Pastels

Every so often I become re-enamored with pastels.  It's usually when I happen to see some very nice pastel drawings (or is it paintings?) and want to try them again.  I usually become disappointed when I can't get the detail I want, and I never liked the pastel paper texture, or the dust, and smudgyness of my work.  So, I wind up going back to painting.  So, recently I wanted to try again.. and I remembered a peice of Sennelier La Carte pastel card I had bought... its surface has a nice tooth to it, it grabs... it's different than like a Canson pastel paper.  I once bought some "sanded" pastel paper, and that was so different... like sandpaper, it really eats up a pastel though.  Anyway... this pastel card is heavy paper, and I cut a small peice and used it to try a little sample still life.  I really liked it alot!  I only have a set of Nupastel sticks and a set of Conte pastel pencils.  ( I do have some old Rembrandt soft pastels, but I didn't use those). This paper holds onto the pastel, there seems to be less dust, and less smudgyness (if thats a word? :-)    I think I might want to get some more soft pastels.. maybe get some new colors...??? I'd really like to get some more practice with this medium, and see what I can do.   (That goes for Watercolor too, but that's for another day).