I went to the local car boot sale this morning and got myself a box of 12 sticks of Pentel watersoluble chalk pastels for just £1. It was a bargain and although I’m not very fond of messy pastels I thought I’d give it a go in the afternoon. I picked one of those huge London Plane leaves on my way back; I draw the leaf contours with a 2B pencilon a sheet of Fabriano Accademia paper and then overlaid the various colours directly on the paper, blending them with a dry brush. I then decided to use a waterbrush on one side of the leaf, but the results was a bit muddy and didn’t particularly like it that much. I will definitely try them again, maybe mixing them with watercolour.