NaMoPaiMo: Week II: Pastels, Pastels Oh the Pastels!

Saturday and Sunday have just become designated days off. After working at the barn, I usually do not have the energy to work on art.

Monday rolled around and while I got sealer on my model, for some reason, I just could not commit to my model. So while I procrastinated, I posted a picture of Lucky to encourage others on the Facebook page. After all, who doesn't like to see a cute animal picture?

(Lucky believes in everyone! You can paint/finish your model!)

I also received an unexpected visit from my Quality Control Manager. Renji decided that he needed to take a look at all of the pastel horses on my pastel table. I guess it was suspicious that I had so many horses on that table. Usually the acrylic table has the majority of the horses. Later in the day, there also happened to be a family emergency, so that ended any slight indication of wanting to work my model.

While the situation wasn't resolved on Tuesday, I was in a better mindset and set to work...sort of. I first worked on using up the rest of my sculpey clay can making more of my "Ruthless" magnets. I will be donating a couple to NaMoPaiMo as prizes (along with a couple other goodies).

(Four of the six I ended up making of my Ruthless magnets)

Eventually, I did get to work on my kirin. I got three layers on my model and was content with that as my base color, as I did not want the model to be too beige in color. I was aiming more for a cream base.

For some reason, by the end of that session, I decided that my Kirin needed some dapples. It didn't help that the image I was referencing had dapples in it too. While I have a method I like for dappling in pastels (eraser), I decided that this time, I would try something new. I only started dabbling in pastels last year & I know I have a lot to learn!

On Wednesday, I started shading my kirin's fur, and adding in the dapples. This time, I was just adding with the pastels. There would be no eraser and no paint. By layer three, I liked my dapples and shading enough to call the body shading good. Tomorrow, I'd be ready to start on the dark points I wanted my kirin to have.

Thursday proved to be a busy day in the studio. I really knuckled down and set to work on adding the dark points to my kirin as well as darkening the mane, tail, beard and feathering. 

It was at this point that I decided to add in some pigments. Usually, I don't touch these as they just seem more intimidating. Pastels are one thing, they are easier to get if I do go through them, but pigments...yeah I am not at a point I can get those readily, so I treat the small containers I do have like they are treasure. 

I was feeling really good as I worked on my model. This kirin was looking EXACTLY like I had envisioned!

So, of course, doubt set in. 

By the time I finished for the day, I was frowning at my model. I wasn't upset with it, but I was wondering if the mane and tail were really heading in the direction I wanted? Did I still want this to stay 100% to what I had in my head? How much dark is too dark? Flaws also started to pop off the model too! I could see several dingle-berries (mentor's name for them lol) some spots with pigment/pastel that wasn't meant to be there, and the list just went on!

I stopped for the day.

As artists, we are very self-criticizing. It's both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing, as it means we are always, ALWAYS striving to do better. It's a curse because we are always belittling our work, even if it's better than our previous works, or one of the best we've done. When I get to a point where I am hearing so much self doubt in my head that means its time to stop on the project for the day. Tomorrow, with fresh eyes, I can look at it from a fresh perspective and without all the negativity. 

It's a bit silly too because I KNOW that many of the things that are being picked at I can fix! Some are just lessons learned for prepping that I can use for the next time. Others are just worries and nitpicking that I need to take with a grain of salt. That being said I utilized the NaMoPaiMo pastel experts asking how they did manes & tails. 

(You can see for yourselves that the advice went a long way!)

Mondays & Fridays are physical therapy for my shoulder & this session wiped me out! Thankfully, I was able to read & take the advice of our pastel experts (thank you all so much!) and base coated, in acrylic, the mane, tail & feathering. This has revealed that I have a long way to go on my points to get them dark enough, but that’s fine. We’ve got two weeks left in February yet. That being said, I did grab my colored pencils & did some simple shading to be softened with pastels next week.

(Stopping point for this week)

Till the next time.