Portraits by John Burton

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All images on this page were commissioned subjects.

Pastel is an opaque medium, which renders darker subjects well. It is normally used with a coloured, and slightly textured paper. The paper needs to have a "tooth" to help the pigment grab, but this tends to restrict the ability to record very fine details. Pastel is most suitable for larger artwork (A3 and above) as this makes it easier to capture detail in the picture. It is more difficult to reproduce colours exactly using pastel, because pigments cannot be mixed like paints.

Materials used for your pastel portrait

Now using pre-primed 340gsm watercolour paper professionally screened with Art Spectrum Colourfix Pastel primer.

In a pastel sketch, the whole surface of the paper is not covered with pastel (i.e. the paper forms a plain background). For pastel sketches, I am happy for the client to decide their preferred background colour. Pastel paper colours currently held "in stock" are shown below (mouse-over for names). Other colours are available.

In a pastel painting, the whole surface of the paper is covered with pastel (i.e. there is a definite background). For pastel paintings, I normally reserve the right to select a paper colour that is most compatible with the colours of the subject.

Pastel portraits from your photographs

Example Portraits

Information Pages

Other Pages

Materials used for your pastel portrait