I have no idea what kind of fruit this is; just something my wife snapped while on a morning trip to Morton Arboretum last year.  I was looking for something with simple shapes so I could focus on mostly on my approach to color, and this seemed to fit the bill.

What I learned is, I have a lot to learn.

Specifically, I need to figure out how to get darker darks and lighter lights from my pastels.

As most of you have figured out by now, I’ve been avoiding color work; at a certain point though, you have to face your fears.

While on vacation in Maine, I noticed a proliferation of pastel paintings.  I was inspired to buy a small set and give them a try. These things are amazing.  Dry media, that blends like and looks like oil paint.  They can even be erased with a plain old plastic eraser!  It took a few tries to find a decent paper to use with these, though.  I landed on something that resembles fine-grade sandpaper.

Anywho… This painting was really just to try out the pastels and see what they can do.  I wasn’t too concerned with getting the proportions just right or about making a realistic image.  Also note that the image above is a bit more red than the actual painting due to the fact that I shot the pic with my phone under the dining room lights.