David Bowie and His Cat
At the beginning of this Blog I hoped that you might learn from my mistakes. This project must rate as one of the great learning experiences!. A photo of David Bowie with his cat appealed to me initially because his expression, and the cat’s seemed so alike. However it turned into a bit of an experiment.
I can’t find any information about the cat, Bowie was a great animal lover, and had many pets, including famously his dog, Rex who had, like David, two differently coloured eyes.
This is the photograph I used as reference. It appears on many sites and haven’t been able to find the original author. ( It even features on the Twitter Feed of a feline called Larry the Cat.) It has an orangey tint that makes it look as though he has been using fake tan , but I have ignored that. I didn’t do a preliminary sketch, as I was experimenting with a different surface. Which brings me to (Mistake no 1).
I misread the dimensions of a roll of white cartridge paper that I ordered online. When it arrived it was almost as tall as me. It has been standing against the wall in the hall for some months now.
I try not to notice it.
I don’t think cartridge paper is good for pastels. The surface doesn’t stand much blending, so it is difficult to move the colour around without damaging it. I was given some white Primer, a sort of thick white paste, so I thought I would try using this as a base coat on a piece of the paper. (Mistake No 2) The paper cockled a bit, but was useable.
Now I don’t use a white surface for pastelling – too much like hard work to cover, also the primer was quite gritty. Getting the first layer on was difficult, like trying to pastel on a concrete path. Covering the bright whiteness was hard, and what was worse, the harsh surface wore down my pastels at an alarming rate. The result was a rather ghostly portrait, with much too much white showing through and a positively sinister looking cat.
At this point I was ready to call it a day, but decided to see whether another coat could rescue the picture.
I think the answer is really “no”, but (Mistake No 3) I tried. I have just found a YouTube demonstration from an artist who recommends using a clear Gesso as a good base for pastel. Perhaps it is not quite as gritty as the one I used? I will give it a try next time I am doing an order for Jacksons. If you are interested in watching the demo here is the link -.
youtube.com/watch?v=wCniWNyeXj0&t=275s
I ran out of patience, as you can see. Another coat of pastel might have rescued the picture, but I think I will just learn the lesson, and go back to using the best pastel paper that I can afford. And if the cost of the base coat is added in, the cartridge paper is probably not that much cheaper in the end.
(I still have a giant roll of cartridge paper standing in my hallway.)