Acrylic Underpainting Study

9 x 12"
Pastel on paper

The warmth of this pastel
was achieved by painting the
paper with red acrylic paint.
Not only did the paint help
with unifying the color
palette, but it helped give
the paper some tooth, which
helped the pastel adhere.

Caribbean Blue

9 x 12"
Pastel on sanded paper

Blue ribbon winner at the Benton County Fair 2008

Blue and Green Color Study

4x8"
Pastel on archival paper

Color Study #2

6x10"
Pastel on black paper

This is another color study on black paper.
I painted on black acrylic paint. Let it dry,
and then started to layer on the pastels.
I like how the underpainting shows through
some of the pastel, but perhaps a deep
violet would do better than black. I'll
give it a try.

Color Study

6x12"
Pastel on black paper

I'm still exploring different grounds.
This was painted with gesso which gave
the paper some texture. The
paper was tinted with india ink and then
layered with pastels.