttery soft) but most is done with Rembrandts. They are fairly hard but the colours are bautiful and I can layer and layer away. Hard enough to get details in too. I never tried Sennelier...I heard they were very soft. Good for a painterly approach I imagine..
    Happy Painting!

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  4. When I am here at home I have to get almost all of my pastels thru online orders. I use a lot of Rembrandts also. For finer detail my 'workhorse' pastel is the Nu Pastels. The quality has come down a bit since Prisma Color bought them out and some colors are almost too hard. I have tried a few Schminckes... they are very much like Senneliers. But I think the colors are better in the Senneliers... and yes, I use them mostly for background work.

    It is fun to here what other artists use! Thanks!!

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