Denise Finlay Art Demonstration Thursday 13th February 2025 Portrait in Pastels

Denise starts the demo by telling us about the pastel paper she uses. It's a grey colour and is manufactured by Fabriano.

She shows us the photograph of her daughter as this will what she will be working from.

She starts by blocking in the cheek area with a pink colour and rubbing in with a rag. Eyebrows are suggested using a dark grey pastel.

.

Three tones of peach are used for the skin colour, light, dark and coral. Light peach is applied on the forehead area, followed by the top of the nose and the cheekbones. The pastel is rubbed up in with a rag and a blending stick is used to blend colours.

.

The area above the eye is suggested by the lighter colour.Then using dark grey, the eye socket is drawn in. A grey/green colour is used for the eyes.

A pencil is used to define the shape of the eye. A brown pencil draws in the eyelashes and then a black pencil is used to go round the details to define. For eyeball, Denise shows us how to highlight eye glint by drawing two white curves and crossing this with broken black lines.

As charcoal pencils can be a bit harsh, Denise uses a pit oil pencil to define the area under the eye , the corner of the eye and lower lashes. Then light grey is used to shade cheek. 

Pink is added to suggest ear. Then Denise uses a lighter peach to define cheek and nose bone. Green gray is applied to darken areas. A light white 1 and a light white 2 highlight the cheek, brow and nose. Then the area around is blended in using a mix of yellow and purple. Using grey, the shadow in the underlit area of the nose is filled in. 

Inner area of nose is highlighted and finger is used to blend round nostril area. Using a rubber, Denise takes out unnecessary pastel work. The tip of the nose is highlighted and the area under the nose is darkened with a mid grey.

Denise continues working on the portrait.

A close up of Denise's work on the eye area. Note the highlight is produced by drawing two curved white lines with broken back lines across.

The area around the ear is darkened. Using a pencil measure from eye to tip of nose then ear to nose. This will determine top of ear which is now highlighted as well as the edge of the ear. The earlobe is defined. More pastel (purple) is applied around to make ear definition. When painting ears, see it as a build up of shapes. The same applies to the eyes and the nose.

The ear area is defined then the area behind the ear is darkened using green/grey. To tone down bright areas, Denise uses a coloured pencil and lightly strokes in colour. Purple or blue are good for toning down colour. 

Denise starts to define areas where needed. She tells us that a pencil works better on light areas than dark areas. The portrait is now completed. Further work may be done on it or a surround of silver and bronze leaves can be added to complete the painting.

A completed portrait previously painted by Denise where the face is surrounded by silver and bronze leaves.