A Bit Rusty... Gesso & watercolour canvas x soft pastels

This morning, I started by applying gesso to a few sheets of thicker, smooth paper. I did this with the idea of trying out the pastel pencils on them. I only did this very briefly before I left. The difference was immediately noticeable: the pencils stayed on the paper well, except on the bits of paper I hadn’t covered with gesso. That was a slight lapse in concentration. The difference was immediately obvious. Not a single pencil mark remains on the smooth paper.

It wasn’t until this evening that I finally had time to do something again. I decided to use the watercolour paper – that troublesome paper I just can’t seem to paint on with watercolours. Instead of pastel pencils, I used Rembrandt soft pastels. I’d expected the result to be rough, but that isn’t the case; however, there are still a lot of crumbs left behind.
Perhaps I could have used less pastel. It takes a bit of getting used to working with my old materials again, most of which I’ve given away. It feels as though I’m a bit rusty and have to start all over again. In any case, I’m not going to buy anything else on the off-chance that it might work better.
So far, I’m not unhappy with the result. I just don’t know if I like it, and if so, how I can preserve it. For now, I’m treating it as a test.

_{Materials: paper, gesso, flat brush, Rembrandt soft pastels, watercolour canvas.
Prompt: see title
2-6-2026}