I took an pastels art class at my local art center. It was taught by LaVone Sterling, who is an award winning artist. I've tried pastels in the past but never really gotten the hang of how to use them.
This is a photo of LaVone's pastels pallet. Isn't it beautiful? I love COLOR!
We started with a photograph (I chose one that I took my husband's family cabin) and did a pencil sketch.
After the sketch, we used watercolor underpainting to provide a background to build on.
LaVone showed us how to use stryofoam packing peanuts to blend the pastels, which worked so well! I was amazing! We also used plain white bread - like Wonderbread! - to blend and remove color when we had added too much.
I tried to take lots of photos along the way to document the process. I was amazed at how quickly it went from scribbles of color to looking like real artwork. This is with the trees and sky blended, but still just the watercolor background on the barn.
And as much as I tried to take photos, then I got excited working on the barn and grass and didn't take any more photos until the end.
Here are the other pieces made by the rest of the class. I was so impressed!
And here's my finished piece. I hope it doesn't sound too braggy, but I am SO happy with how it turned out. I keep looking at it, amazed that I made it! 
LaVone is planning to come back for a second class in the fall and I hope I can attend. She was a great teacher and I loved learning all of her tricks. I can't wait to try another one!
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