First PYO Dragon… and one Winged Wolf..

[ladybrooklyn]

Greater Basilisk wrote:

Those are really beautiful, lady. Your experience painting horses shows. I especially love the one with peacock accents.

😳 😳 😳

Thanks GB. 😀 I really appreciate it. 😀

With any luck the lighter grey wolf will have similar coloring… though with green instead of purple accents. 😀

I hope to have them done tonight or tomorrow… and the brown one possibily on ebay this weekend… we’ll see! 😀

[Mimi]

Your brown wolf is beautiful! And the grey wolves look like they’re coming along beautifully too.

By the way, what’s the difference between pastels and acrylics? (non-artist here!)

[ladybrooklyn]

Acrylic paints are a wet medium… whereas pastels are a dry medium… Acrylics will dry given time… where as pastels will remain moveable/blendable unless you spray them with a fixative (on paper) or sealer (on models)

There are two types of Pastels… “Chalk” and “Oil” I don’t use Oil Pastels for this… they just don’t work right.

But Chalk pastels are like charcoal… or crayons… kinda. 😀 they come in sticks. I then crush these sticks into a dust…

Like here…

I then use brushes… to “dust” the horse or other critter with the different colors… from lightest to darkest… building up the colors as I go. 😀

So the wolf started out that nice almong/off white color… and I slowly worked up to the darker browns… finally painting on the acrylic paints at the end. ^.^

I hope that explains it! 😀

[Mimi]

Thanks for the explanation! Its really interesting to see how these things work.

One question though — you mentioned that you put acrylic paints on at the end. Do the pastels still manage to show through somehow?

[Cheryl]

ANd how do you apply the wet medium on the dry chalk and NOT have the brushstrokes hurt the chalk dust design??

[ladybrooklyn]

mimitrek wrote:

One question though — you mentioned that you put acrylic paints on at the end. Do the pastels still manage to show through somehow?

I’ll take some detail pics tonight… Maybe I can kinda show it that way. ^.^ It all depends on how you do it..

Acrylics can be thinned… either by using water or clear acrylic medium. This makes them less opaque… In other words… you can slightly change the color beneath… this is called glazing… that’s really how good acrylic painters work on canvas (something I’ve really yet to masker. ^.^). They work similar to how I do pastels… in lots of layers of color building to a final color…

There are also acrylic paints that are naturally transparent… Burnt Umber and Ultramarine blue are two. 😀

Did you know that if you mix those specific colors together you can get a NICE cool black? 😀

CherylKaufman wrote:

ANd how do you apply the wet medium on the dry chalk and NOT have the brushstrokes hurt the chalk dust design

You know… I’m thinking I should do a little tutorial. 😀 I’m doing one for a specific horse color on another forum… I could do a nice run down of how to do pastels on these guys if you want me to! 😀

Actually Cheryl… you CAN”T apply the wet medium (acrylics) over the dry one (pastels) until you seal the pastels in some manner. They acrylics will just pick the pastels right up… and ruin all the shading. 😀

The first picture of my wolf… this one…

This was the first layer of pastels.

Once I had the shading how I wanted it… I took her outside and sealed her with a clear acrylic sealer… Krylon etc…

As soon as that was dry… the pastels are locked in place… I can’t change them… all I can do is add more. Which I do… I go back over with the same color, or one slightly darker… and repeat the process of shading…

Then I take her outside and seal her again…

See the pattern? 😀

I think the brown wolf was… 7 layers of pastels… give or take. 😀 and that’s… Pastel… seal… pastel… seal. 😀

Then at the vary end… I painted the acrylics on. ^.^

My old Illustration teacher had a mantra that still sticks with me… “apply your mediums fat over lean…” Meaning… start with your transparent “lean” mediums like water color, ink, pastels etc… then add your opaque “fat” mediums last as needed… like acrylics, oils etc. ^.^

[Mimi]

Thanks again, that’s really interesting to know.

It sounds like the process is a lot of work though! How long did it take you to do your brown wolf?

[Cheryl]

ahhhh- so it has to be in aerosol form- that makes perfect sense! Do a tutorial- I’d love to learn!

[ladybrooklyn]

mimitrek wrote:

Thanks again, that’s really interesting to know.

It sounds like the process is a lot of work though! How long did it take you to do your brown wolf?

No problem guys!

I’ll definately do a tutorial… I have one more wolf (that I got for Xmas) that I need to do… I’ll get her started and do one for you guys. ^.^

Actually… it CAN take forever… depending on how much detail… shading… etc… I put into it…

Drying time can be a factor… if it’s humid out. But I’m in Tucson, AZ… humid only occurs two or three months out of the year! 😆

Really it comes down to layers… if I wanted the wolf DEEP DARK brown… or black, then yes… it woudl take a LOOOONG time to build up to that color… ^.^

But I think this brown wolf… all told maybe took 10 hours… 😀 And I was working on the other two at the same time.

You have to get several projects working at once with pastels… so you aren’t just sitting there waiting for the sealer to dry. 😀

[Alyssa]

I really love your wolves. I think I like the brown one the most.

[Andrea]

Lady, will you be Ebaying any of your creations???

[ladybrooklyn]

Yup… the brown wolf should be headed to ebay… maybe this weekend…

Unless you want to make an offer on her. 😉 I’m always willing to sell off of ebay too… HATE their fees. 😛

[Arlla]

Gorgeous!! The wings with all that banding and everything – just gorgeous!

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R Tolkien

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