The base layer of another pastel

Preliminary layers of "A Classic Baby Doll"

12" x 17"

I didn't have much time for doing art over the weekend, though I went to a wonderful demo. Saturday I helped take a group of students to the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains in bicycle Academy. The students did great and always feel very accomplished after making their way from Lexington Dam to the Summit Store. I have to say I always feel accomplished myself, and that day I felt especially strong.

Sunday I went to the Jean Warren demo offered by the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society. Jean is a wonderful artists from our area and she paints the sea, landscapes, historic places, and abstracts. The demo featured her approach to abstracting a subject. Her abstracts contain recognizable elements and she approaches them as "process painting." You can check out her work here: http://www.jeanwarren.com/ It was fascinating to watch her take paintings in various stages and add some negative or positive marks seemingly in random spots and watch the piece emerge. She said she will work on as many as 6 paintings at a time, as there is some drying time involved with her layered approach. I would like to take her workshop, but we have a family wedding coming up. You might like to check out the workshop here: http://www.scvws.org/workshops/wkshp2009.php

This morning I took light rail and bicycle downtown to my drawing class. Bob brought in a doll from his wife's childhood. The doll is lovely and we've drawn her in the past. Today I did the beginnings of the pastel and applied a very light fixative before bringing it home in my bike bag. Please forgive the funny looking lines at the bottom of her face, where I was establishing some waypoints for the next layer. This is all very preliminary. Bob has us start with drawing the large shapes and shading in the values in vine charcoal. Once the values are established, we begin applying the pastels.