Pastel on acrylic. In progress. I was thinking specifically about the Venetian tradition of drawing on specially prepared blueish paper, using the blue of the paper for the mid tones, white for the highlights and black for the shadows.

This also reminds me of my visit to the Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris in April, but not because it resembles Moreau’s paintings, but more the Art Nouveau decor. Maybe I’m also getting a Puvis de Chavannes vibe, but hopefully not really. I sympathize with the Symbolists in some ways, but then, in a lot of other ways, they were crazy, and they made a lot of truly terrible paintings.