Michelle Wegler Art's blog

Not all red-heads are human - there are birds, fish, and dogs also. I met this dog while visiting a woman for the red-head project. Their hair was the same color! The breed is called aPharaoh Hound, thought to be like the dogs depicted in Egyptian paintings.

Every new painting has to have a beginning and a completion. What happens between "start" and "finished" is totally unpredictable! I have been painting portraits intensely now for almost a year to get ready for the exhibit in May 2012, but each painting is new. Some paint themselves, the image forming on the paper beautifully and without angst. Not this one.

Todd is known as the Paper Crane Guy. He folds menageries of origami, in a variety of colors and sizes (checkout his website). He also happens to have red hair! He kindly agreed to model for me for the red-head portrait project.

Paper selection is an important step in the planning and design of a pastel painting. Pastelpainting is unique in that there is such a variety of papers that can be used to create the paintings. Each of these surfaces have a texture, or "tooth", that the pastel pigment particles adhere to. Some are smoother than others, some are very gritty, much like sandpaper.

When faced with a major project the question is, "Where do I start?" No different with a painting project! The idea of painting red-heads had been brewing in me for a long time, so I had a collection of photos of possible subjects. First step was to look through those, compare them to my ideas, and plan that first painting.