Pastel Paintings

There was a lot of cloudy days in November, and I decided to work in my studio in a new medium. I love to paint in oils, but I normally like to be outside working en plein air. I just like being outside, and oils work well outdoors because they remain workable during the duration of a painting session. I don't like using oils in my studio very much. I bought a set of pastels to try out in the studio, and I'm glad that I did. These are the first 3 pastels that I made, and it's fun to just be able to grab a stick instead of mixing a color.
Painting is all just shapes of value and to a lesser extent color. I have arranged my pastels according to value. So once I know my target value, I just choose what color will work well for what I want to do. The toned colors of the sanded pastel paper are also lovely to work on. I usually do a watercolor underpainting on the sanded paper, before laying the pastels down. I find that it's very fun to work that way.