Alane

I am so slow.
I am slower than a sleeping cat sometimes.
Not at actual painting...this was only 6-7 hours...but in getting to the painting, and things leading up to actually painting, I can be slow.

But I finally finished my portrait swap painting.

Here is Alane.
9x12
pastel on pastelmat (awesome paper)
and my sparkly black pan pastel

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Dru and Branwen stopped by yesterday which was nice.  Branwen and Daya always go off and do...Branwen-and-Daya-things.  Dru and I lounge and chat.  (I showed her my new pastels.) 

Especially after not having done an actual serious real-deal painting (as opposed to those little ACEOs) for a while, I think that maybe I can't do it anymore. And sometimes when I get to the easel and I can't get my head in gear, or when things are just not working, I really think maybe I can't do it anymore. I told that to Dru, and she says the same thing happens to her. And Dru is a really accomplished artist so that's very encouraging to hear.

This portrait went through a terrible ugly stage that was so discouraging I had to put the highlights in earlier than I usually do.  Then I started feeling better about it. All paintings go through an ugly stage, This one was just worse than usual.

Finishing a painting is always a good feeling.

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Lisa asked about pastels since she has succumbed to my bad influence and will now turn into a pastel junkie. 

I fully support and approve of this endeavor.

Lisa, I think a really good starter set would be a set of the Blick artist brand.  They are good pastels. You will like them. I like mine.  Work vertically and don't blow your pastel dust around. Unless you are outside. Get some pastel paper too.... Mi Tientes is a good quality non-sanded inexpensive paper. Some papers can be very expensive too.... but you will have different working results on different papers. Clear gesso is a good ground to coat your paper, if you want extra tooth. (I prefer a toothier surface)  I do a lot of my aceo cards in pastel on clear-gessoed Bristol, which is a very affordable, available, and good paper solution for pastels.