Our room where we normally do our life drawing at the Art Museum was occupied for the evening. We ended up in a store room, but there was grand piano, what luck! I have to work that in later. I see I drew piano too small so I will have to fix that. I spent my hour and a half concentrating on the figure and getting it done. The hands were fanned out and toes were curled, that was most challenging, but I think that worked. Polychromos Pastel on Brown Pastel Paper 12×19″. I liked the Polychromos Pastels would like to have set of 60.

I liked this pose, and the foreshortening of the body was a challenge to draw. I was happy to finish it in our limited time on location. Conte Crayon on Brown Pastel Paper 15×18″.

I thought I would try a portrait of a boy in Oil Pastel. He is a relative of the author of the picture book, who lives in the African village. I wanted to test oil pastel on a subject, because Oil Pastel is not so fragile as soft pastel. My biggest concern was to render detail, but this shows it is posssible, and this is a scan, which worked well. I like how the oil pastel looks soft and fleshy. I had to work with the colors I had. Holbein Oil Pastel on 4.5″x6″ sanded brown pastel paper.