In my early teens, I had used coloured pencils and then briefly in my late teens pastel sticks, but I thought paints were more permanent and valuable and so I never pursued them further. However, recently I had come across Stella May's wildlife art, which was mostly done in pastels and which, to me, was beautiful. She had tried a few works in oils and I was curious as to why she would go back to pastels. Having reached out, she told me she preferred pastels.
This was an obvious choice for me now as there were no liquids or solvents involved and I could use my splint. I ordered a set of polychromos pastel pencils and pastel sticks and started my next drawing, a young Kalahari lion, which I had previously done in oils and which was one of my favourites.
Pencil sketch
It was a completely new learning experience for me, made more difficult by me not having the right paper, very important when working with pastels. I did find that there was something nice though about the natural richness of pastels.
Practising the eye
Work in progress
In the end, it wasn’t my greatest achievement, however considering my condition, I was somewhat satisfied.
November 2018
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