Leafy avenue using Neopastels by Caran D'ache

My second painting (is it painting or drawing? I'll call it painting) using Neopastels by Caran D'ache is of a leafy autumn avenue and was relatively easy. 

One of my favourite abstract artists is Leonid Afremov and although he is no longer with us, he leaves behind a legacy of the most innovative of styles. His work is recognisable immediately and he has many aspiring artists worldwide trying to emulate that style. I didn't even try but I remember his fearless use of colour and so my leafy avenue has purples and blues and mauves that aren't really representative of autumn. 

I started with the black for the trees and for this I used a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pen with a chisel 'nib'. I knew that I wanted the light to come from the end of the road and that is pretty much it. Again, as with the first Neopastel painting I did, I used Sansodol solvent to make the pastels spread (Caran D'ache Neopastels are not as mushy as some brands, and some colours among them spread more readily than others, I have learned by use. 

Oh, and while on the topic of learning, I also learned (even though I didn't use it on this painting) that I can use masking fluid with oil pastels. I had searched high and low for that information and couldn't find it anywhere so I tried it out on a scrap piece of cold press paper and it worked. I think the trick is to keep the masking fluid relatively flat but dense and to avoid applying the oil pastel too roughly over it or the dried fluid will lift. 

When I had finished, I gave the dry picture a quick spray of Ghiant H20 varnish to stop it from smudging—it is in my Strathmore Mixed Media journal.

I've put a link to Leonid Alfremov's gallery in my External Links page. The website is now run by his family.