Out There, pastel, 9 x 12

I got a little sneaky on my pastel students this week. I didn't tell them ahead of time what the subject matter of the class would be, but insisted that they bring their full set of pastels. Just before they started painting today, I asked them to choose about 10 of their cleanest, most pristine pastels from their box. Pastels that look like this are usually the ones you never use. Well, today, they had to use them!

It's a great way to expand your typical color palette and try the colors you've been avoiding. Often you don't realize the beautiful color combinations you're missing out on when you only see the color of the pastel stick as it looks in your box. You have to USE it to really see the color it creates. And of course any color will be affected by what's beneath it and what's beside it.

Shown here in "Out There" is my result. A much more muted palette than I normally use. My rarely used colors included some muted greens, a couple of pinks, and some light value yellows and greens.