Pastel love....

I'm a bit of a magpie when it comes to colour and I have a growing collection of  pastels. I love opening a box of them to look at the scrummy sticks of perfect pigments..... bliss. This is a medium that I seem to be using more and more of lately. I love that it forces me to think more about the mark making and not just about colour/tonal relationships, composition etc. Below are two versions from the same sketch that I did out in the New Forest, an experiment in colour and mood. I love silver birch for their colour and texture, it's a subject that I keep coming back to.

Through the Forest

pastel on paper 14x19cm 

Forest Cool

pastel on paper 14x19cm

If you enjoy pastels I'd recommend taking a look at loriann's blog, she posts every day, is very generous with sharing her techniques and her work is simply stunning.