I'm not sure I remember why I wanted to do a landscape. But I do remember that with that idea in mind we took a little road trip to Solvang and took pictures all the way there and back. I picked the following reference shot as a likely composition. I played around with some ideas and some Photoshop magic to come up with the desaturated version on the right. I think that I augmented the bushes on the right side of the image too.


The combination of the desaturated colors and the underlying buttery yellow tone of the paper, gave the finished piece a stange old-timey look. The paper was another sheet from my little 7 x 9.5 Pastelmat pad. I think that I definitely prefer using Pastelmat with pastels instead of colored pencil. It can take 3 or 4 layers of colored pencil well, but there is no hiding the texture of the paper and the color of the paper is a factor in the look of your finished piece. You can get a lot more coverage with pastels. I guess that's why it's called Pastelmat.
I took a couple of progress shots a the beginning. Here I was still deciding if I wanted a figure in the image.


I decided I liked it better without anyone strolling down the path. I took a few more artistic liberties with the lighting. I made the light more contrasting, as if there was an foggy morning sun lighting the path from the right.
It was fun experimenting with a limited palette and the brightly toned paper, though it did make for a funny looking landsscape. It looks better from far away, like an old fashioned watercolor. :-)