Maine Coon Cat WIP

In October I have been asked to give a pastel demo to my art club, Artists of the South Corridor. I’ve never done a demo before. I have taken a drawing to my shows to work on while at the show but I have never given a demo so this will be a first. I thought I’d "practice" with this pastel of a Maine Coon Cat. I selected the reference from Wet Canvas’ reference image library. The photo was taken by a member named "Snag." Thank you Snag for sharing!

This will be on a piece of 11" X 14" sand colored velour paper. I love working on velour. It has a naturally soft surface with a velvety feel to it. In addition, really takes a lot of layers of pastels and cuts down on pastel dust by the nature of its surface. If you’re not familiar with pastels they can be toxic so be sure to read the safety warnings about working with them before using them. Pastels are made with pure pigment and formed with a clay binder so the colors are gorgeous.

So far I have just put a rough sketch of the cat on my paper with a black Conte pastel stick. Conte pastels are hard square sticks. I use both Conte sticks and Rembrandt soft pastels in my drawings. Rembrandts are considered soft pastels but are harder than most soft pastels and give a bit more control.

That’s it for now. . . . more to come.