Evolution of a Painting

This is a a still life set up in my kitchen dining room with my subject (pears in a bowl) arranged on 2 pieces of black mat board. I set up a white cutout mat board propped up to frame the image. My paper is a colored sanded paper, taped to a board. I have it resting on my table top easel. 

I started my pastel painting by loosely sketching my subject. Then I filled in the background around the subject with very dark blue (almost black) pastel. 

To get the background color filled in over the rough surface of the paper, I smeared the pastel with rubbing alcohol and a brush to create a wash. Then I began loosely adding color with soft pastels in the pears.

 Then I layered more color over the pears including colors for highlight and shadows. Layering the pastel colors helps to build depth and vibrancy.

Finally I worked on the white ceramic bowl with white, grays and black colors. The white bowl anchored the pears and was a nice contrast to the background. Details were added with harder pastels and pastel pencils with more layering and refinement.