
Today I experimented with going a little abstract and using pastels. I have used pastels in the pasts, but not in life drawing. The results were much better than expected. I even experimented with using a Sharpie with the pastels. Gonna do a bigger mix later. - DM
Today I adjusted my style by putting in the highlights first, and then adding shadow. It helped stupendously. - HL

Today I played with complementary colors to define shadows and highlights, and not just on white paper, but black paper. I used this to define muscles and build a story around the model. - JM

Today was a very big addition to my set of skills in which I fully took advantage of. Different colors set the mood for my drawings and really gave the figure depth in a way I couldn't achieve before using only black and white. I will continue to work with color media to better improve my ability to capture a correct human figure. - JT

I feel amazing after tonight's class. I've really grasped shading contours and even picked up more skills in perspective. Thank God. I was beginning to get frustrated that I wouldn't get better, ha ha. - AA

Challenge: Draw use warm and cool pastel colors on black paper.
Materials:
Package of 11x17 black construction paper or better - black pastel paper
Package of good quality fine art pastels
Charcoal for deep black cast shadows on the less than pure black paper
Teaching Reflections:
Drawing on black paper with colors shift students' habits of adding dark to white paper in a way that is often insight inducing.
These students found increased story-telling power through color pastels on black paper.