Hi, Beth,

I now shoot slides of all my work, but didn't very often for the first few years. I have an old (this means OLD) Nikkormat, given me by my graduate school professor (who taught me how to use a darkroom, as well as a few things about organizational theory) when he moved into the 20th century with his own equipment. (Actually, I think this was already an old camera when I was in grad school which was in 1975 - yikes!) I bought a good quality macro lens for it, and use it only for shooting artwork. It's often kept loaded with slide film, although more recently I am using tungsten film which needs temperature control, so I'll generally shoot a whole roll at a sitting.

I gave up my even OLDER dinosaur Pentax, after I could no longer buy batteries for it in the US, since mercury batteries were banned some number of years ago. For my every-day and source photos I use a Minolta that actually auto focuses. Gosh, I sound like a dinosaur!

I think it is SO important to have a slide record of your work - I'm sure that competitions/shows, etc., will continue to request slides for many years to come.

I recommend also shooting a facial closeup as well as an overall shot of the portrait. For featuring on a web site, this is the best way to capture detail, especially on full figure portraits where the face becomes very small in a photo or slide.

Try Sennelier Pastel Card
 

Firstly, fantastic portrait.

I personally think the Art Spectrum paper is a little toothy. You may like to try the Sennelier Pastel Card. Like you, I am heavy handed but I find that it grabs the pastel without chewing it up. It holds up well, to multiple layers and you don't need to use fixative.

It does have one drawback, and that is in Australia it is only available in smaller sizes and I tend to work big. Consequently I have experimented a little with it but not used it extensively.

Just a thought.

Thank you kindly, Rachel.

The Sennelier paper is one of my two favorite pastel surfaces (along with Wallis paper). This thread is sort of double posted, here and in the Materials topic, so you may wish to go there: http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...=&threadid=564 to participate in discussions about grounds for pastel.

Best wishes,

Chris:

This is really wonderful. I love how you captured her face. Really great. :)

Golden Acrylic Ground for Pastel
 

Chris,

I first want to say, beautiful job!

I have been using Golden's Acrylic Ground for Pastels for a few years now. I tint it and paint it on MDF panels. I have a discussion of my method on my thread on MDF board in the method and materials section. It really grabs the pastel, I go right into my painting with Schminke's, Unison's and Senneliers. You can erase crummy areas with a brush, it does not ruin the surface. My pastel in my intro was done on an appx. 3'x7' panel using that ground on a MDF panel.

I airbrush the final panel with Golden's matte fluid Acrylics but you don't have to do that if you use more layers and some white for opacity.

Sincerely,

Chris,

Your daughter must be thrilled to get her portrait back. It is beautiful!

Isn't it amazing how the same picture captured by the camera can come out so drastically different from the original!

Thank you all, so much.

Enzie, you bring up an interesting point, sort of a la Cafe Guerbois. I refuse to ever do a second painting from the same pictorial resource, even though it is a question that is not uncommon.

It always was like the problem of dating two guys at the same time: there seems to a human imperative to compare the two, with the ultimate intent of eliminating one of them. This painting is an odd type of exception, since I am the only one I need to please here. (What a breath of fresh air.) Too bad I don't pay myself.