How did you get started drawing in pastel?

I made the first flower pastels in 1991 as an intuitive response to my large flower paintings. I visualized how the paintings would translate as pastels. This response was educated by my longtime interest in Degas.

Pastel is the most graphic of the painting mediums. I still resist calling pastels "paintings." The act of making a mark with a pastel is a graphic one. Of course if you don't understand color, as in painting, then you are lost.