Soft pastel and pastel pencil, 12"x15.5" on grey Clairefontaine Pastelmat
Common kingfisher taking flight over water.
This is my first soft pastel piece! I did a lot of charcoal and conte crayon drawing in college as a drawing major, but eventually transitioned to painting. So I never really got into soft pastels before. I am loving learning a new-to-me medium. The essence of drawing is still there for me, even if soft pastel work is considered painting due to the soft, painterly effects; but I get my drawing experience nonetheless. Pastelmat is recommended as the ideal surface for the soft pastels. You can add several layers to build it up, and I've used paper stumps for blending. On this piece, I used Carbothello pastel pencil and Sennelier soft pastels.
