Pastels - Class #2

That sucked. We were supposed to bring a plant/flower or fruit to use as a still life model. I brought my tiger jaws succulent, because I thought it would be fun and interesting. I was mistaken. It was incredibly frustrating. I abandoned my first try (which was way too small) and started over a lot bigger, but I don't think the second one went much better. I didn't want to give up completely, because I don't like giving up. However, I think in this case I should have given up and tried some flowers or something, rather than waste two and a half hours beating my head against a wall trying to paint such a frustrating plant.

The "leaves" of a tiger jaws are lighter near the base, and have a white edge to them that connects to the "teeth." This makes the plant a nightmare to reproduce with typical artistic shading, because the parts that should be shaded are the parts that are lighter on the plant.

Also, since it's not flowering right now, the plant consists entirely of shades of green and white, which makes for an incredibly boring composition. Blah.