14"H x 24" W Colored Pencil and Water Soluble Wax Pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord.

This work was my first attempt to use colored pencil on the Ampersand Pastelbord. I completed this piece over a long weekend at a colored pencil society retreat. First of all, my pastel buddies were astounded I could more or less complete anything with colored pencil in a single weekend. (This is sort of an insider thing that probably only a CP artist or someone who hangs out with one would understand. It is generally a s - l - o - w medium to work in.)

Secondly, I learned quite a bit about both my mediums and this Pastelbord in the process of doing the piece. The colored pencil and the Neocolor II crayons have a tendency to evaporate off the board overnight if they are not fixed. I learned on later piece ("Tern Talk") that using the water color pencils rather than the traditional pencils adheres better, and using some water to fix the medium into the panel works even better. And then using fixative!!!

The little Green Heron is one of my favorite water birds, and I'm sure I will paint many more green herons in the coming years. But I really, really liked the palmetto in which this bird was perched. The abstract patterns of the fronds behind and around him create an interesting tension with the bird. This particular painting, however, is not a success in my opinion because this green heron just doesn't have the dimensionality that is a trademark of most of my wildlife work. Check out "Who Goes There" which is a pastel version of this same bird in this same palmetto. I prefer the value range, the coloration, and the dimensionality of the pastel version. What do you think?