PASTEL PORTRAITS

The rise of pastel across Europe in the 18th century, when the medium reached an unprecedented peak of popularity due to its portability, swift execution, and dazzling visual effects. This made pastels an especially desirable medium for portraits. Accordingly, pastelists were often highly mobile, crisscrossing Europe in search of commissions. Featured artists include Rosalba Carriera and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, among the first women artists to exploit the potential of pastel.

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Here is a collection of some of my pastel portraits created in the traditional process. Very similar to creating a classical painting, you start off creating the portrait in 3 colours which comprise of rust black and white. The whole image is created in this under pastel painting. The next process is to gently layer the soft pastels on the top which creates a beautiful glaze effect. Its quite amazing what effect you can get when you following this process.