Commission: Pepper in soft pastels

This is a commission piece I did for my cousin whose dog, Pepper, recently left for that place in the sky after 16 years of being a beloved companion.

When I asked my cousin why she chose a photo where she couldn't see Pepper's face, she said she was planning to display it on the floor behind her work desk so that when she turned around, it would look like he's chilling with her and looking at the tree. Awww 😥

You know, when a piece has such sentimental value, there's added pressure to ensure that it meets expectations. I stared at the photo for a full day, unable to start. It felt like there were so many challenging elements: Christmas tree, glittery baubles, shiny presents and of course, Pepper's fur. Terrier fur grows in all directions and it's diffitul to getting definition without it looking randomly messy. Furthermore, my cousin wanted a large painting and the largest piece of paper I had was a piece of 50x35cm Pastelmat. I've never worked on anything this large. I don't even have a backing board large enough and had to tape two boards together!

I spent a long time dithering over what pastels to use. Soft pastels? Pastel pencils? Finally, I decided to use NuPastels and started with the tree. This turned out to be a good call. The NuPastel Blue Spruce is a rich dark green that gave good contrast and the edges allowed me to draw in the details of the branches.

The original colour of the wall is a pale blue but when I tried it, it looked very washed out, possibly because the baubles also have a light blue tint. I thought, heck let's go bold. I chose a complementary colour to the green - a deep red, and painted over the blue. It's a Christmas theme after all! (The photo shows my sustainance fuel of my two favourite local drinks - one cold and one hot because we all need a balanced diet).

Next came the presents. It was quite tricky getting the wrapper to look shiny. I'm prone to smudging worked areas which dulls the effect so I had to go over the same spots many times, and use brighter colours.

I put off painting Pepper for a day, again because I couldn't figure out what I should use on him. Finally, I started with a layer of magenta PanPastel to give him a violet tint.

I started to use NuPastels but the colour didn't go on vibrant enough for my liking and also, the strokes were looking too wispy. So I switched to my Terry Ludwig Ultra Violets, which worked wonderfully.

Yes, Pepper is entirely purple, with some pink highlights. And then it's done. A lot of prayer went into this painting, which I'm convinced is what caused the satisfactory outcome. Most importantly, my cousin loves it. I hope it brings her many happy memories of Pepper.