Pet Portraits in Pastels

Drawing Pet Portraits in Pastel Pencil Drawing your pet is easier than you think! Create a “head and shoulders” portrait of your pet from one of your own photos with the forgiving medium of pastel pencils—they’re easy to control and easy to layer.

The workshop will feature best practices and a demonstration in the morning session with hands-on student work in the afternoon. Students will learn how to transfer an initial drawing to pastel paper and how to build pet fur effects in a step-by-step process. Attention will be paid to drawing accuracy and rendering light effect.

Reference Photo: Please plan to bring a high-quality reference photo. Make sure it’s a full-size, full-color hard copy photo of your pet that shows the head and neck as we’ll be doing a one-to-one transfer. Be sure the photo has a head size of 4 to 5 inches to give you plenty of room to work. Look for a photo that shows good light and shadow on the fur. from. Look for a photo that is sharp and clear and shows light and shadow on your animal well.

Experience Level: Beginner, no prior experience needed

Saturday November 14, 9am-3:30pm (1 session)

Ages 18+ (Please contact us at dsegerstrom@paramountarts.org if you have a younger student interested in participating)

Materials List, please also bring the following:
• Notebook and pen/pencil for taking notes.
• Soft Vine Charcoal and a small brush with fairly stiff bristles.
• A kneaded eraser and a hard white eraser.
• The easiest papers to use for this technique are smooth-finish pastel/charcoal papers or fine-grit sanded papers like Clairefontaine Pastelmat, Sennelier La CartePastel Card, or Ampersand Pastel-bord (choose 800 grit or higher).

Tinted papers work best such as light gray or tan to medium gray.

Make sure the surface of the paper is smooth and not too bumpy—AVOID felted papers that have chicken-wire like dents, or laid finishes that have line-like texture.
• A large piece of tracing paper roughly 4 inches larger than the size you want your final drawing to be.
• A few sheets of economical sketching paper, 14” x 18” or so, (to protect your drawing)
• Masking tape or clips to secure your paper.
• A large drawing board, if possible.
• A very sharp hand pencil sharpener (these dull very quickly so a new one for this class is must). Pastel leads are very soft and fragile.
• A small drawing board and tabletop easel, and a dust tray made of stiff paper or split paper towel cores to put under drawing board.
• Please bring an assortment of Pastel pencils in the Faber Castell Pitt Pastel brand
Please bring light, medium, and dark values in the following colors:
Black/Grays/White are a must!
Browns/Tans/Golds
Rose/Mauve/Pinks/Purples
Red/Oranges/Peach
Blue: Deep/Medium/Light
Deep Magenta
Dark and Med Green