Speed Painting – Horse portrait in pastel (Cara)
A time lapse film of my painting of Cara, a beautiful black mare. I made it using pastels and pastel pencils on sanded paper (Fisher 400).
This was a commission for Cara’s owner, and the painting is about 16×12″. I hope you enjoy watching. To answer the FAQs that I usually get: This painting took about 10 hours work.
I took my own photos of Cara to use as references. I don’t use water or any fluids. The background is in soft pastel sticks, the ‘brush’ looking thing I use on it at the start is a silicon ‘colour shaper’ tool: it blends the colours.
The horse is underpainted with hard pastel sticks and then worked up with pastel pencils. Mostly I use Faber Castell & Schwann CarbOthello. I used to use Derwent, but have had quality issues so I’ve stopped using them and cannot recommend them.
The stick you can see some of the time is a Mahl stick, as used by signwriters. It’s just to lean my hand on without smudging the work. I do sell my work and take portrait commissions in the UK (it’s my living, so please don’t ask for freebies!), more about that on my website for anyone interested.
I do now offer tuition (message me if interested), and I make these videos from time to time because people seem to enjoy watching the process. Hope you do too… happy viewing!
