They are exceptionally good Velasquez, lovely subject matter. Is that a heat lamp or a death ray?
I like the blue reflections on the armchair...feels like squeaky leather.

Wow! Velasquez!

Is the lady in the chair your wife?

I can't believe you guys!

Makybe Diva - that's a portrait of my sister.

You used to be able to buy big sheets of thick grey cardboard in the art shop for £1.50 and I'd cut them with a craft knife and prime them with trade emulsion - vinyl silk, so that the acrylic paint didn't sink on the surface. You could just swish the paint about and dry it with a hair-dryer. You could use acrylic glazing medium to paint in layers.

nice work valesquez.

heat lamp with light reflections is great.



pointillism - did this in 1988, think it was taken from
a dan dare illustration. Cant remember.

Cracking portrait of Tsonga...

done in 1987 - added purple in photoshop.

spent an hour on this last night



inspired by David Icke's madness

Thanks for the reference to Elizabeth Blackadder, Velasquez. Some lovely watercolours of flowers.
This landscape was painted from a holiday snap of St Abbs at sunset. Breaks a few "rules" but that's what rules are for.

littlewoods catalog photo.

oil painting on wooden panel.

sold it in 2001? gallery.

just get general dimensions then
abandon the photo and freework it.

mine's bigger than yours... make my day.

Eric Kennington was injured while serving in WW1. Following his recovery he was commissioned as a war artist and returned to France. He also served as a war artist in WW2.
Trench raiders operating in small teams would stealthily attack enemy trenches at night, silently killing the guards before causing as much damage as possible then retreating.
This pastel drawing is based on Kennington's drawing "Raider with cosh".

just for my own wall - i painted over it.
taken from a famous photo so not a good idea
to try and sell it. Re-used the canvas.
Just have the photo left.

paintings of men fashioning lethal
home made weapons. ?
primitive swarzeneggar footage.

Was more concerned about the cigarette than the club or the pig-sticker bayonet.

It's quite a haunting image Foinavon.
Would hang that on my wall.

Lovely painting Foinavon. It does look like The Cobb in Lyme Regis.

What size paper is it on? And what size paper do you normally use?

Thanks for all the info, Foinavon

Last time I did some pastel drawing I remember using a pad of paper which I think would have been 16x12. I think I wil keep to this size.

It was various shades of pinks, beiges, light browns and pale yellows. I was only into portraits at the time so I think this was probably best for that.

This time I will be concentrating on landscapes so I'm thinking a different colour might be better.

As I have said earlier on here, I have about 20 Conte pastel pencils. I will need to build on those.

I didn't use a proper easel, just a board on my lap to which I fixed the paper with masking tape....oooh it's all coming back to me now lol.

I used to sharpen my pencils with a knife and used a rubber which I think must have been specially for pastels. I'm thinking I may have used a light brown pastel pencil for drawing outlines, I'm not sure.

Anyway that is all the equipment I used.

I have been reading my Jenny Keal book. It is very good. Just what I want to get me started again. I have some questions about it, will post separately. Hope you don't mind all this

Don't mind your questions at all M-D, pleased to help all I can.

I don't use sandpaper as it wears down your pastels in no time. The Fabriano paper was called "Tiziano", was more expensive and no better than Daler imo.
I have a 64 colour box of inscribe pastels from WHS which are very cheap and quite good although I find the colours harsh and primary. I have a very expensive set called Unison which are lovely to use and have very subtle colours suitable for portraits. I use these sparingly. My collection is completed with a number of harder pastels of squarish shape which I think are Reeves and Daler picked up from various discounters like "The Range". I also have a few boxes of white,grey and sanguine chalks for monochrome for limited colour drawings. Also have compressed charcoal and conte pencils of various grades. You don't need all that for starters but would recommend a box of the Inscribe pastels as they cost peanuts and are a basic workhorse.
I work on the flat with the pad on my desk and just blow or shake off any excess periodically.
If I need a lot of layering I will do an intermediate fix with a very light misting of hairspray. (Tesco economy works as well as anything and has the advantage of not being perfumes and costs less than a pound). Use the harder pastels first and finish with the soft chalky Conte ones. I don't make much mess and a damp piece of kitchen paper will clean up any dust. It does make the hands dirty though and a lot of scumbling with the fingers can degrease and make them feel sore. Easy to wash off afterwards and use a bit of hand cream.
Colour shapers are useful for fine detail but generally use the fingers otherwise.
Off out now, will look in again this evening.

That sounds a bit ambitious for me at the moment, Velasquez but thanks This thread is great!

Thank you Foinavon for your post. I will study it carefully then order my stuff. So glad you like Inscribe, I had been looking at those on Amazon. I will deffo buy sime of them then

I have just found some old pencil sketches that must have escaped being sent to the tip with Freddie Mercury and Emma Thompson.

I have taken some pictures of them on my iPad.They are very simple drawings nowhere near anything anyone here has done. Maybe a bit better than Crags' stick man  

I will post them if I can. I have no shame