Sunday 9 May 2010

animal fur in pastel pencils by Bob Elcock

As this is going to be about my art group as well as my paintings, thought I would mention a great demo we had from Bob Elcock recently. Bob has a wonderful technique using pastel pencils which allow an artist to realistically simulate animal fur. He also uses the technique for portraits. According to Bob the pastels he was demo'ing are of a particular hardness and all well matched which allows building up a multiple layer from short strokes. He does of course also make use of the sides of the pastels in a painterly manner, but it seems that it is the multiple strokes which allow the "fur" to look so realistic. I have tried this with other well-known brands and found that the original colour can be lifted with some of the "harder" shades and tints, making it difficult to achieve the desired effect.

It is not really my cup of tea as an artist but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening.

Bob was a really marvellous demonstrator bringing a touch of humour into the proceedings, and had the audience listening for his every word, we will definitely be looking to book Bob for another demo soon, maybe a landscape this time.


If you are based in the UK and are looking for a great day out, Bob will be at the Patchings Art Festival this June. By all accounts this festival promises an artist with demos by guest artists, daily workshops, a chance to buy art and crafts goodies.

Just to finish this post I am including a portrait (watrcolour) which I did some time ago. I do so much abstract and semi-abstract work now I thought it would be good to remind myself of some of my figurative work from time to time.



female portrait with hat


Thanks for looking, will be back soon with more art talk.

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