There is a book that inspired a motivational activity for all the staff at the school I work in. Our principal loves the book as she has been a resilient, inspiring, and all the things woman. Sometimes I can’t find the words I need.
All this to say, i am planning to give this painting:/drawing to her as a present.
The drawing itself is 8 x10 (very close by luck! ) on 9x12 velour pastel paper, with pastel sticks mostly Unison, senelier, some rembrandt, white pan pastels, and some cretacolor artist lead black chalk, which is so soft and super dark to make my darkest darks and add contrast to the individual coffee beans
It’s the first time I’ve completed anything on velour paper. I’ve only tested it a while back with rembrandt sticks which are harder to apply. I had no idea how many layers this paper would hold, but happy to say that it holds a good amount of pastel layers. I like the feel and look of it. The unison and sennelier on the other hand are so easy to apply to this paper, the rembrandt sticks worked great to do finer lines, pastel pencils don’t even make a mark on it, too firm firm for this paper….
I cannot decide what to do with the white cloth or background foreground underneath all around other than clean the edges and leave it
Whitish yellowish. Any suggestions welcome. My own picture of actual coffee bean baggie given to us at school. Attached reference image
Hi Sonia @Meme5
Now I see why you drew the single coffee bean that you previously posted. You’ve created another wonderful gift, and I do indeed like the drawing better than the reference photo.
Terri Robichon
Thank you Terri @robichon,
You know how much I appreciate your input. I am pleased with the drawing but hopefully by the time I clean the white edges all around the drawing I can decide what to do about the white areas aka the negative space
Sonia
Hi Sonia.
Figuring out what to do with the background is often a struggle for me. Sometimes doing nothing is the answer. But then again, that’s not always the best choice either. And once you commit to do something, you can’t always change your mind. I’ll watch to see what you decide.
Terri
this in incredible 
i can’t actually see which one is the actual drawing/painting? which one is it? lol. I think its wonderful
Dan @Dannomiss89 thank you for your supportive comment, I really appreciate it
Sonia
Between you and Terri I have a long way to go to get to your standard 
Hi Dan @Dannomiss89 -
It just takes a lot of practice. And your artwork really inspires me too because I can’t do the city scapes myself (YET).
Terri Robichon
Dan @Dannomiss89
What are you talking about, the reason I don’t post pen and ink work of mine is because I cannot do it. I have a longer way to go to get to your level. Ink is not forgiving and your work is super clean and beautiful. Terri is just a level all by herself
Sonia
So here are pictures of wood background and finished rustic stone background.
I chose the lighter conveniently rustic background because halfway through the wood one, I realized the whole coffee beans’ highlights would’ve had to be toned down. So changing it back to a lighter one was starting to look muddy, so i made up a rustic stone marble looking stone inspired by the pattern on a slab/tray I own. All the dust from switching background colors made the coffee beans dusty so in the clean up/touch up stage I made them a little darker.
Sonia
Hi Sonia - @Meme5
I love hearing about your decision-making process, and I agree with your conclusion.
I think this would be another interesting one to send in to Matt for the member’s minute.
Terri (with 2 R’s)
Hello Terri @robichon and thank you as always for being so supportive,
I honestly wholeheartedly like pastelmat more than anything else for soft pastels. In my one time experience with velour, it was super challenging to add fine details without using pastel pencils, plus anything softer than unison pastel sticks such as sennelier would muddy and oversaturate the tooth of the velour. On the other hand, the feel and look of the areas with properly applied pastels was beautiful, also I was able to vacuum out most of the material used for the wood look, however it remained too pigmented to apply any lighter pastels. I think it’s an acquired taste for such paper. I don’t own a great selection of unison sticks so that was a meh experience for me. Also the rembrandt sticks were not as nice to apply either. 6/10 for me. I can do all of the above without problem on my fave Pastelmat.
I might submit it to members minute if I dare. I have mixed emotions about the finished drawing.
Sonia
Hi Sonia @Meme5
This subject matter is unique and interesting. Love the shine / texture of the coffee beans. I like the bag that they’re in. What’s not to like? Nobody else would know the struggles you had by looking at your finished piece. So be kind to yourself and send it in, what do you have to lose. I know that Matt has to love it because look at all that purple 
Terri with 2 R’s
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