Pastel Portrait

My joy knew no bounds when i was doing this portrait. Perhaps almost the same as a zoologist would feel on discovering a new species. I was trying a pencil drawing of the pic, before jumping to do with pastels directly (you can actually see the pencil streaks as white lines , where the pastel powder didnt stick to the paper due to the pencil grooves :( !!)  , as i got bored with the amount of detail i had to put in with the pencil and it wasnt getting interesting. The pencil nib is so sharp that it doesnt leave anyroom for you to experiment or to keep up the painting speed with your racing mind and put it on the paper.  You sideline the creative side of the mind, and insist on not missing a single line while you do with a pencil, the same is not possible with pastel, inherently , its rough and thats good , you can race on, unmindful and unbounded. It took me two hours, after office, before my dinner. 12x11.softpastel on paper.

First Pastel paiting

Floating in the same ethusiasm, i bought a new set of soft pastels for some hands on . Camel soft pastels set with 20 shades. Only one kind camel has. The shop guy told me they have some local made soft pastels, each stick costing around 20 - 30 rupees almost equal to oil paint tubes of medium size. Now i know why. The camel set cost me 130. Pretty good for a first hands on learning.
One thing i liked is the ease with which you can get down to paint anything. You dont have to "decide" about painting, anywhere anytime pick your box and your sketch book and start doing it. But oil painting on the otherhand , i have to pick a canvas (which is quite costly compared to a sheet of paper) so i HAVE TO get down to do a "serious painting". That sort of binds me down and i have to really pick a nice "full" time to start doing it. Add to it the hassle with gathering and setling down with thinner/brushes/palet/rag/tissues/board around! Pastels on the other hand is more or less like a sketch, you just have to get the box and sit down. Nothing else needed. Absolutely nothing else. Dont you like the sound of it ?

I get down to doing my pastels when ever i wish, right after office, quite late in the night, multitasking while conversing/watching TV anything anytime. It just fits in anywhere. I even used it on the train!! May it be a serious subject you want to do, or just practise "plein air" (which iam currently interested in doing)  Comparing soft with hard pastels, softs feel much closer to oils and water colors and even the end results are not quite far off compared to hard pastels . Hard patels on the other hand have a texture of their own which is  stamped on the end result quite conspicuously, right or wrong, the rendering is quite unique, of its own kind. Also the hardness tires me down quickly, my hands already sore with working overtime on computer.

so heres my pastel painting of "gondolas" , pic i was wanting to do since long in oil.

One on the left is with hard pastels . On the right is soft pastels. both little unfinished. One thing is i still dnt know how to control is the shedding of color, i have not bought a binder yet.