A pair of quick projects - Dianne Lorden

Two evenings ago I sat down with one set of only eight Nupastels and did a 30-minute sketch of some of the potted plants just off my little back deck (top). I couldn't get the colors I really wanted, but did enjoy the very limited working conditions. Oh! And I was too lazy to go back indoors to pick up a blending Color Shaper stick, so I reached for a long piece of mulch - used that for blending! (Not something I'd recommend.) The bottom image is just a 3"x4" class exercize from yesterday morning, where I demonstrated underpainting with pastels - what's interesting here is that each major section of the imaginary little landscape was first painted with the opposite colors from the finished layers. So, the violet-hued mountains were underpainted with greens, the greens were underpainted with a magenta, and the sky and water with oranges and yellows (mostly yellows). That was fun!
My work can be viewed at my fine art website: South Mountain Sketchbook