I did this one all wrong. A normal approach to a pastel is to start with the drawing in linear exploration. Not me with this one: I rushed in where fools tremble pastels to powder…that’s what I did….I grabbed my new set of Sennelier soft pastels half sticks. With these softies, I pounded them on Mi Tiente pastel paper. I wanted color. I wanted vibrant, succulent color. I was totally seduced by the 120 french kiss colors. I wanted to crush the pigment out of their fat conical bodies.
Structure came later.
Isn’t that like falling in love?
This is the first attempt at love: 
Though it’s kind of anemic in terms of value and contrast, it was my first passion impulse. Garden Horse straddled, I rode my crushable pastels into the east sunset. The flowers of the Bleeding Heart plant have pretty flowers of reds and lavendars. I didn’t catch anything but some color on the first roundup.
After spraying with fixative to keep the powder under control, I worked it up to the second stage:
I worked into the leaf to follow the valleys of veins and capillaries. This has some better features on this digital rendition than the final form. The veins were too distinct and made the pastel about those veins rather than the Bleeding Heart flowers.
The final effort, up top, is more civilized but not necessarily ‘better’.
What I learned in this painting time was: 1: Go ahead and passionately dig into my gorgeous materials. 2: Work on pastels with the purpose of improving each effort. 3: for serious pieces, DRAW it out first. 4: Add the ‘fat’ pastel color after the structure of the forms are clearly stated. 5: Keep studying
What drives me? In my school we have a NED saying, “Never give up”. To expect that each piece will be beautiful beyond belief is simply a childhood fantasy of dreams. What I do is my best effort. When the passion and structure aren’t working, the magic doesn’t pop out. However, when I’m there in the making of it, the magic is brewing within and will eventually show.