These two recent pastel drawings are on canvas. Primed canvas is an unusual support for pastels or charcoal because it’s not absorbent enough. Pastel chalk falls off too easily. I originally intended to use these canvases for paintings. I had actually started painting on the larger of the two (the gray area in the lower left), but I really didn’t like the ground. I’ve experimented a lot over the years with canvas preparation for oils and I’ve often finished paintings on canvases that were not to my liking, but, like I said, I really did not like these surfaces. So I finished both as pastels.
On such non-absorbent surfaces a lot of color just falls off in spite of the frequent sprayings with varnish. So I kept the drawing broad and loose.
I have a decent stock of good pastel/charcoal paper and these two drawings remind me that it’s time to do some DRAWING.