Step-by-step plan

Portrait on Sanguine Red toned paper

In this speed paint video, artist Chris Gambrell shows you how to build a portrait with pastels. He also showcases how much of an impact the colour of your paper has on your final piece! Watch how he incorporates shading and highlights to his work to create a stylised portrait.

Chris used Rembrandt artist quality soft pastels and toned paper in the colour Sanguine Red to complement the warm tones and make the cooler colours pop even more.

Find Chris Gambrell on Instagram!

What you need

About Rembrandt Toned Paper in Sanguine Red

This paper provides the perfect base for your drawings. Sanguine has been commonly used in life drawings for centuries. There are many artistic possibilities with this blood-red paper. Light colours in particular will flourish on this surface. This paper is of high quality, 180 grams made with 15% cotton and 20% recycled paper. It is suitable for use with pencils, soft pastels, gouache, inks, acrylics and charcoal.

About Rembrandt Soft Pastels

Rembrandt soft pastels are world renowned, professional-quality sticks that are manufactured with only the purest pigments and finest quality kaolin clay. They are made in The Netherlands under strict quality control standards. Each colour is made with unique pigmentation formulas. These round sticks have excellent softness for beautiful colour release and toning.