Children's Portrait - Chelsea and Thomas

When I start a painting I try to  visualize first how I would like the finished painting  to look like. The reference photograph I used for Chelsea's and Thomas' portrait is actually cropped somewhere in the bottom section. It  doesn't show Chelsea's  elbows.  I decided to show her elbow as I thought doing so would create a more balanced composition.  By completing Chelsea's arm, I thought I can play around more with  how their clothings  merge with the  background colour. I then started working  on their faces, noting the details in the process.   Then after the faces, I rendered their clothings. I changed the colour of Chelsea's clothes to creamy yellow. Once I was happy with the progress, I roughly added in the background.  At first I planned to just render a very plain sky blue background. Yes, it looks clean and subdued but is kind of boring. The image size is a  bit on the larger size  ( 39cm x 49cm) so really, a plain background would look uninteresting and flat.  The next thing I did was to experiment on the background. I decided to make it more lively. No idea at first how to do it, but eventually settled with lots of rough vertical strokes of various colours which gave it a more painterly and dynamic appearance. Happy with that! My client thought that Thomas' eyes were a bit different from the reference photograph so I did a bit of tweaking to fix it. Then to finish it off, I enhanced the details of Thomas' face and  Chelsea's arms. After that it was time to put aside my pastels. All done!

 

Free Portrait on offer!!!!

Happy Sunday Everyone!!! This is something fun and an expression of gratitude for checking out my artworks on my facebook page. I have decided to do a portrait for FREE!!!! Yes, yes , and yes ... a FREE A5 size unframed portrait ( 1 pet or 1 person, your choice) for the 550th liker/sharer  on my facebook page: Victor's Art - Portraits, Paintings and Photography. ( see sidebar on this page)  Invite your friends to like my page too so they can have a chance to get a FREEEEEE portrait too!!!!!


P.S. For new likers, likes should be in my page: Victor's Art- Portraits, Paintings and Photography to be considered.

For those who have previously liked my facebook page, a 'share' of my page is equivalent to a 'like' so you also have a chance to get the free portrait too!!!
 
Wherever you are in the world your free portrait will be posted to you!!!!! So keep liking!!!!

Keep watch on my page for other offers and give aways from time to time....

Happy liking and sharing .......

— at Adelaide - South Australia.

  

Furry friends

Pet paintings are fun to do. It's very challenging  to draw  these  furry members of our family  mainly because of  their fur which takes time to detail and get right. But challenge taken, pencils and patience combined  are  always rewarded in the end with cute pictures to treasure for a long time. 

If you want one for your pets please do drop me a message  here or in my facebook page link on the sidebar of this page. Will ship internationally!

Happy Sunday!!!!

The Versatile IKEA RIBBA Series Frames

        My best friend at the moment is an inanimate object!   Those versatile and very  affordable RIBBA Series frames from IKEA! You see, I  recently  started doing commissioned portraits  and  I am looking  for other ways to frame the artworks.  Usually, pastel paintings are custom framed, sure it looks professional,  but this can be a tad expensive.  Although undeniably, custom framing is still the best way to frame a pastel painting as it can come in multiple mats  and with guttering (to take care of those  loose pastel dusts), a cheaper option must surely exist.

Angel Aquino. Filipina Actress and model. Photo Source from Internet

        So today,  I visited  our local IKEA  supershop  and was gladly overwhelmed with a number of RIBBA frames choices,  both practical and decent looking and of varying colours and sizes.  And to top it all,  these  picture frames are very affordable.  Prices range from AU$ 7.95  for  18cm x 24 cm smallest frame  to the largest frame of  70cm x 100cm at AU$ 39.95. They can even be bought online and seen    here

 

        I have used RIBBA  frames before for some of my paintings and  liked it.  It does the job and is easy to assemble or disassemble.  The only thing I didn’t like about it are those tiny metal fixing pins at the back used to fixed the backing in the frame. They start breaking  off easily after a  number  of disassembly  when attempting to reuse it for another painting or picture. However, with a little resourcefulness  it can easily be fixed so still quite reusable.

        

        So far,  I am happy to be using these frames!




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Update: as of 6/05/2014 found out that the  Ribba frames of  size 50cm x 70cm and larger,  previously with  glass front protection  have been replaced with  ones that uses plastic as front protection. Decided not to use these frame sizes for soft pastel paintings. 

        Please visit my facebook page to see some of my artworks. Likes and shares of my page are huge help!  

    Needing portraits or paintings done? Please enquire and leave a  message on my facebook page:  www.facebook.com/victorinoarts  or email me at vicfbautista@yahoo.com. Will ship internationally!

A Look Back of Paintings from Facebook

       

 This A Look Back movie from  Facebook pretty much sums up the things I have done in the last few years. It does not show  my pictures or selfies as I do not have much, but the paintings I have produced from the outset plus  recent pictures  from my Instagram,  which I recently got into  and have grown quite fond of.  I am hoping that I can  produce more paintings and photos in the near future! 

       

Plugging!

 

Delighted that all four of my entries  (Class 6- soft pastel paintings) have been included in  the 2011  Art Purchase Exhibition of  The Royal Adelaide Show! Not bad for a beginner! Come visit and see a delightful collection of  art and photography by other quality artists!

Place: Goyder Pavilion - Royal Adelaide Showground

Date: Sept 2 - 10

Titles:

1. Australian King Parrot

2. Lake Bridge

3. Seagulls Trio

4. Seagull in the Sand  --- new work

About Soft Pastels

           I have been asked a few times by people about soft pastels as a painting medium. It seems that when people hear about soft pastels a few would immediately get the picture of “Crayola” or “Guitar”, two popular brands of   “crayons” we grew up with which we used in kindergarten for our colouring books. Although, soft pastel is sometimes referred to as crayons, these two types of crayons (the kindergarten and soft pastels) are not the same. Firstly, in simple terms, as defined in Wikepedia, “ a crayon is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other materials used for writing, coloring, drawing, and other methods of illustration.” Therefore, “crayon” is a generic term for any coloured sticks used for drawing.   The kindergarten type is a wax crayon. Oil pastels contain pigment combined with non-drying oil and wax binders.  On the other hand, soft pastels contain ground pigment combined with dry gum binders and chalk. According to Wikepedia, it is the “most widely used form of pastel. The sticks have a higher portion of pigment and less binder, resulting in brighter colors.”

             The way to use a soft pastel is much like how we use a pencil or kindergarten crayons. It is used by rubbing the sticks over an abrasive surface, leaving colour on the grain of the paper, canvas, sandboard or paper.  A few of the popular paper used are the Colorfix, and Mi-teintes, among others. I also use watercolour paper and the result is great.

             Blending soft pastel is easier than with oil pastel or any other medium. All one does is rub or smudge it with a finger. However, as pastels contain chalk as well, smudging results in a fair amount of dust. It is for this “chalky” reason also that soft pastel paintings need to be protected by framing the painting in glass. Some artists like using fixatives to aid in fixing the pastel on the paper.

            Generally, a pastel artwork is called a painting if the entire surface of the paper or canvas is covered in pastel, if it is not, then artists like to call them sketch or drawing.

Cost-wise, a 3-inch (approx.) stick of soft pastel  would  be about $4.00 to $7.00, depending on the brand. Some known brands include Sennelier, Unison, Reeves, Schmincke, and Rembrandt, to name a few. On a rough estimate, there could be a few hundred colour selections available, so collecting each of them could be come to a substantial amount. A significant savings on cost of purchase can be had by buying in sets, but the colour range is much limited, so buying individual sticks is unavoidable.  The better quality pastels cost a lot more, but it is worth investing in them because they really offer a wide range of colour selections and once applied on paper comes out brighter and more vibrant than the cheaper options.

            Soft pastel as an art medium is very popular nowadays as evidenced by the existence of  Pastel Art Societies all over the world. In art shows, there are separate categories dedicated to pastel art, along with other media such as oil, acrylic, etc. People like to collect pastel paintings because of the medium’s inherent bright colours combined with the artist’s artistry. 

Photocredits:  vanessaturner.com and dickblick.com