Here I was getting all into the coloured pencils again, after a long and enjoyable run with the graphites, and I seem to have jumped ship suddenly and embraced oil pastels. I submitted a quick study of Ari the cat (he belongs to a well-known member of the Wet Canvas site) in the April oil pastel challenge.

Here’s a quick study while just playing with the pastels. It’s a wonder I didn’t lick them I felt like such a kid:

And here’s the pic. I guess I last spent thirty minutes with oil pastels back in the late 1970s. I like them, I must say:

Cheap newsprint. Portfolio oil pastels. No under drawing.

Been working on the Wet Canvas Monthly Challenge for coloured pencils. The various eyes are tests for colours. The one large detailed eye is the first time I started to get the colours right. The big bunny is what I will enter in the challenge. All Derwent Coloursoft.

Close up of the rabbit eye – there are about ten different colours used here. Trying to apply Trudy Friend’s “tick and flick” method of doing each stroke, which is why it took forever.

Here is my entry for the challenge. About two hours work:

You can tell this is a quicky – there’s no detail whatsoever. But it’s okay even if caricature-ish.