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Friday, August 03, 2012

Soft Pastel on Yupo ~ lounging cats



I just completed this one and scanned it. Colors are a little off as usual but it's close. This was done with SMI soft pastel on Yupo. A coating of the blending solution or alcohol ink will accept and hold the pastel. Another fine spray of blending solution will seal the pastel to the surface. I had no reference and didn't bother with a pre-drawing. I used a small, inexpensive brush dipped in rubbing alcohol to push the pastel where I wanted it to go.

Why bother with this? Because I do enjoy working with pastel once in awhile but hate the prices for custom frames with real glass. My only other option would be to buy a pane of glass and pay to have it cut to order. Not going to happen. I'm going to watch this piece to see if the pastel does indeed stay sealed and doesn't flake off eventually. If it doesn't I will probably move ahead and any paintings I create in this way will be framed with Plexi.




8/4/12 ~ I tweaked this today to sort out the awkward position of the cat in the foreground. I'm not sure I completely accomplished my mission but I think overall it reads a little better. I also added whiskers on two of the cats with a white Ziggy pen. Cats need whiskers or they just look weird, IMO. I wanted to mention that misting soft pastel with the blending solution will alter the colors. I didn't mind the blue shifting hue but I was losing the yellow. It became muddy and greenish. This time I didn't spray the yellow and it seems to be hanging on just fine. It isn't sealed to the surface but is staying in place.    

4 comments:

renate said...

Hello Billie:) Oh this one is very special. The cats are so beautiful painted and I love the colors.
Have you ever looked at a 2nd hand store? I get there yet sometimes frames for little money.
By the way: nice idea, pastel on Yupo!

Marja's Stamp Addiction en Marja's Creativity said...

WOOOW This is really beautiful. I have seen by the blog of Renate for the first time Yupo. She gives me your site and it is marvelous work. I will try to do it by myself.
Beautilul work you have made.
Lovely greet and a nice weekend
Marja
(marjascreativity)

Billie Crain said...

Thank you, Renate! Yes, I have shopped at secondhand stores for frames but didn't have much luck. The really nice frames were priced too high for my pocketbook. The less expensive frames were awful looking.

Billie Crain said...

Thank you, Marja and welcome to my blog! I took a peek at your work and you do some amazing things yourself. I was quite impressed. I do hope you will try the Yupo. I'm enjoying working with it very much.