Pastels: Master the Techniques of Blending and Layering to Create Beautiful Pastel Paintings

Mr. DeMille is a very talented artist. He shows his extensive tray of pastels. He talks of the 3 papers he uses. His favorite is velour paper. I have been unable to find this paper in the past. Several of the examples are done on this paper which can't be purchased. He shows that the pastels respond differently to this paper than to Canson, which I can find. He also talks a lot about using "Conte" to lay down the form. What is Conte? What is Sanguine? After I read through the book, I looked in The Artist's Illustrated Encyclopedia by Phil Metzger. He says that conte are sticks of hard pastel that come in Black, White, Bistre, Sanguine Red, Sanguine orange, Sanguine brown, and gray. They are not the Conte Of Paris pencils that I was thinking. He also assumes a great grasp of color theory than I possess. I think this is more for someone with at least intermediate skills. If you are like me and just learning, this will probably be over your head like it was mine.