Shoulder Responsibility

Submitted this piece to DPW "The Balance Challenge".Tried experimenting with palette life for the background to add some texture.

Pome Night

Apples are fun to paint and loved working with pastels again.But oh dear, those leaves gave me real hard times.I have to admit, that I am not very fond of painting leaves.I somehow get so frustrated painting them.For this work I was also a little concerned about the background .Initially,I painted blue sky behind but then the apples did not pop up as desired.So,went with a complete black background.Any critiques and suggestions would be appreciated.

Oil Pastel Attempts

Title: Doctors Away

Oil pastels on paper

11x14"

Title: ALL ALONE

Oil Pastels on paper 

10x7"

I got myself a set of oil pastels a couple of months back,kept them safe in a drawer and almost forgot about them so,never gave it a try.These days I have grown a little lazy(not sure if its the hot weather or its just me) and don't feel like doing any oil or acrylic work.So,I was finally reminded of the oil pastels I bought. Immediately,I was so excited to use them but had no idea what support works well for them."All Alone" is the one I tried on a paper that was fairly smooth textured.Well,not a good experience working on this surface.This was also my first entry to the DPW's paint your vegetable challenge.

For my second attempt I used a rough textured paper and could feel the difference as I could work in layers.Used turpentine for blending the colors.It felt so good to use a new medium and what I loved about working with pastels is it was surprisingly quick.

Any suggestions on using pastels would really be helpful and would be highly appreciated.:-)