When I first began working on this demonstration, I had no problem deciding on what I would paint: it had to be my spirit animal, the snow leopard. I’ve spent many hours watching documentaries on these beautiful reclusive animals, to learn and understand their habitats and breeding practices. I work nearly every day if I can in order to master fur on wild animals, giving them a true representation of their fur type, like the short hair of a lion or giraffe, or the longer tufts of a koala. 

Quoll, Daniel Palaez Dupue, PanPastels, pastel pencils and pastel sticks on Pastelmat paper, 9½ x 12½" (24 x 32 cm)

 

If you are interested in beginning to paint animals in pastel and haven’t before, I would suggest starting with an easier subject like a domestic dog or cat and work smaller. You don’t need to have PanPastels, you can work with just pastel sticks and pastel pencils; they are just as easy to block in the initial stages. I’ve taught people in one-day workshops who have had no experience with pastels before and have made wonderful work.

My aim as an artist is to draw the viewer in to study the details. Not only do I want realism, but I want you to feel the essence of the animal—what are they thinking about or focused on. I recently did a piece of an ape just sitting serenely, but there is a look in her eye of taking in and quietly processing what is happening around her. 

Mountain hare, Nigel Hodson, PanPastels, pastel pencils and pastel sticks on Pastelmat paper, 15¾ x 12" (40 x 30 cm)

 

I’ve come to rely on PanPastels to reduce the time I spend on the following process of pastel pencils and pastel sticks. If you have a background in painting you will be familiar with color mixing, and mixing colors from pans is no different. I always have a scrap of the paper color I’m using to test my colors on, as well as a scrap piece of any printer paper to mix the color before applying it to the painting, because the applicators can lay the pigment down as separate colors if not mixed first. Pans come in a selection of a tint of the color: the actual color and then a shade and an extra dark shade. You don’t need to purchase each of these sets, as the color can be altered by using white or black to make it darker or lighter. I have purchased most of the sets as I like the convenience of using colors straight from the pan, and I love buying art supplies!

Choosing paper color is very important to the outcome of your work. I now only use Pastelmat paper, as I love the softness of its surface and its pliability. When I discovered Pastelmat and PanPastels during lockdown it completely changed my work; the paper takes many layers of pastel. I mostly use dark gray Pastelmat, but depending on the piece and the overall colors of the photo reference I will also choose from, anthracite, light blue, light green or brown. This time I chose light blue as I thought it suited the softness of this cat and helped me keep the values lighter without having to apply too much light colored pastel.

Kookaburra, Jason Moore, PanPastels, pastel pencils and pastel sticks on Pastelmat paper, 9 x 12" (23 x 31 cm)

 

I use many different brands of pastel pencils as each brand has a different hardness/softness and ranges of vibrant or subdued colors. I know a lot of artists have a favorite brand. My recommendation is Derwent as a starter set as it has a broad range of colors and quite a few neutrals. I really wish I could bring out my own set of pastels as there aren’t enough neutral tones available. Some pastel companies come out with some fabulous sets of neutral tones, but not in pencils. Even PanPastels have a selection of very vibrant colors, but you can easily mix them with other colors to come up with the right tones.  

My Art in the Making Strike a Pose

Stage 1

Stage 1  Drawing

I choose the size of the piece I’m going to create based on where I might show it (some exhibitions have maximum sizes) or whether it will fit into a frame I already have to help keep extra costs down. I print my reference photo out to the actual size, as this helps me when I am working on highly detailed areas like eyes. Even after you have done your initial drawing, you can easily lose details when you lay down the PanPastel, so having a print out to size really helps with rechecking sizes.

Stage 2

Stage 2  Applying PanPastels

After I’ve drawn up the line drawing, I start applying the PanPastels. This layer of painting can help reduce the amount of pencil/pastel work and provide a tonal base to work over. I paint this layer a shade or two darker than the actual finished painting, as I can achieve the lighter tones with pencils or sticks. Now I will decide if I’m going to put in a background with pans; when there is a lot of fur to paint over the background color, I will put it in now.

Stage 3

Stage 3  The Eyes

I always start with the eyes as I think they hold the soul of the animal, and if I can’t get them right there is no point in moving on to the rest of the painting. You can see I like to mask off the area I’m working on as I don’t want to contaminate/dirty the other sections especially if I have completed a section. Once I’ve done the eyes I’ll normally finish off the head, then move on to the body. 

Stage 4

Stage 4  Painting the Head

It’s so important to match the values to your photo reference—it can end up being the difference between a flat painting and one that has depth and contrast. This cat had quite a few marks on its face that I initially put in, but later on I decided to remove them by softly glazing over them as I found them to be too distracting.

Stage 5

Stage 5  Glazing

There are times when I’ll use a neutral toned pencil, like the Cretacolor yellow gray pencil, to run over areas of fur that need to be softened, blended or the color subdued. Glazing is very important to my process of blending colors so they don’t stand out as intense sections.

Stage 6

Stage 6  The Body

Moving on to the body, some areas of the photo may be out of focus, so I tend to keep this area softer without as much detail as the front of the cat. The trick with fur is to not draw in every hair even if they are all in focus in the reference photo, as it makes the animal look unrealistic. 

There are times when lighter pencils might resist going over several layers of deeper colored pastel pencils. That’s when I’ll use the pastel sticks to give me stronger lights, especially when going over the darker background. The pencil can easily pick up the PanPastel application and turn white to pink.

Stage 7

Stage 7  Adding Depth to the Fur

Having already established the base of darker PanPastel here really helps to lay several shades of fur, building up to the lightest layer. This gives a sense of depth to the fur.

Stage 8

Stage 8  Finished Artwork

Strike a Pose, PanPastels, pastel pencils and pastel sticks on Pastelmat paper, 19½ x 14½" (50 x 37 cm)