Pastel is a very popular, vibrant colour medium which is perfect for animal paintings as it lends a softness to the fur and gives a realistic appearence, essentially pastels are almost pure pigment in the form of chalky sticks which the artist applies dry to a specialist  fine toothed  paper or card It is a popular choice for pet portrait artists (it is my medium of choice) due to the realistic softeffects that can be acheived to depict fur, but it is delicate and needs careful aftercare and framing............ in spite of this with good care pastel paintings remain vibrant and resistant to fade for many many decades, outlasting most other mediums

Artist quality pastels and specialised pastel papers are expensive to purchase and the process of  producing a single portrait in pastels takes me on average between 10 and 20 hours continuous work.

Below are some examples of  my pet portraits worked in pastels