Step by step Pastel portrait painting of a young boy with his favourite hat.

This is a step by step Pastel portrait painting of a young boy with his favorite hat. I took several pictures of him inside doors, playing with the lights and the shadows, inspired by his strong personality. I choose an image where his pure and innocent look observed me intensively. I felt it could be quite interesting to make a post over this work, so I decided to start from how I built my pallet for this painting. However, this will be a different post that I´ll post later on.

To paint a Pastel portrait I always need a wide scale of colors. I use a lot of Pastel bars. Lot of white, Pozzuoli, English red, Ocher, Toasted Siena, Caput mortuum, burned Gray earth, Permanent red, etc. All of them with their different intensities of pure pigment. With this rich palette, it is a pleasure to work almost Alla Prima. Adding color by color, placing each stroke in its place …

1. I prepare my sheet of Canson paper choosing a light Ocher tone… I start drawing with a well-sharpened pastel pencil. I study every detail. I take my time in the sketch while getting “into” the model personality.

 

2. Then I mark my brightest point… I need from the beginning to know where my high lights are. I work in the lights with two Pastel bars; White and a very bright Pozzuoly. The quality and creamy texture of the Shcmincke white is very interesting. It will resist clean and bright throughout the portrait process! As long as I do not friction with my hand over it. I’m careful to not erase by mistake my strokes, but if this would happen, I can always replace the light.

3. I continue, choosing my darker tones of the face. One slightly cold and one warmer. They are, basically, Caput mortuum and Burned Green Earth tones … I apply them quickly, with big strokes. Rather than drawing, following the form. I already have a good contrast. This will not be the last adjustment on the shadow´s intensity, but it leaves me quite clear both sides in my palette needs.

 

4. Then, I need to construct rapidly the middle tones in the face and here I use more variety; burned sienna, burned yellow ocher, caput mortuum pale… I’m playing with the color temperature. And since it’s a portrait of a child I smooth carefully my outlines. But not too much! For me, it is important to touch the Pastels with the fingers. It is not the same thing if you work with gloves, small cotton sticks or any other tool. The touch with the finger marks the difference when we speak about Pastels!

5. I can not wait any longer and I need to paint his eyes! Almost always I begin with a “pastel base” that I mark with the yolk of my finger. It is an exact tone and color that I mix among several pastels. For this, I use the paper palette that I always have next to my painting. (It is very useful to have it because sometimes I need to create my proper color as if it was a mixture of painting in oil or acrylic) I define the details with dry pastel pencils, I take my time, I am not in a hurry. The eyes are the most imposing In a portrait … But they don´t work alone. I get the expressiveness touching everything else, the eyebrows, the mouth, the nose …It is all related.

I study my model and again I draw everything. This time using several qualities of pastel pencil colors… I am very careful with the expression. it is the most important thing! I look for a balance between my own feelings and the model ones.

6. I return to the light and verify the values. Then I mark the hat with a nice scale of three gray shades… It feels more like drawing. The painting instantaneously requests some bases of color in the background, which I mark with large strokes (And somehow rustic) using several Ochers. Now the hat stands out with its true contrast. I play a little more with its texture …

7. It’s time to connect the face with the hair, that will give him these beautiful golden reflections and will move the painting into a very dynamic direction. As always, I mark the clearest and brightest points with pure white. (Since I have it at the hand, I mark with an energetic trace the light behind. The one that forms part of the background).
   

   Time to connect the face with the hair… Photo by, Bogra art studio, 2018, all rights reserved

   Then I look for medium and dark tones to paint the hair, (A nice golden ocher, burned sienna, burned Umber) … I place them with energetic strokes keeping the direction of the tufts. I soften the stroke with a single energetic gesture without exceeding, mixing these tones together. This way I am trying to obtain the vitality of the hair.

8. I still work on the background. Now I need it´s darker tones, which I search among my old Pastel boxes. I’m looking for very estimate chocolate brown bar. Hence my favorite dark blue aubergine, which will be the basis of the child’s sweater. I deepen the shadows with black. These dark tones play with each other and highlight the bright blonde hair. I leave everything almost unfinished. I walk away to see it globally from distance.

9. At this stage, the portrait is finished … the essentials are transmitted … I do not want to be driven by inertia and overwork the portrait. The pastel needs to breathe … It was a beautiful experience!