Working Small

I got back into the studio this afternoon and did a couple little pieces. I had some pre-cut 5x7 mats with openings of about 4 3/4 x 3 1/4 and wanted to make a few pieces for those mats. 

I started with another scrap of UArt 400 grit paper. I had brushed off the previous class exercise to reuse the paper. I still had the pile of pastels out from the last painting, so I used these to get started and added a few as I went. Process shots below:

Here is the scrap paper on the left, with a reference photo on the right: You can see the ghost of the previous painting on the scrap.

 I started with lightly sketching in a design:

Finished painting:

I recently purchased some Multimedia Board for Pastels. This is a new surface for me, and it can be used in a variety of ways because it will not warp. Today though, I decided to just use it as a regular surface to see how the grit would hold the pastels. It doesn't feel very gritty, but it held many layers.

Below is the surface on the left with a quick sketch, and the reference photo on the right. I had intended to make this image fit within one of the pre-cut mats, but it ended up growing out of my boundary lines and it ended up being about a 4x6 painting.

The finished painting below. I liked the feeling of this surface and look forward to using it in the future for more complicated pieces.

 Here are the last three paintings with their mats: