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Looking at my initial sketch, in 'Stage One,' I realised that I had got Shein Mae's shoulders far to big. They looked more like those of a seasoned lumberjack! You can still see the erasure marks on this one. I am never afraid of erasing - especially in the early stages of a painting... 'Much better to get the initial sketch right, from the start. It's almost impossible to change the fundamental shapes in a painting once you have done any real amount of work on it...

Here, I had completed my usual background "wash" - on which I would build up my colors and details in layers. In this case, "wash" is the correct term because I did in fact use a brush dipped in water, in order to spread my initial strokes of pastel around and to blend them together a bit. (I often use water for this - rather than a finger - especially when I am painting the sky or water...) Before going any further, the painting was sprayed with fixative and left to dry for a few minutes. (Without using fixative, at this stage, it would be very difficult to apply further layers of pastel, without them "muddying" together.)

Here, I had more-or-less completed all the background detail. I prefer to leave the main subject untill last, so that it stands out more from the rest of the painting. Also, because I tend to use a lot of fixative between layers, if I leave the final layers of the main subject until towards the end, they will end up with less fixative - or even none at all. With less, or no fixative in the final layers, the main subject will remain much brighter than the rest of the painting.

Here, I had worked on the face, until it was more-or-less finished and put in a few bold areas of light and shadow on the clothing. I could have stopped here, for a bold, impressionistic look to the colors - but I rather like a more subtle, scumbled effect for fabrics...

And here we have the finished painting: Rembrandt and Schmincke pastels on a light creamy coloured Canson Mi Teintes pastel paper. 12" X 16" - Completed December 26, 2006 Not quite so disastrous as my previous one, entitled "Sheine Mae and Jelyn". In this one, at least I got Sheine Mae's head more or less in proportion to the rest of her body! And, although there is some distortion in the face, I can actually see something of Sheine Mae in this one... Ang saya talaga! (Tagalog - lit: "It really makes me feel happy!")

Rembrandt and Schmincke pastels on a light creamy coloured Canson Mi Teintes pastel paper. 12" X 16" - Completed December 26, 2006 Another attempt at a pastel portrait. Not quite so disastrous as my previous one, entitled "Sheine Mae and Jelyn". In this one, at least I got Sheine Mae's head more or less in proportion to the rest of her body. And, although there is some distortion in the face, I can actually see something of Sheine Mae in this one. Ang saya! (Tagalog - lit: "It makes me feel happy!") To purchase a high quality print of this image, please visit: ArtWanted.com Various gift items and dozens of personalized products such as mouse pads, t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, puzzles and a lot more besides are also available, customized with this image at ArtWanted.com

Some colorful lights, reflected in the water of the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C. (Canada,) on Christmas day, 2006

Some colorful lights, reflected in the water of the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C. (Canada,) on Christmas day, 2006

Some colorful lights, reflected in the water of the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C. (Canada,) on Christmas day, 2006

Some colorful lights, reflected in the water of the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C. (Canada,) on Christmas day, 2006

The colorful lights of the Senate Building, reflected in the water of the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C. (Canada,) on Christmas day, 2006

The colorful lights of the Senate Building, reflected in the water of the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C. (Canada,) on Christmas day, 2006 To purchase a high quality print of this image, please visit: ArtWanted.com Various gift items and dozens of personalized products such as mouse pads, t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, puzzles and a lot more besides are also available, customized with this image at ArtWanted.com

The colorful lights of the Senate Building, reflected in the water of the inner harbour at Victoria, B.C. (Canada,) on Christmas day, 2006 To purchase a high quality print of this image, please visit: ArtWanted.com Various gift items and dozens of personalized products such as mouse pads, t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, puzzles and a lot more besides are also available, customized with this image at ArtWanted.com

Just a shot of the late afternoon sun's rays, splitting up and radiating outwards through a gap in the clouds. I can never resist this kind of shot. It's as if I want to preserve images of all the moments of natures glory that I see in my daily life, forever... Photo taken from along the foreshore at Victoria, B.C. (Canada) - Christmas day, 2006

I subtitled this one "Bird-watching" because it basically arose out of my passion for watching 'birds' - i.e. me watching the 'bird' with the camera! This photo was taken along the foreshore at Victoria B.C. (Canada) on Christmas day, 2006

Another practice painting. This one was done on a 12" X 16" sheet of Canson Mi Teintes pastel paper. (The background color of the paper was a light, pinkish-grey). I took the photograph, on which this painting was based during a visit to Mindanao, in the Southern part of the Philippines during May of 2006. The photograph that this painting was based-on can be found at: Photography Forums for Photo-artists > Gallery > People and portraits > Teenagers To purchase a high quality print of this image, please visit: ArtWanted.com Various gift items and dozens of personalized products such as mouse pads, t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, puzzles and a lot more besides are also available, customized with this image at ArtWanted.com

First, I used a charcoal pencil on a 12" X 16" sheet of pinkish-grey Canson Mi Tientes pastel paper to sketch out the basic elements. I chose the paper color based on the dominant color of the wood panels of the door and walls of the house; which would form a large part of the background in the finished painting.

Just some flat background color. I did'nt use any water for this one. I just used my finger to spead the pastel around and fill in the depressions in the paper where I didn't want the base color to show through - which was mainly on the clothing of the two girls and on their faces and other areas of exposed skin.

Having laid down some background colors, I sprayed the whole painting with Sennelier "Fixatif Delacroix." This is an extremely high quality fixative - mainly intended for charcoal and pencil drawings - but I find it works very well with my Rembrandt and Schmincke pastels. As soon as the fixative had properly dried, after about 20 minutes, I was able to apply further layers of color in a "scumbling" technique, to the clothing - together with some elementary shading...

I started to roughly map-out the areas of the different skin tones - highly exagerating the areas of light and shadow. I deliberately left the hair only in rough outline at this stage - which is why the two girls look like a couple of "baldies!!" The reason for this was that, in the finished painting, the hair would overlap the face and, of course, the interior of the house in the background. I wanted to put the hair in right at the end, so that it would come out 'on top' of everything else in the painting...

The finished painting. Not quite what I had hoped it would be but, anyway, it was useful practise and I hope the next one will be better! I was reasonably happy with the way Jelyn, (the younger of the two girls,) turned out. I like a bit of 'style' or 'artistic licence' in a painting and, no matter how good I may get in the future, I don't think that I will ever attempt to do "photo reallism" in a painting. I really admire the skill and patience of those who do that kind of art but, for myself, I'd rather use my camera for photo reallism...

Here's a recent discovery of mine... Incredible Art Board, from Incredible Art Products, based in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. They don't appear to do mail order but check out their website, (link above,) for more details. I bought a 24" X 32" board at Opus Framing and Art Supplies in Victoria, B.C. (Canada). The thing is incredibly light and extremely rigid - ideal for a portable drawing / pastel painting board!

A small, (27cmX 38cm) landscape that I did as a practice painting. This was based on a photo of a rice field, or "palayan" that I took in Mindanao, during a recent trip to Davao del Sur at planting time. The original photograph can be seen on one of my member's albums at: The artfreaks.com Forums > Gallery > Mindanao The painting was done on a lightweight "Conda" watercolor paper; mostly with Rembrandt pastels but finished off with some ultra soft, super smooth pastels by the German manufacturer, Schmincke. After framing, I gave the painting away as a Christmas 'exchange gift' present to Mr. Theodore "Tio" Abria, one of my shipmates aboard c.s. Wave Venture. (When I went back to the ship, after a couple of month's vacation, I found the painting, abandoned in a cupboard in my cabin... Theo obviously didn't think it was worth the bother of bringing it home!! - Not that I can blame him... Anyway, it was a shame to waste it, so I brought the thing home myself - and subsequently gave it away to one of Lorna's customers at the E. Santos Art Gallery in Ermita, Manila) To purchase a high quality print of this image, please visit: ArtWanted.com Various gift items and dozens of personalized products such as mouse pads, t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, puzzles and a lot more besides are also available, customized with this image at ArtWanted.com