This took longer than it was supposed to. I wanted to focus on the application of the pastel and colour but found both difficult in the shadow side of the portrait.

Portraiture in Oil Pastel with Samir Rakhmanov

Skills

Posted on

April 2, 2025

← I don’t have much time to paint this week because of work, so this took me about 1 hour. I used a ~13×18 cm (5×7 inch) cold press watercolor paper, which, in hindsight, was a big mistake: I just couldn’t achieve the level of detail, layering, and texture I wanted on such a small surface. Blending with dilution and paper stubs helped, but some areas still ended up a bit muddy. I also think I instinctively leaned too much into realism, a habit I’m trying to rein in. Decided to do this in one colour to experiment with shade rather than colours. Finding it very difficult to work with a stick of colour still. Not able to work finely. →

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