Thanks for the input...want to make sure I understand your input about "cutting it off".  Do you mean, 'not include the vase at all?'  Do you mean cut the image I sent approximately and call just the top half the finished product?  Interesting.  Hadn't thot of that.  TJ

Okay, I see what you mean...no I can't erase it...it's a "wet" pastel.  I basically take a wet brush to pick up the pastel oil and apply it like watercolor and have to let it dry between layers like watercolor....and its obviously penned in first.  But either way, your idea is interesting.  I'll think about it.  But that also gives me the freedom to go ahead and color it in.  The complement to yellow is cyan...so that's why I thought a shade of blue would actually work quite well.  Rather than tear bits of paper off, I took the scan to Photoshop and "filled in" with shade of blue that I was thinking about. It actually looked pretty good (let's see if I can manually produce it!!)  Thanks again.  TJ

works for me ... the blue is not too bright and grounds it.  Great!

You are welcome.  Now HERE is where photoshop is so terrific ... you could scan in this pastel painting/drawing and experiment with a background colour or two and see how you feel!  Trouble is that getting into that habit can make one rather indecisive ... I do it and try out lots of colours and shapes (if I have time) whereas my daughter starts at the top left and just draws and paints!  We are all so different ... hallelujah!