Hi Mark, thanks for the question! (And hah hah eek…yes..the limited social palette!)

In this case, since I was away from home ie travelling, I was probably using colours from Unison’s starter set of 36.

And yes, I LOVE taking a small set and seeing what I can do with it as I like to prove the idea that if you know your values, you can pull most things off regarding colour! I often do this even in the studio. You may interested in reading a blog I wrote about using Unison’s 36-piece set for the entirety of the 2018 31-pastels-in-31-days Challenge (click HERE to read it).

Thanks for your good wishes – the same to you!

Hi John,
Thank you for your lovely long comment and enthusiasm! Glad you’ve found pastels and also me and my blog!!
Have a lovely time sketching in Greece. Sounds awesome!
And I agree about my Mum (and my Dad and sister!). And my brother did take photos which also added into the creative mix 😀

Not meaning to divert from the topic you discussed about the importance of values in pastel but I’m just learning how to use them skillfully rather than just doing a colouring book with Crayons. My biggest struggle as an artist was to stick with one medium and trying to perfect just one. Starting with oil paint then to acrylic then watercolour, to coloured pencils and now to pastels. So I’m glad I found you! It’s better to learn and listen rather than fly blindly and create mud, which is dum spelled backwards!

Speaking of flying I’m going to be flying to Greece in two weeks bringing a little cheap set of pastels to do as many drawings that I can fit in on my three weeks being there. I haven’t been there in 10 years and when I did come back at that time I was a “painting fiend” of all the pictures my wife and I took while there. Actually now that I think about it I did a pastel picture of part of the Acropolis mixed with charcoal I’ll have to go and look for it!!!!!! lol!!

Thank you for sharing and helping us all improve as artists with the knowledge that you have acquired. And I thought what a cool Mom to honour you by sketching you. Your Dad should have painted her and your sister should have sculpted him etc!! Thank you. Have a blessed day.

Pat, so happy you’ve found me and my blog!! And so glad to hear this post was useful. I look forward to hearing your response to future posts 🙂
And DELIGHTED you’ve discovered the joys of pastels.

So good to hear it was helpful Carole! It’s amazing what the addition of a colour can do for a painting. And yes, it’s lovely to have that sketch. And it was so pleasant quietly working together 🙂

Thanks so much Maria for adding to this conversation. And for sharing Christine’s angle on colour. I agree that knowing how colours work (or don’t work!) together is invaluable. I think even more important is the understanding of values. If one paints as you say, keeping the lights together, the darks together and the middle values together you are more likely to end up with a clear and luminous painting rather than one that feels ‘muddy’. Also, once you understand values, you can play with colour combinations and see what happens!

Thanks Janet. And I hear you about new colours – who can resist?! When you buy new sticks, try using only those with whatever you need from your own collection to fill in the values areas. For example, if all your new colours are middle value, you’ll need to add some lights and darks. In fact, when you buy new colours, a good plan is to make sure you purchase colours in light, middle, and dark values. Then create a painting with that limited palette. Try it and see what happens!