Holding Hands - Pastel Painting

Although I did complete this painting on Monday, I'm just getting around to posting it.  You know, it's that time of year when we are all busy...  Anyways, last week's challenge was LOVE, and the  only way I thought I could try to represent it with my limited pastel skills was holding hands.

My sketches:

The pastel painting:

With each painting I learn something new!

Amir's Ibis

This past week's challenge was "JOY", and although I had some ideas, I didn't know how to represent them in pastel, as I'm still such a beginner in the medium. For me, joy is time spent learning this new medium, and if I look at it that way, I did succeed, because I did a painting, and learned while working on it!

My husband took this picture of an Ibis on one of his photography trips, and I thought I'd try to recreate it in pastel.

Of course, it looks like a beginner's painting, because it is, but since it takes practice to get better, I'm practicing!  At least I can tell it's supposed to be an Ibis:-)

Details: pastel, with watercolor underpainting, on 12" x 16" on  Ampersand Pastelboard.

Hurricane Ridge

People always seem to be amazed at all the different things I've learned to do, and although I've learned how to do some things from family and classes, I've learned even more from kits, books and videos.   This year I decided to participate in the Holiday Paint Out that CCP Videos is hosting. I missed the first prompt, which was COMMUNITY, so I'm starting with the second prompt, which is PEACE.  

In late summer, my husband and I took a trip to Olympic National Park, and traveled up Hurricane Ridge.  The views are spectacular, and when we hiked along the ridge it was so peaceful, and if it is possible, a more beautiful view around every bend in the trail.  So after thinking of several ways to represent peace, I decided I wanted to paint from one of the pictures I took when we were there.  It is painted in pastel.

Here's the first layer:

My finished painting:

The original photograph:

Details:  pastel on 9" x 12" Wallis sanded paper.