DPW Challenge - Side By Side

For the DPW Weekly Challenge - The Elephant Challenge.
A pastel made on prepared wood board; the colors may vary slightly due to the different monitor temperature. Actually it looks more vibrant in reality.
I like painting animals and I find it easier than many other subjects.
In this piece I wonder If I could have worked more on details.The fact is that I love the simplicity of it and didn't want to lose that with too much information.

"Side By Side" 18x14 inch pastel on prepared wooden board

 More animal pastels:

"Going Home" 18x14 inch - Sold

"Old Friends" 13x14 inch - pastel on brown paper

Please be free to leave a comment bellow; I would love to hear your opinion.

The Sunny Pond

Today I found a new way to prime my boards for pastel in a way that is very similar with the well known sanded paper. The texture also is almost the same; this mean that the surface will hold few layers of pastel without a problem AND being wood is water resistant, which my latest very expensive sanded paper wasn't.

As a test I did this painting on a piece measuring 9x12 inch and I am very happy with the results. I must admit I abused the surface quite a bit but it held the pastel wonderfully.

"The Sunny Pond" pastel on bord 9x12

This priming method will reduce my paper expenses for more than half, not to mention that the board is much more resistant than the paper.
All in all a good and productive day. If you like the painting you can find it for purchase in my gallery.

DPW Challenge - And Some Boats

This week DPW Challenge is about boats.
So I pulled myself out of my creative procrastination and made a pastel, this time a bit bigger than the usual daily paintworks.

"Nightfall" pastel on paper 15x12 inch

I love the final result, and the bigger size of the paper allowed me to get more feeling into the sky.
This is not my first boat painting but I wanted to follow the spirit of the challenge and make a painting especially for it.
Here are some more boats I painted ( including the last one) and you can find them for purchase on my DPW Gallery:

Still Life With Jars

I found it very hard to keep a loose brushwork because I love blending so much. Let me say that again: I just love blending colors.
So I tried this still life with some glass reflections thinking it will be easier. Occasionally I pulled some of my hair out and resisted about three attempts to wipe it out in frustration. In the end I'm quite happy with it.
As about the brushwork this is the best I can do so far. I'll look back at this painting after some hundred paintings down the road and decide how good it is.

Still Life With Jars oil 8x8 inch

There is a bit of glare in the photo since the painting is still wet but you get the idea.
I would love to hear your opinions or even some constructive critique so please don't hesitate to comment bellow.
Have a great weekend!

Already September

A small oil painting I started yesterday but only today I managed to finish. I named it "Already September" as the perfect remainder that summer is already gone.
The reference photo was provided by Viacheslav from PMP site.

"Already September" 12x9 inch oil on gessobord