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M A T E R I A L S

A selection of my favourite pastels, coloured pencils, papers and tools used to create the vivid colours and fine details within my portraits

Chalk Pastels - The materials that I use are of the highest quality for pigment and lightfastness.  This ensures my portraits are highly resistant to ageing.  When working in chalk pastel I mostly work using pastel pencils, I use a range of harder pastels such as the Faber Castell Pitt Pastels for my more intricate details, and softer pastels such as the Stabilo CarBothello Pastels and Conte Pastels for the fluffier / fur textures and blending.  I will often use Union Pastels and Pan Pastel for creating backgrounds to my portraits as they are perfect for covering large areas and blending. 

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'Jonty's' nose - The variety of unexpected colours that go into creating these portraits are incredible, look close and you will see blues, greens, pinks, yellows.  All these colours add the depth and realism so that your horse, dog or pet comes to life on the page.

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Step by step of how I layer up the different tones to create the depth and textures within the portraits

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Every nose is so different, no two are the same! 

I love noses!

Paper - My paper of choice is the Claire Fontaine Pastel Mat, a coarser acid free paper, similar to very smooth sandpaper.  It holds the pastel beautifully allowing the blend multiple layers whilst still achieving high level details.  As the paper holds the pastel pigment so well it means I do not need to fix my pastel work, which can sometimes dull the pigment, but if not handled correctly prior to framing the pastel work is still susceptible to smudging, refer to Mounting and Framing Guide.

Coloured pencils - When undertaking coloured pencil portraits I generally use Faber Castell Polychromos and Caran D'Ache.  I will either work onto Pastel Mat paper or drafting film dependant on which will best suit the textures within the portrait.  I use a range of tools for creating fine detail and blending, the most useful being the Ceramic Slice knife.

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