Pekingese Dog Pastel

[ericav]

So I decided to giving Ampersand Pastelbord's (http://www.ampersandart.com/pastel.html) a shot. I was mostly interested in it for a couple reasons it can be used for colored pencil, acrylic painting, and pastels. I'm still researching using it as a platform for colored pencils and acrylics. (Apparently colored pencils can be varnished and possibly framed ...wait for it....without glass! GASP! I don't know if I would be so bold, but one can dream.) I decided to start with what the platform was designed for, pastels. I'm really happy with how it came out. It's 11x14 and I decided to title it "This Is My Happy Face"

Any comments are appreciated  

[Riechan]

oh my god! That is sooo cool!
I love the way you did the eyes!
The nose is so cute ^^

[tcmatteson]

Wow! This looks like a photograph! I love all the tiny details in the fur and the reflection in the eyes make them look so shiny

[ericav]

Riechan and tcmatteson, I actually picked this photo because of the eye reflections. I know that might sound weird but I knew I would add blue into the reflections and I wanted to see how it would turn out. I also added blue and blue gray into the nose to balance it out.

[seeuudee]

This is amazing - I really thought it was a photo!

[ericav]

Thank you seeuudee!

[jellybean89]

Wow! This is so amazing - all of the details are incredible

[ericav]

Thank you jellybean89, not sure I would say incredible but I'm happy  I think I'm getting closer to photo realism work so I think I'm aiming in the right direction. I know I'm a hard critic. 

[BeaG]

It's amazing!
You are very talented.

[itscribe]

When I opened this thread, I did so assuming that the photo on the main board was the picture that you painted from. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that was your work and not the 'before'. If this is your first time working with a new medium, I can only imagine what later projects will look like. That said, I'm not sure how much you can improve as this is already so absolutely amazing!