demonstration of a portrait in pastel

During the monthly courses in my studio in Cazals 46250, I sometimes hire a model and occasionally do a demonstration for the students. This was a portrait of Ségolène on pastelmat paper, using mainly Girault pastels.

In the video I show something of my working method, starting by a basic construction of the head, thinking about the scull and the volume; sketching in the proportions in pastel crayon. Once this is in place I want to block in the basic areas of light and dark, this helps when it’s related to the tone of the paper i.e lighter or darker than the pastel paper. Once all this is in place I begin to construct the face, leaving the details until last. I will make another video about the final detail another time, but I find that most people’s difficulty when painting the portrait is going way too fast into the details of the features and not spending enough time on the construction.