Enjoy a recap of the Essential Techniques Day of Pastel Live, an unforgettable event for artists of all levels of painting with pastels. Pastel Live is a virtual art conference taking place through August 19, 2023. Visit PastelLive.com now to join us!
We are BACK for the third annual Pastel Live, where 25 of the world’s best pastel artists are teaching people from all over the world how to paint better, faster. We opened with our host, Streamline Publisher and CEO, and artist, Eric Rhoads, to guide us through how the event rolls so everyone can make the most of this unparalleled event.
On our Essential Techniques Day (August 16), we also saw special presentations from our amazing sponsors, including Blick Art Materials featuring Susan Kuznitsky; Sennelier and Fabriano; and PaintTube.TV with Albert Handell representing a pastel masterclass.
Miss the live version? Note that replays are available at PastelLive.com!
Pastel Live: Highlights from Essential Techniques Day
What are pastels? What are they not? Laurie Basham walked us through the very basics of pastels (which are NOT chalk), including what types of pastel papers are available, and what makes it a painting versus a drawing.
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In “The Magic of Mark Making,” which is how you apply pastel to paper, Vianna Szabo shared her methods for applying pastels. She explained how to make it easy to draw shapes, mix and blend colors, control edges, and correct mistakes along the way.
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What are values? What is hue? And saturation? Jessica Masters explained the qualities and characteristics of color, its role in your work, and how to assign a value to a color – especially if it’s really bright.
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Fiona Carvell gave a still life demonstration that focused on her use of color and mark making techniques. When she was almost finished, she took a moment to step back and consider what else the painting needed, then added vibrant blue pastel touches and being careful not to go overboard with these additional strokes.
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Teresa Saia showed us how she does an underwash on UART 320-grit sanded paper mounted on Gator Board; she then began her painting with a black NuPastel while using a photo reference to guide her from her studio.
“This is like watching an action thriller movie! So cool!” ~ Pat Q.
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“There is power in knowing how to draw, how to capture what you see ‘out there’ in just a few lines,” said Gail Sibley in her session on drawing with pastel. She said that two important lessons are knowing how to measure and knowing how to see and use negative space.
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Coming to us from Charlotte, North Carolina, Greg Barnes demonstrated a tranquil landscape of the north Georgia mountains while working on UART 400-grit, 12 x 16-inch surface. He does his paintings in three stages: First, drawing and building a composition with a No. 2 pencil, then doing the block-in and covering most of the paper. In stage 2, he smooths the pastel onto the paper to “fill in the gaps,” bringing the painting to what may look like the finished state before going into stage 3, which includes layering and adding more color, details, and atmospheric perspective.
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Wendy Shalen gave us a demo on a French drawing technique called “aux trois crayons,” which is black and white charcoal on sanguine Conté. She explained, “I believe the value of this is excellent for both beginners as well as advanced artists, so one can distinguish between black and white value; a dark, a middle, and a light; and color values.”
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We closed the Essential Techniques Day with our Cocktail Hour and Paint Along, where we chatted over Zoom while many painted from a shared reference photo. Keep an eye on @pastel.today to see the results of what everyone painted.
Join us for the rest of the week – it’s not too late! Simply visit PastelLive.com now and register for several more days of personal instruction and live interactions with artists from all over the world.
