Portrait

Since we are studying Portraits this month, I thought I would share with you a portrait I recently finished. This is a portrait of Mrs. Brooks. She is a parent volunteer here at A.R.E. I created this portrait using soft pastels. So what is a pastel?

Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation.

The noun "pastel" gives rise to:
another noun, for an artwork whose medium is pastels
a verb, meaning to produce an artwork with pastels
an adjective, meaning pale in color