How to Use Soft Pastels & Pastel Pencils to Create a Pet Portrait

in this video we'll take a look at the creation process of Odin's pet portrait this artwork was created using soft pastels and pastel pencils on 40x 50 cm pastel mat board so like with all my animal portraits I like to start first with an initial base layer and for this I'll use my soft pastel sticks mainly from Unison color and shm you can see that this portrait has a lovely scenery background so I'm going to complete this first before I start on Odin himself this portrait is a very special Memorial artwork commissioned by a father to gift to his daughter who sadly lost her dog so I was very honored to be able to work on this for them I was able to present the client with multiple different background versions and this was the one that was chosen and I think it was a great choice so we have the light neutral Sky along with the distant mountains which also have an almost blue hue as they are so far away creating a sense of space and atmosphere we also have those lovely green Rolling Hills as we come forward to then the dirt and gravel that Odin is sat on you can see as I'm adding in this initial layer that I'm not being too neat and this is because the initial base layer is just going to be a sort of blurry and soft version of what I see in the reference image and then any detail and definition I can add with my pencils on top in future layers everything looks a bit crazy at the moment but once I start to blend everything out with my soft sponge tool the different sections will start to become Incorporated together right now I'm just trying to get the most accurate colors in the relevant areas as quickly as possible so that I can move on to the next stages when applying pigments with my soft pastel stick I'm really making sure not to press too hard as I don't want to fill in the tooth of the paper as this will make it harder for pencil details to go on top a lot of the time you can still see the paper slightly showing through and this is what we want as that will get easily covered anyway when we come to blend all of this pigment out so as I mentioned I blend out this pastel pigment using a soft sponge tool and these are mainly used for pan pastels but they work just as well with normal soft pastel sticks I'll make sure to also wear a respiratory mask to protect my lungs from the dust that this process creates I also have an air purifier in my studio which helps to clean the air in the background as well so I'll mainly just go from top to bottom and stick to similar areas at one time so as you can see I've Blended the sky and I've completed all of the sky first before I moved on to the blue of the mountains and then I'll finish those off before I move on to the green of the Hills this is because pastel pigments embed themselves into the sponge head and will transfer over to any new sections So to avoid muddying my colors I simply just complete one color group at a time because if I was to go from the Blue Mountains straight to the green of the hills and then maybe go back and forth those two sections I will start to muddy my colors as both of the pigments will be transferring into each of the sections So to avoid this I just blend out one color group at a time using the soft sponge tool is also great because it allows me to push and move the pigments around to where they need to be so as you saw the initial base layer straight from my pastel sticks was quite messy and all over the place and now I'm able to push the pigments around and organize them into more accurate sections and areas still though I want this initial base layer to be a soft blurry version of what I see in the reference image and then I'll be adding my pencil details on top some of this background will stay blur as we have those out of focus areas in the distance so it's also important to keep that in mind so I'll use the fact that the sponge head can transfer the pigments to my advantage and here you can see I'm using a scrap piece of past m board to mix and pick up some of those pigments and then apply that to my artwork this is a really handy way of adjusting and altering the colors and tones when needed it's also great to figure out color combinations before applying them to the artwork we're not going to have every single color an tone that we need as we're limited to what soft pastel sticks are available to us in our collection but pastels blend very well together so we can mix and combine certain colors together to achieve those exact tones that we're looking for so that's it for the initial base layer and I'll now start adding in the detail and definition so I'm essentially just transforming what looks like this flat surface into something with definition and texture on top I'm first just adding in specs of dark brown using my soft pastel stick in little patches like so and then I will blend this out and incorporate it in with the base layer so that's some of the Shadow added and enhance and then I can do the exact same with a light warm gray for some of those lighter areas and highlights adding in both darker and lighter values like this is what's going to help to build up that 3D shape and effect we're starting from simple beginnings and then adding in multiple layers on top in increasing levels of complexity and detail so once we've gone in with those lighter values from the soft pastel stick I can then switch to using the pastel pencils for even sharper details again using both those darker and lighter colors to add a greater sense of contrast between the values to bring out that 3D texture I'm not necessarily thinking about drawing actual dirt or gravel but just breaking the whole area into lots of little abstract shapes as long as I'm putting the right colors and values in the right areas the accurate detail and definition will start to take shape one of my favorite aspects of of this background is the long grass that we see coming into the foreground surrounding Odin there is a lot of depth to be achieved here so I'll be creating many layers of grass blades we have smaller and sharper Blades of grass coming into the foreground that you can see next to the dirt and then we will have longer and more blurry blades back into the distance drawing in both blurry and sharp grass blades like so is going to help to achieve a strong sense of depth within this background it's quite easy to make things blurry with soft pastels as you can just slly blend them with your finger to soften any definition obviously this is quite a bit harder with other media such as color pencil or watercolor for example I'll also be using slightly different variations of green pencils here so some will be warmer or cooler in tone and this just adds to some of the realistic variation within the grass some blades are darker or lighter and then you can see some that are really highlighted to almost a light gray color and that's just where the light is catching in those particular areas we then also have these Standalone Blades of wheat as as well which just also add some more realistic variation into the grass and I think add a nice contrast against the blue of the mountains as well it also just helps to make the background feel a little bit more busy and full of life down in the bottom right corner we also have this small patch of foliage which I think just adds a nice little accent and pop of color to this area of dirt and gravel I'll draw this in with much of the same process also enhancing the Shadows with the black for added contrast simply by drawing in between the blades of grass-like surf okay so now focusing on Odin himself I'll begin to add in the darkest areas of his face by using that sponge transfer method that I previously mentioned so I'm adding in Black pigment to a scrap piece of pastel mat board I'm then transferring it over with my sponge to the dark sections of the face and I'll then do the same for the brown areas using the sponge transfer method allows me to apply a very thin layer of pastel which is perfect for areas that are going to have lots of layers of pencil details such as animals with all of their Fair texture so once that initial base layer is complete for the face I can then go in with my pastel pencils and start to bring out all of the detail and definition I will use both darker and lighter pencils to refine the area starting to enhance the Shadows further and also to bring out the highlights that we see within the fur so to draw animal fur I'm essentially just drawing in lots of lines next to each other I'm mostly focusing on the values and that's how we're going to achieve achieve the 3d effect if you're looking to seriously improve your skills in drawing animal fair then I have many tutorials on my Patron that go in-depth into this process you can find the link to that in the description if you're interested in learning more I think soft pastels are such a great media to draw animals with as you can get real Rich vibrancy along with very sharp details whether drawing big or small another reason I also love soft pastels for animal portraits is because the pressure that you apply with your pencil also affects the capity and strength of your marks this is a really handy feature when creating the textures and nuances in Fair as well as feathers or other animal features by varying the pressure with your pencil you can achieve a range of effects from soft and delicate to bold and expressive you can see I'm now starting to work on the highlighted Fair texture on the snout leading down towards the nose and for this I'm using a light cold gray pencil I'm making sure to pay close attention to the direction that the fur is Flowing cuz you can see see in this area that it changes quite a bit as it sort of fans out from the center so that's important to keep in mind so just like with the background we've gone from simple flat Beginnings from the initial base layer and now we're working in multiple pencil layers building up the complexity detail and definition I'm also working from dark to light so I'm using increasingly brighter pencils through the layers to gradually bring out those lighter values that we see within the fair highlights so far I've left the eyes blank because I chose to only use pastel pencils here simply for the precise control that they give me as this is such a small and important area of the face the eyes are usually the first thing that the viewer looks at so I like to make sure that I spend my time here overall Odin's eyes are quite dark but we have those underlying brown colors coming through too I quite enjoy drawing animal noses and you can see that this one in particular is overall quite dark with some highlights mostly towards the top left again I break things down into their basic shapes so here for the subtle texture on the nose I'm simply just drawing in dots or little abstract shapes next to each other while paying close attention to the value of the highlighted area as well I don't want to make things too light I'm just looking to keep things subtly highlighted so that it looks natural and realistic sometimes when drawing in highlights it can be tempting to go lighter than what the reference image is telling you so always compare and contrast your values against other areas just to make sure that they're all in harmony together the collar was another fun area to work on and again simply just involved using sharp pencils to build up both the darker and lighter values and I think this color framed Odin's face quite nicely the client supplied me with a separate photo for the clear Odin name on the side which was also really helpful and I added in some subtle texture just by drawing in little lines to give a sort of stitched appearance okay so moving on down to the body we will again do the same process of an initial base layer blend that out and then start to add our pencil details on top I find this to be quite a relaxing process and once you get the hang of drawing animal fur it's always a joy to work on you can see I'm starting with the darker highlights first and then working in more layers on top building up that brightness and detail so I'm essentially just working from basic to complex and also from dark to light as I go through the layers you can see I'm also holding my pencil a bit further back for short pencils it helps to use a pencil extender but holding it further back like this just really helps to give me a good view of where I'm placing my lines and it also helps me to be a bit more expressive and loose with my mark making this in turn will allow the fur details to look even more realistic as I like to add some Randomness in for each of The Strokes so I will slightly Bend or flick the hiss off in different directions just so that they don't all look like a static and carbon copy of the previous as that would look stiff and unrealistic for black fair I tend to go for cool toned gray pencils as I think it helps to add a nice clean shine and vibrancy to the fair compared to using warm gray pencils for the brown Fair sections I'll mostly be highlighting with a light warm brown and pink to bring out the fair texture and definition always paying attention to the flow direction of the fair how long or short the hairs are and also what sort of a gap to leave between each of the hairs as this will correlate the fear density anyway that's now it for Odin's pet portrait I absolutely loved working on this artwork and it's always very rewarding to be able to fulfill my client wishes I would also like to say a quick thank you to the client for allowing me to film this process and upload it here on YouTube and patreon the full realtime process video for this particular artwork is now available on my Patron to watch and also there you will find many in-depth tutorials on how to draw animals and many other topics if you would like to check out my Patron and join nearly 2,000 other artists you can find the link to that in the description please consider liking this video if it's helped you in any way and feel free to subscribe to the channel so that you don't miss out on future uploads thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next one before you go if you're a beginner at soft pastels feel free to pick up my free beginnner soft pastel guide