An interesting exercise

This piece is 18x24 inches on suede matte board. I did it in my Thursday morning group. The still life set-up presented an interesting problem. The gourd is very close in value and color to the crock. This picture doesn't show it well but it turned out that the only way I could make the thing work was to warm up the gourd and cool down the crock. That provided a little separation.

The suede matte board is nicce to work on for quick studies because it really grabs the pastels. It's also very cheap. There's always some around a frame shop. It's the center that drops out when they cut a suede matte for a framing job. It comes in some very interesting colors. This one is a deep burgundy. It also comes in black ... in case you feel compelled to do an Elvis or a bull fighter.