Man, this stuff is messy

Just on the chance the name doesn't give it away, art made with charcoal is painting with a burnt stick. Following a few hours of this activity the participants look like B-movie coal miners. You know the type --- clean except for the streaks of black on the cheeks and hands. The hands are a no-brainer, and the noses, cheeks and other points of interest on the face are the result of touching same with the already charcoal covered fingers. The blending and shading accomplished in charcoal is done with the fingers -- it's messy.

But, having successfully completed the classes in charcoal, Marie moved to the next step in Tiny's art classes, that being pastels. For those not familiar with pastels, it is ground color pigment which has been compressed into sticks 3-5 inches long and maybe a quarter-inch in cross section. It is basically charcoal sticks with color -- more mess, only more variety in the face smudges.

Again, the class required a scene, a portrait, and a subject of the student's choice. Marie's choice for the third class project was a still life of a blue vase, given to us by David, sitting on Marie's red pajamas with fake philodendron. Her scene, and first try at pastels, was a group of Hobbie Kats (catamarans) on the Snake River in SE Washington. She didn't particularly like the subject, but the teacher loved it, so Marie did it --- and won another Honorable Mention ribbon at the art show for that year.

Link to more pastels