Animals on black paper with pastel pencils

My art has evolved to a stage where I now hve specific preferences. One is the discovery of black paper. I love black paper - it makes everything pop. Pastel pencils, especially, with their rich pigmentation, create eye-catching pieces. I use them when I want to create details, and my favourite paper for pastel pencils is Clairefontaine's Paint On Noir paper.

Some of the animal pieces I recently created using pastel pencils on this paper are as follows:

This piece ranks among my favourites. I named it Ghost and Nymeria, after the direwolves in Game of Thrones. I love the technicolour coat of the wolves. This piece sold very quickly after I posted it.

Some people have asked me how I "see" colour in animals. It's not a magical ability. When I first decided I wanted to paint animals in technicolour, it was a mechanical process, deliberately substituting colours to see what works. There were many failed experiments.

But over time, it became more intuitive and now when I see brown fur, I don't even "see" brown any more, I see purple. Deep browns are a cooler purple and red browns are more magenta. What's more important is to make sure the values are right - the darks are dark enough and lights light enough, so there's contrast.

So I'm afraid I don't have any special sauce. Like most things, it just comes with practice.

This one I did only because the reference photo was so cute.

"It wasn't me."

This is a northern cardinal. Such a pretty red.

"Live long and prosper"

This goldfish I did as part of a one-hour challenge on Instagram.  

I recorded myself painting this piece and it was my first attempt at filming myself drawing a complete piece. I totally underestimated the time I would need. I merrily lah-di-dah-ed and after half an hour (2min mark on the video), I realised to my horror that I had only done the head and gills. Major panic set in as I tried to block in large areas and haphazardly draw in the scales, compounded by the fact that various family members were knocking on my door (while I silently screamed at them to go away) .

Towards the last 10mins or so, it was a mad scramble to finish the fins and tail. By then, I didn't even have time to pick colours or sharpen my pastel pencils any more, I used whatever was there next to me.

When I finally stopped the video, I saw the time - 59mins 12secs. It felt like being in an exam hall again, hearing the examiner say "time's up" just as you stop writing. It's may not be perfect but at least it's complete.

As a procrastinator in school, I've always worked better under time pressure. I guess some things never change.