Can anyone give any advice on how to get actual fur strokes with coloured pencils on pastelmat? I’ve tried using really sharp pencils, less sharp pencils, trying when the tooth is filled and also not filled, and I can’t seem to get them. The only way I’ve found is to put a layer of lighter colour over and then draw some strokes to create a less light layer, but that doesn’t look very good. Any help would be hugely appreciated. I’ve included the two drawings I’ve tried to show you what I’m talking about.
Have you taken the colored pencil course at The Virtual Instructor? It includes a furry dog and will tell you how to do it. Actually any of the colored pencil classes would give you practice in handling this media. It is one that requires that you slowly build multiple layers. My guess is that you are rushing the process. Not slowly adding layers and blending.
Personally I am not a fan of Pastelmat, but I know it is very popular. In my experience with Pastelmat, to get exact strokes, you have to have a super super sharp point on the pencil, and it is important to hold the pencils upright so that it is at a 90degree angle to the paper. That will get you the kind of line you are looking for.
Hi Jp101, I did the same drawing and it’s taken me 3 attempts. Ive found with pastelmat I needed to put my first layer in and using a soft round paint brush just dab the pencil a little to get it ingrained a bit into the Patemat, you lose a bit of the detail but you go over it with loads more layers anyway. I made my pencil strokes quite a bit smaller and kind of flicked the pencil up into the fur for some of it rather than drawing it from the fur line down if that makes any sense. I had to keep sharpening my pencils to get the detail I needed. Don’t give up, pastelmat is its own challenge but you’ll get there, just experiment a bit using any scraps you have. I’m not a huge fan of it I must admit, I much prefer Rising Museum Board and I don’t have to sharpen my pencils as much!
