With the christmas colors I got as gifts, I tried a portrait of Pascal, my border collie/aussie who is about a year and a half old now. I found a watercolor painting online that looked similar to him, and I drew the outline freehand (no grid) from the image on my tablet. Then I filled it in with oil pastels and I love how it came out. Like a more grown-up version of Pascal.

Because I was curious how it would be different, I tried it again with the chalk pastels on the same paper. Drew the outline freehand again with pencil, then this time filled it in with the chalk pastels. This time came out more like a Burnese Mountain Dog as the chalk spread a little further than the oil. Because of the chalk dust, I did fill in the background with light blue to hide the grey smudges.

Here is a shot of both pieces side by side for comparison. I like them both, but it’s a very different effect with each one. I think I like the precision of the oil a little better.