Pink! Pink! Pink!

Here's the beginning sketch.  I've used Art Spectrum Colourfix fine tooth pastel & multimedia primer to coat a stretched canvas.  I slightly sanded the last coat to knock off the extra texture that is necessary for using with pastels.  

I've been  using this primer for all my work lately.  I provide panels primed with this stuff for my pastel & oil class students too.  Last night, one of the students brought in a canvas panel to paint on and said she really noticed the difference and preferred the texture of the colourfix primer.

Here I'm establishing my lights and darks and filling in the background.

This is the finished work on the easel.  I decided to show it this way and cropped so you can see all the edges.  I like leaving some of the canvas surface showing....not "finishing" the oil painting 

edge-to-edge.  I guess you could call this technique a "carry over" from drawings and pastels paintings I've done for years.  Nothing like being consistent. :D

~click on images to enlarge~

.....and the final piece cropped.   24"x 18"  Oil on stretched canvas.

(editing note.....the purples (darks) in the painting aren't as intense as shown here.  The digital camera really picks up some colors more then others.)