Sand Dune Shadows, pastel, 9 x 12

My demo from this morning's class. We're starting a series of beach scenes. I don't often get to a beach to paint or get reference photos, but I had the opportunity to take some photos a couple of months ago while visiting friends in Florida (St. Petersburg area). In many landscape scenes, the sky is often the lightest value. But we noticed that this scene provides one of those situations in which this is not the case. Since the white(ish) sand on the ground is reflecting direct sunlight, it needs to appear lighter than the sky. This was done on a prepared gatorboard panel with an alcohol wash underpainting.