Local Artist's Pastel Primer

 Wednesday mornings for the next couple of months will involve making a BIG mess with soft pastels, smudgy fingers and rubber erasers under the tutelage of A Local Artist at the Newburyport Art Association.
A Local is energetic, non-judgmental, encouraging, and pragmatic.  She did a demonstration of 3D light and shadow in about 2 minutes and then left us to fuss and fumble while she made helpful remarks.

 First we attempted to make something fade into a dark background while leaving light highlights.... just using black and white (or an eraser).

 Then we were told to pick a very dark shade, a light shade and something in the middle and try to make THAT look three dimensional.  I'm not going to confess which is mine until I like the end result better.  But if you know me well, you might guess!