Lisa,
I'm late to this thread, but am I glad I found it. I was blown away by your pastel. It is sensitive, refined and gorgeous. The face is wonderfully done and I love the sparkle in her eyes. The sari is great. Don't you just love to work in a really brilliant, saturated color? For me it is deliciously decadent and I try to do it every chance I can.

Richard,

I'm glad you found the thread because your comment was really sweet! Well, I must admit that saturated color is new to me in my painting. Heck, it barely exists in my life so I will have to do more of it and let you know if I like it or not. We have this joke in my family that everything ends up being "Ober Beige." LOL. No color gusto in our genes I guess. I am making small advances toward correcting that. This pastel was my first effort in that direction. Thanks so much for the compliments and the confidence to try more colorful things.

Lisa, I have been out of town on vacation for a while and opened this up and guess what I said....WOW! ;) Aren't you so impressed with yourself? Now that you are painting from good resource material you have simply turned into a pastel goddess! It is just BEAUTIFUL. I think I need to take a trip up to visit you and watch you do one of these.

Mary, I was wondering where you have been! Haven't seen you in a while. Hope you had a nice trip.

Thank you for the compliment! Impressed with myself? Nah, but I think I do see some improvement which is the great hope. You are so right about good source material. It makes a huge difference and I have really learned from Mike.

I know there is nothing I can teach you but any time you want to come visit would be great. Just warn me so I can clean the house. It seems I paint so much lately that the whole place is falling apart before my eyes.

Again, thanks, Mary. Glad you are back!

Beautiful work Lisa!

:) know the feeling!

Excellent! This is a beautiful breathing portrait that deserves to be in the seasoned professional area.

Renee Price

The pantheon is complete.
 

Hi Lisa,
I know I'm not qualified to give any sort of critique so I'll just bow down at your feet a little bit.
I had chosen my God of Pastels a while back and in fact, that is who got me inspired to try them myself.
Now I have found the Goddess of Pastels!
The detail is amazing and I have to ask...do you use pastel pencil for the fine detail or do you sharpen thicker pastels? You don't have to tell me if it's a trade secret and I don't know if this is the correct place to ask you this question, but this detail is so fantastic that I have to ask!
Thank you for inspiring me in pastels once again!
(Any time you are doing a workshop in the Louisville area, I hope I hear about it!)
--
Brenda Ellis

Pantheon Schmantheon
 

I apologize for not responding sooner. I have been on what most people call a vacation. It was indeed fun but I am exhausted and after riding the waver runners yesterday like a maniac I feel like I have been in a car wreck. LOL. I bet I look like that too!

Terri, thanks so much for you comment. You know I love your work.

Renee, I really appreciate the compliment! A "breathing" portrait? Now that ranks up there with one of the nicest things I have ever heard (read). I don't know where I belong. I think it's somewhere between knowing just enough to pass and not knowing enough to open my mouth except to say "thank you." Thanks!

Brenda, as I mentioned above my whole body hurst from hitting the waves on that "motorcycle for water" so when I read your comments (which made me laugh), everything hurt! You are so nice it's funny. Ouch. Please don't tell anyone you are my sister...or daughter. But seriously, thank you so much for that incredible title! Who is my husband, the God of Pastels? Is he cute?

I am thrilled you are inspired to do pastels and I can't wait to see you post some of your work. In the meantime, the answer to your questions:

For detail work, my favorite thing to use is my Nu-Pastels. I don't sharpen them. I break them and use the corners for the details. Granted, I have lots of broken pieces and my work area is a disaster but I love that they aren't so hard. They seem softer than my pastel pencils which I do use for eyelashes, lips and teeth when necessary. Everything else is done with broken Nu-Pastels. If you like to do detail work like I do, try them out. I must admit I lean heavily toward the much harder pastels. I mainly use Rembrandt and Nu-Pastel. All the other stuff seems greasy or flaky to me. I don't have a very light touch so other softer brands just crumble on me. That's just me. Play around with them and see what you like best. Just keep in mind that if you choose to do detail work (little tiny details) the pastel pencils are pretty hard which makes it difficult to use as a finish over very soft pastels. That's why I don't use the pencils for hair as an example. I'm sure you know that but I thought I would throw that in.

Again, thank you again for your undeserved compliments.

Wow!
 

Lisa, I don't know how I missed this one. That's Gorgeous!
Congrats...

Dear Claudemir,

I am happy to see you posting any time! Thank you for your enthusiasm. It is always so nice when one's work is appreciated. Thank you.