Pastel Portrait of a Little girl in White Dress

Soft Pastels 12"x 16"

This is what I have been busy doing lately- a portrait of my lovely little niece.She is a hyper active three year old and you almost never catch her sitting still! Her mom clicked a picture of her in one such rare moment -and finally I got one to paint!Well she looks like a very quiet little girl here, but looks are deceptive :)

Lorrain -Pastel Portrait

"Lorrain"

Soft Pastels on Pastel mat

30x50 cm

Work in Progress; Try reading from bottom of the post!:)

Jumper completed, almost there, still needs finishing...

Worked more on her face; established the color of background and started on her jumper.I still don't have the 'right; green, I will make do with whatever I have.

Lightened one side of the face, now I feel better!

Added color to her face, establishing light and shadow areas.Realized that I did not have the green for her jumper, panicked, ordered some colors online...!

                                       Started with drawing and blocking in main shapes

'The chain of events' leading to the final product! I hope you enjoy watching the process.

It has taken me two days (about 10-12 hours) of work to complete this portrait.I have tried to keep my flesh tones true to life , it was a cool daylight setting when I took the picture.Thus, there are more greens and purple tones here; though I could not completely let go of my oranges!Green is the key color , which is unusual because I hardly use green in my paintings.I did not have the right color for her jumper, so I  overlayed two or three greens! I am still not sure irf its done- I may darken the background to her left...may be! Have a great weekend, friends and let me know what to do think of my efforts here...

Portrait of a Teenager

Soft Pastels on pastel mat

35x50 cm

Some of you may recognize him- this is my son who agreed to let me take his picture after much cajoling ( I had to pay him ,actually, for the 'photo session'!) Well I thinks it was worth the effort, as this portrait has turned out nicely ( I will still wait for his verdict when he comes home from school!).

As he sat, the sunlight came through the full window and  fell on one side of his face.I wanted to capture not only that light, but the shadow area too, that somehow 'glows' when you are sitting in direct sunlight. I would love to hear what do you think of this effort.

Pastel mat is now my favorite support as it does not need blending.I did not blend at all.For smooth and fine details I used pastel pencils.They work beautifully on this surface.

My Group show opened last evening, with a nice little gathering.I seem to be one of the very few portrait artists here- mostly its landscape or animals painters in our Art Club.Here are a few pics:

White Cap_Pastel Portrait

Soft Pastel on toned paper

10"x 8"

It has been some time since I posted anything here.I hope to break the 'dry spell' with this painting in pastels.

For last few weeks, I have not been painting much.Mostly I have been reading ,studying other fine artists;trying to figure out my own art.The break seems to have done me good, I felt happy painting this piece, after a long time.I guess we all need a break to retrospect, at some point.

This is a man for northern part of India, picture taken by a friend.I made some changes, though!

Michael

11"x15"

Charcoal and soft pastel pencils

This is Michael, a local resident with whom I had a chance meeting in the neighborhood park a few days ago.As we sat enjoying the sun,I finally plucked the courage to ask a complete stranger if i could take his pictures for a painting!Thankfully he turned out to be a kind gentleman and allowed me to take his pictures as he chatted with my husband.Although he was convinced that he had an 'ugly face' and there was no point in painting him! But as you can see, he is quite handsome and the portrait turned out to be rather nice.

I am yet to to a black and white charcoal-every time I end up adding some color.

I hope you like this one :)

As I Pray...

Pastels on toned paper

20"x14"

I love this old man's face and would paint him again and again.I have already drawn him in pencil in the past, now its the turn of pastels.In fact I wanted to experiment with some background color.Frankly, I am not too thrilled with the results-it looks rather painterly..is it a good thing ? I don't know.

I ran out of my white pencil towards the end- just a stub left; so it was not much fun finishing his hands.Next time I am sticking with my 'drawing' mode.Not too impressed with the saturated background color.

Enjoy it while the next one is in progress.

My group show opens Friday, 8th March at Fairfields Art Center.Will update the pictures on the day!