Sleeping Girl, Oil Pastel Portrait Art

Oil Pastel Painting of a Sleeping Girl

Sleeping Girl, 12×16, Oil Pastels on Board, April 21 2012

Jesse posed for us at the Palette & Chisel in Chicago, and she did a wonderful as usual. She wore a white blouse with laced sleeves. The artwork that I did of her is very high key. The only places on the painting that are black are in her hair, eyelashes and the corners of her mouth. Otherwise the painting is mostly highlights and midtowns. The blouse translated more into a dress or a nightgown, and although she was wearing dark pants, I decided to make it seem as if her legs were exposed.

This artwork is an oil pastel painting and the palette is limited to about a dozen colors. At one point I included her right hand, but I felt that it interrupted the composition too much. I asked a fellow artist how he thought the tight hand was, and he agreed that I should blend it out and suggested that I vignette the surrounding areas as well. I took his advice and blurred the right hand as well as the bottom of her blouse/nightgown.

I’m pleased with how it turned out, but I am finding how difficult it is to render details in oil pastels on a small scale. It’s also a challenge to cover up areas that may have gotten too dark, and things can get muddy quickly. In this case, I avoided this by keeping things high key (very light).