Laura's Headband

This is a portrait of my daughter. I was inspired by the shadows on her face created by her mass of curly hair. I am drawn to the play of light and shadow and non-typical compositions. A goal since I started to paint in pastel three years ago was to create believable, fresh skin tones. My work so far has been painting animals, primarily dogs. Working on Sennelier la Carte, I built up lots of careful layers using pastel pencils, Girault pastels , Unisons in background and popping in accents using Sennilier. I couldn't stay away from my easel ! Painting my daughter was so much fun !