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As part of the challenge I am also photographing the work in progress.  Here it is for Green Apple Shine. 

First of all I am limiting the painting to the 30 pastels in my Terry Ludwig Still Life set + one pastel pencil for the initial sketch.

  Sketched out with a pastel pencil on 12x16 U-Art paper 400 grit.  I began by laying in the shadows.  Shadows act as an anchor to the composition and it is a good way to see if it will look good from the start.

  This is the color lay in.  I am using local color and color of the light to make the decisions.

  Next I take a paint brush dip it into thinner and wash in the background, cloth, and shadows. This is where trust comes into play because the thinner initially darkens the wet areas by two values but as it dries it takes on a watercolor appearance.  I plan on leaving most of the background and foreground in the wash stage so I can play up the lights with thicker pastel.  This is used in oils too.  Thin paint gives the suggestion of shadow and thick paint gives volume to the lights.

  Most of the big decisions have been made and now it is a matter of refining the edges.  and pushing the values to their extremes.

Green Apple Shine  12x16 Pastel- For sale on my website.