Frosty Morning

Pastel. I painted the whole sheet of white Wallis sanded paper a bright, red-orange (then made sure it was all dry) before I began using pastels on this. I chose the underpainting color to be more or less the complementary color of the final painting. If you look closely, you can see where the orange peeks through, giving the whole painting a liveliness. I love the intense blue and gold through the middle of this with the cooler, frosty green in the foreground. The long shadows give the sense of early morning, too.