On the easel

New pastel painting (detail):

Here's a new study (in progress) with stippled passages, rendered in pastel on paper. The under-painting is a cerulean and cobalt ink wash on Rives BFK paper. I coated the blue wash with a transparent acrylic ground impregnated with marble dust--gives the substrate enough tooth to bind heavy pastel layers. I'm using a combination of Carothello, Pitt, and Conte pastel pencils for the stippled details. Under-layers are Unison, Schmincke, Sennelier, and Mount Vision sticks. Wish I had some Henri Roche deep cobalt orange-red . . . saving my pennies.