A commissioned portrait came to Ryn Shell to paint a gift for a husband who had missed out on spending Christmas with his wife and children. Work circumstances caused them each to spend Christmas with the children but not together as a family, as they would have wished. It was a treat to be able to paint the portrait of them together, as they wished to be, as a family on Christmas Day.
The Portrait in Pastel Pencils
I prefer impressionist-style oil paintings for my own family portraits, but understood that my many portrait commissioning clients preferred the subtly and detail I achieved with pastel pencils For realism in portraiture the pastel pencil medium is ideal. Please tone, I am striving to pass on my knowledge in art to others, thee days, and that doesn't allow me the time to paint portrait commissions.
For those who have not begun working in pastels, my advice is DO NOT DO IT, or, if you do, be extremely careful not to inhale dust—easier said than achieved. Beware, pigmented dust is poisoning, and the binder, being a fine fine talc, and closely related to asbestos, is also hazardous. dust and pigments. Pastels should only be worked with if you have a dust extractor in the area where you are working and a safe disposal system for the dust. Definitely, don't work with pastel medium in a home environment where you have children breathing the pastel dust contaminated air. If you go to an art workshop and other artists are using pastels or dusty mediums is an unwise manner, creating dust on their paintings and blowing that off into the air, stand up and walk out. Then phone the organizers and tell them why. There is no place for shyness or fear of making a fuss when it comes to health and safety. Our stressing hat artists should work safely will save lives. Yes, all those 'self-taught' artists with a fool for a teacher are frequently putting their lives at risk. You don't use any art material before learning all that you can about what you are working with. I'll talk more about this topic in future blogs and my short, FREE, art demonstration videos and the full-length art tutorials available at my, A Brush with Nature Studio The Deep Love of Parents
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Ryn Shell
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