Hi there,
Who would like to join me traveling through pastel landscapes, brought to you by Matt and your imagination?
Though not new to pastels, I am re-visiting this course.
Love it,
Buddy
4 Likes
Just gorgeous! So Beautiful.
1 Like
That is beautiful. I finally broke down and got pan pastels, I was thinking of doing a pastel course using the pan pastels instead of regular soft pastels. I have no idea how that will work, but my goal is to practice with the pan pastels. My goal is to eventually draw astronomy subjects -like the Orion Nebula 
I will tag along - I’ll be slow since I work doing the week and usually too tired for artwork after a long day at work (at least I can work from home).
Beth (OriNebula)
2 Likes
Hi Beth, yipeah, yep - I am looking forward to your pan pastel drawing journey. Pan pastels didn’t work for me, so they went to the trash. The sofft tools (applicators) do wear down very fast leaving crumbles. I liked the smoothness anyhow.
So when you have figured out how they work, I would highly appreciate getting to know your expierences.
Tonight, I re-visited the second lesson: sky.
OMG, I didn’t realize how little I know about light and clouds. This is a very small sketch and I hope doing some studies about skies, before I move on to the next lesson.
Buddy
3 Likes
It looks lovely. I, too, will be venturing into pastel once I get my Granddad’s from my mum. My ultimate aim is to do a portrait of my grandad with his own pastels. I have what we think is the last photo ever taken of him. We don’t know where the digital copy is or if it still exists. He was holding my daughter for the first time; she was 6 months old at the time.
1 Like
Dear Mike, thank you for sharing your story. Though my grandpa died decades ago, I am still missing him. He was an artist after he retired, did have local exibitions. Back then and I always would proudly have visited them. However, I was never given any art lessons.
When he died, he dedicated some art work to me along with water color pencils and brushes. I still have them, but since I joined TVI, I started to use them mostly for private projects I won’t show.
I am convinced that one day, you will feel ready for the portrait.
I wish you a coming-home journey,
Buddy
1 Like
Hi @Buddy
Mine passed away about 19 years ago. He too took up art in his retirement. It was only until earlier this year that I thought about his art and when I told my Mum that I had started drawing again she told me about his pastels and said I could have them.
1 Like
Hi Beth and Buddy,
It’s so exciting to hear both of your experiences with pastels! Beth, I can’t wait to see your astronomy pieces, painting the Orion Nebula with pan pastels sounds incredible. I hope you’ll share your progress along the way. Don’t worry about going slow, art at your own pace is still progress.
Buddy, thank you for sharing your experience with them too. I also found that a light touch makes a big difference when using the Soft tools and keeping them conditioned really helps. I love your idea of doing sky studies before moving on, I always learn something new when studying light and atmosphere.
I’ll share a squirrel piece I did using pan pastels for blocking in color and pastel pencils for details. It was my first piece using pan pastels and pastel pencils many moons ago lol.
Hopefully, it helps spark some ideas for your projects!
Happy creating,
Jess
5 Likes
Hi Jessica -
What a cheerful little critter. Thanks for sharing.
Terri
Dear Jess @Jessica
OMG, this happy little squirrel kid is absolutely cute!!! Thank you for sharing it. Did you ever thought about sending it in for a critique?
Today, I found some hidden walnuts in a flower pot, when re-planting it. These are left overs from squirrels that like to hide their food.
I love these critters,
Buddy
Hi @Buddy,
Thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement. I hadn’t really considered sending this one in for critique since it was created several years ago for my daughter. This was actually during the early days of my art journey when I was still figuring things out, proper shading, form, and all that good stuff. Looking back, I can definitely spot some areas that could be improved, but I’m okay with that, it’s a reminder of how far I’ve come.
At the time, I was experimenting with different mediums to find what resonated with me. Pastels are a medium I enjoy, but I don’t use them as often as I’d like because of how dusty they can be, I also have elderly family that are sensitive to these kind of things in the air. Still, they have such a beautiful, soft quality.
I really appreciate your thoughtful encouragement about getting a critique it’s something I’ll keep in mind for future pieces!
Jess
1 Like
1 Like
I love the whole piece, the bokeh background is really good, but the squirrel’s fur is beautifully done… so is the tree/branch bark by the way!!
Sonia Alonzo
I cannot believe how much great art I’ve been missing lately! This landscape is beautiful. I did it when I first joined TVI.
I love yours! What kind of paper is it you used? It doesn’t look familiar to me?
Sonia Alonzo
1 Like
Hi Sonia, thank you so much. I am re-vising Matt’s pastel landscape course and am currently learning, how little I understand about clouds. Lol, true! I try to figure out, which side of the clouds you actually see, when they are further away or right above and what does that mean to lights & shadows. I really didn’t know that I am struggling with this nor why.
As these are sketches, I am working on a pastel pad, I bought quite some time ago, before I got into Pastelmat. I find it difficult to work on due to it’s heavy structure.
It’s from Fabriano, pastel paper, 160 gramm (but feels more sturdy). It came in different colors and tooth on the pad.
Here is a link from my favorite online art store, so youncan see it. As far as I know, they deliver within Europe only.
See ya around,
Buddy
Hello again - hopefully back after a crazy week between work and home life. The squirrel looks like he was fun to draw!
Heres what I have fro mthe first lesson. Hoping to get more artwork time this weekend.
Beth / OriNebula
3 Likes
Hi Beth,
@OriNebula
Great you are travelling along and I hope that you can find more spare time for anything you wouldlike to do.
You did great, and I think that your capture of athmospheric perspective in your drawing is better than mine.
Are these panpastels?
To me it looks that way.
Happy they work for you!
Buddy
2 Likes
Thanks @Buddy. Yes it was done with all Pan Pastels the exception of the details on the closes mountain. It was interesting to work with the pan pastels and I’m still getting use to them. Currently having fun playing with pan pastels plus colored pencils. So far I’m still having trouble controling the pan pastels, but having fun with them and that’s the important part isn’t it
I’m hoping to get more art time this coming weekend! (another crazy week at work but that’s the norm anymore).
Thanks
Beth/OriNebula
1 Like
Hi, I did some cloud studies this week, before moving on to the next lessons. These studies are very small - just about the size of a picture postcard.
2 Likes
My dear friend,
This is beautiful. You did a fantastic job. I would enjoy seeil the rest of the lessons that you have finished too.
thank you for sharing this journey with us. Your pastel work improves with every piece of artwork I see.
Keep enjoying the process!
Teri (with 1r)
1 Like