Prince (the cat)

"Prince" (pastel, 12x6 inches) sold

In honor of Prince (the musician) who passed away today, I'm happy to show off one of my demos from last weekend's workshop in Lee's Summit, MO. This cat, coincidentally also named Prince, belonged to one of the workshop students and she graciously allowed me to use her photo to make a portrait of him.

I used three colors of pastel primers for the underpainting; the gold, the terra cotta, and the black.

 The gold is Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold fluid acrylic color mixed into Golden (brand) Fine Pumice Gel. The gel is clear, so the color mixture is semi-transparent, and gets darker on each application. I do about 2 more layers of this to start the value-scaled underpainting.
(The initial layer of gold I usually spread across large pieces of Gatorboard, then cut to size and transfer my drawings, working in 'batches' of 6 to 8 at a time.)

 The next layer of primer is the Art Spectrum (brand) Pastel Primer in the terra cotta color. I lay it into the darkest areas, then scrub and dry-brush it into the medium values of the gold to continue the value scale and add more depth to the monochromatic underpainting.

 Then, on some subjects that contain a considerable amount of black (fur, or clothing, etc) I apply a final layer using the Art Spectrum pastel primer in the black color.

On the black, my first pastel application is Terry Ludwig's famous Eggplant! Darker than black! haha!

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PS: to see some more photos from this fun workshop, visit my facebook page!
(Like it while you're there! ;)