Using A Variety of Pastels

19 07, 12 Filed in: Pastel

While the main focus of our trip to India was to see Tigers, we also went to Assam in northeastern India to see the Great One-horned Rhino. The weekend closing of Kaziranga National Park and the onset of the monsoon rains conspired to keep us from seeing Rhinos. We saw this young male at Manas National Park.
Starting with one of our photos for reference, I decided to do a pastel painting of our close encounter.
I used brown Pastelmat for this painting. I wanted the brown to show through the greens of the vegetation. I laid in some medium green and some darker green for the background, using vertical strokes to give the grasses direction. I then used water to blend the two colors of pastel together.
I then moved on to the Rhino. I used pan pastels as well as various types of soft grey pastels to show the differences in skin color (the sun made his upper skin appear almost white, while the rain caused his lower areas to be almost black).
To finish the painting, I added more foliage and grasses with pastel pencils. I also added skin texture to the Rhino using a sponge to apply pan pastels and by using pastel pencils.