"Solace" Animal, 8 x 10, pastel,

"Solace" 8 x 10" Pastel

I wanted to enter this competition called Reining Cats and Dogs in Richmond at the Crossroads Art Center.  I decided that I would do a drawing of my family pet Solace, since I didn't expect too many other artists to draw a bearded dragon.  The competition was pretty strong, but Solace and one other painting made the cut. Solace often spends an hour or so a day loose in the studio with me hanging out and tickling my toes as I work.

He is drawn on Uart sanded paper with a value underpainting done with orange and golden hued pastel and rubbing alcohol.  You can see the warm tones of the underpainting peeking through the pastel which I applied primarily with Rembrandt pastels and Nupastels.  Towards the end I sprayed it with Krylon workable fixative then did a final pass with pastel pencils.