Keeper of the quiet shore - the painting process

1. That is a very dark background, so a minimal amount of pastel went down initially, along with the basic mapping of beak and feathers.

2. Mapping in primary and secondary feathers as well as feather direction on the neck and head.

3. Another layer on the feathers and starting on some seaweed on the rocks.

4. That black background was a bit of a problem, I needed to remove any excess pastel so that there were no issues with pastel movement during framing. My extremely talented framer achieved this without problem, placing a slip between the frame and the glass so the two do not come in contact (this is done for any of my pastel paintings that do not have a mount). I do not spray my paintings with fixative as it can cause colours to change over time, so I need to know that the pastel is being held fast by the toothed paper.

5. Detail of the heron's head.