Empire State - Amy

Soft Pastels

This is the reflection of the Empire State Building from a building near Bryant Park. 

lazing on a sunny afternoon - Amy

Another version of kitty finding that perfect sunny spot. This one is soft pastels.

Child's Play - Rachel

This certainly isn't sophisticated, and it's no great work of art, but I am determined to post something each day and today inspiration and luck both alluded me. After tinkering with the camera and a variety of props and subjects I decided it was time to get out the pastels and simply color.

Sunny side up! Amy

oil pastels on yupo paper

Sorry that I didn't post anything yesterday - I pretty much couldn't do anything except blow green crap out of my nose!  My cold defeated me zapped me of all my energy. Hopefully my meds will kick some viral butt!

The scanned image didn't get a good deal of the details. I will try to photograph it later.
update 2/16/10 - this is now the correct image

Orange in Pastel - Rachel

Still the pastel neophyte I thought I would take a stab at another delicious fruit from my kitchen.

Pomegranate in Pastels - Rachel

I'm awed and inspired by Amy's talent with pastels, so today I went out and bought myself a 24 color set of oil pastels. I really know nothing about the medium, but here's my attempt at capturing a pomegranate (one of my favorite fruits in both look and taste).

Study - Strawberry - Amy

Soft Pastel on Mi Teintes Paper

Just a quick study. I did not have much time today to work on much. Went through a seed catalog and got excited about planning for spring and summer crops.

"The Gossip Girls" - Amy

Soft pastel on board. Okay - I admit it - I am crazy about my chickens! I just adore them and love watching them interact with one another. Chickens give us so much - their eggs (any day for my gals), their delicious flesh that serves as a baseline for many tastes and lets not forget all the idioms from our humble pullus! Hen pecked, pecking order, chickens coming home to roost, walking on egg shells, Flew the coop, Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Chicken Scratch (to decribe messy handwriting), like an old mother hen and Birds of a Feather flock together come to mind.

I recently got into pastels and I am digging them! This originally started on a smaller sheet of paper (9x12) but I discovered that I really like to work big! This one is about 14x22.