ORIGINAL ACEO mini painting cat with fish

A tabby cat entranced by a couple of goldfish in a fish tank. This miniature painting / ACEO measures 2.5" x 3.5" and was created using Inktense watersoluable ink, with touches of colored pencil and gouache.

My ACEO's are for sale through my eBay store.

Sketch for Pastel Painting of Yorkshire Terrier

Yorkshire Terrier sitting on antique chair.
Charcoal sketch underdrawing. 11"x14"

Initially I did a few thumbnail sketches of this dog in various settings, including a flower garden, before choosing this ornate antique chair as the perfect backdrop.

At barely 9 inches tall and weighing about 5 pounds, this toy dog seems oblivious to her small size. Judging by her silky coat and well kept appearance, it is easy to imagine that she is one pampered dog! Do I detect a trace of mischief behind that sweet face?

Working on a mid-toned sanded pastel paper, I used vine charcoal to sketch the basic proportions and establish the dark values. I blocked in the background using deep red, hard pastel to help define the outline of the chair. And I lightly roughed in some of the floral pattern of the chair upholstery using a soft red pastel pencil. Next I plan to spray the sketch with workable fixative, before proceeding to the painting stage. When painting in pastel I generally do not spray successive layers, as fixative tends to deaden the colors.

At any given time I may have several pastel or oil paintings in progress, as well as preparatory sketches and commissioned portraits of dogs, horses, cats and people. It's always fun, and interesting!

Mystery Portrait Sketch

This is a charcoal sketch for a commissioned pastel portrait of two celebrities (No, I cannot tell you who they are -yet). The portrait is a 'surprise' gift for the pretty lady, hence the faces have been obscured. Unlike my normal process, here I am using a client supplied photograph as the main reference source for this portrait. Normally however I work from a half dozen of my own reference photos taken in natural light, and sometimes live sketches (when possible). I really enjoy the creative process of taking photos, and observing the subject first hand, as it gives me greater insight into their personality, and allows me an opportunity to observe nuances that photographs often lack. Even so, this will be a fun portrait.

As always, I begin each portrait with a value study, either in charcoal, or whatever medium I am working in. The study functions as the under-drawing for the painting, allowing me to develop the basic layout, establish the dark values, and check the drawing for accuracy. This particular reference photo is a striking image, but it was printed using sepia tones, thus the colors are not true. So in order to gather enough information to render their skin tones accurately, I also needed to acquire a dozen or so small snapshots of each of the subjects. Certain values and subtle facial details are blown away in this photo, as in common practice in fashion photography, so I will need to pull certain details from the snapshots. Check back in mid November if you'd like to see the final portrait!

Sketch for Horse Portrait

Today's post is a preliminary charcoal sketch for a portrait commission of Reddi, a 28 year old, bay quarter horse gelding. As you might guess by his soft eyes he has a very gentle demeanor. Years ago this boy was rescued from a bad situation by his present owner. Happily he has been well loved and cared for ever since. Reddi struck me as sweet and proud horse.

This 16" x 20" sketch on Art Spectrum Colourfix coated pastel paper will serve as the under drawing for the final pastel portrait. Typically I like to work on mid toned, or dark toned, sanded paper when painting in pastel (never white paper), as is the case here. When working on a dark surface such as this, I begin by building up to the dark values early on and then proceed to the light values.

sketch copyright Dale Tremblay Begley