Oil Portraits or Pastel Portraits: Choosing your medium for Portraits from photos

Choosing Pastel or Oil Portraits, Family and Business portraits

Pastel or Oil Portraits

—Pastels need to be kept from humidity and bright light and are inherently more fragile, as they are framed by glass.

—They can have a more sketchy “vignette” look, but the quality of strokes and colors can really really lovely, so it is a matter of taste.

—The price of a pastel may be equal to that of an oil with the additional cost for matting and glass in framing. Framing is much more labor ­intensive.

—If you are undecided, I would recommend oil on fine linen. If you love the look of pastels, by all means choose that medium, especially for a young child.

To learn more about commissioning a portrait or to see if I have room on my 2016 portrait commission list, please contact me here.