Monday, May 11, 2009

"BEAUTIFUL...AND POISONOUS"

Top o'the morning me darlings. Hope you're all having a wonderful start this week. It promises to be a very productive and busy one for me.

First, I want to thank everyone for your kind "Mother's Day" wishes. It was a wonderful day for me and my son, I hope you all enjoyed it as well.

Vetiver's still waiting for that can of workable fixative which btw is manufactured by Krylon if anyone's interested to know which brand I prefer.

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I wasn't yet sure whether to do a chestnut horse or a King Charles spaniel to try out a sheet of Wallis Sanded Pastel paper. Well, it turned out I didn't do either. Upon reading about my dislike of ArtSpectrum Colourfix paper, a fellow artist (Jan Pope) recommended using Ampersand Pastelbord. As most of you know, I can't resist trying out new things, so I bought a 12"x12" grey Pastelbord (it was the only size/color available where I purchased it) and neither the horse nor the dog seemed to go well on this background. And that's how this pretty long haired grey cat won the race against her opponents, she was just perfect for this support.

Now, for my opinion on this surface. It is absolutely FANTASTIC!!! So yummy, really delicious to work on, thank you so much for the recommendation, Jan. I'm totally in love with it. It takes both cps and pastel pencils very well, it's very forgiving and easy to work on and erase, it allows for a variety of blending techniques (and lots of abuse) that most other grounds I've tried before wouldn't take. It has just the right amount of tooth to "bite" into the pencils without being too rough or bumpy like Colourfix. And the best part of all, it can be sprayed with a final clear acrylic coating and it doesn't need to be framed under glass. Brilliant! I can't say enough good words about it. Try it for yourself, I'm sure you'll love it as well. It comes in grey, dark green, sand and white in various sizes, from little 5"X7" to 18"X24". I'm going to get the assorted pack so I can try all colors, can't wait to get it! Here's a link to it: http://www.dickblick.com/products/ampersand-pastelbord/

May I present you with the very pretty, but incredibly treacherous and poisonous "Belladonna". She still needs quite a bit of work but I just wanted to show you this amazing support, even before she's finished. I used both pastel and colored pencils (not on top of each other, but in different places). As for Frappuccino, he too took a back seat to Belladonna, but I'll probably finish him today. I'm so enamored of this board that I'm painting both the horse and the King Charles on the sand and white versions of it, the Wallis paper will have to wait awhile...



Have a colorful and creative week.

Hugs,
Jade

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ah Belladonna... She is so cute. WOW those eyes have it for sure.

Beautiful work as always. you inspire me.

ArtistUnplugged said...

Very, very beautiful, you inspire me to work more with the colored pencils. Will have to check out this paper too. My son is home from college, just finished his second year, my workload around home has picked up so it's very hard to get any artwork done. My daughter is a sophomore in high school. Seeing everyone's art makes me envious!!!!!!

Jan Pope said...

I'm so glad you like the pastel board. My first attempt was a success too. So I knew it was a good surface to work on. This wasn't my idea, but several of the member of my local CPSA chapter (www.cpsadc114.org) had tried it and loved it. Please stop by my blog (tintsandhues.blogspot.com) or my website (www.backcreekgallery.com) sometime.

Holly Durr Art said...

Pastelbord is so different from stonehenge, but I love them both. I'm so glad there is other options out there.

Audra, Green Meadow Lane said...

WOW! Your work is amazing and inspiring! Just awesome!

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