Pastels: Slue Foot Sue

This is a demo I did last quarter for my Techniques 1 class. I didn't quite finish it in class, so I took some time this week to complete it. The technique involves using 90# or 140#cold press watercolor paper, and laying down watercolors that are roughly complimentary to what the intended final colors in pastels will be. It creates an interesting underlying color and texture that makes the piece more active and visually more interesting that the standard pastel piece on colored paper. It seems to lend itself nicely to simpler, stylized visuals like children's book illustrations.
Here are a few progress images showing the underpainting in complimentary watercolors, then the build-up of pastels over the top of the painting.

This is the watercolor part; the colors aren't pure compliments, just colors that are ball-park compliments, or that will simply look nice when the pastels overlay them.

And this is the buildup of pastels. It's a fun process that doesn't require masterful watercolor skills to get a good result.