PART TWO; Observation in nature

Exploring coloured media;

Oil pastels; You can be really expressive with oil pastels, they have a rich and vibrant quality, you can build layer upon layer, which means you can easily alter mistakes. The only downside to them really is that it's difficult to be very precise, intricate detail like fine lines or dots are hard to achieve.
Pen and ink; Also a very expressive medium, deep colour, is great for hatching, blends well, and can overlay a lot of other mediums well too. Can be messy at times (though that isn't necessarily a bad thing...) and a bit inconvenient in terms of carrying about with you.
Pen; I really like using pen to draw, particularly ball point. You can get such great line with it and the finest details. It's good for stippling, hatching and outlining - all in all probably one of the better mediums for detailed work. But it is a time consuming medium, covering large areas takes time.
Pencil crayon; Blends well, good for detail, a good tool for sketching ideas, and it doesn't make so bold a mark that you can't later change it. Good for indicating colour for preliminary studies but probably not a medium I would choose for a final piece, due to it's wishy-washy look, i.e. it's just not very bold.
Chalk pastels; Gives a lovely soft look, good for creating a natural effect, blends perfectly. Again, like oil pastels, just not very good for the finer details, too textured and soft to make a fine mark.

I have been enjoying mixing up my media and would like to go further down that road. I love the way pen and ink mixes with other mediums such as oil pastel - as we know oil and water don't mix but in this case it has an interesting relationship of slightly broken, shiny marks. I enjoy using oil pastel in general because of its vibrancy, and the fact that it's forgiving - you can go over an area time and again to get the colour right. But for detailed work, that involves lots of hatching for example, I like pen (ball point or fine liner). You can make it look scratchy and weak or deep and pronounced. It's reliable.