Pastel Painting for Beginners Step by Step
About Christine Kane
Christine Kane is a pastel and watercolor artist who is inspired by the Midwest landscape and it’s seasons. To find new ideas for her paintings, she hikes in the forest preserves during all seasons.
Christine began drawing at an early age. She focused her education on art and has a degree in Graphic Design. She is continuing her studies and is currently pursuing a degree in Natural Resources.
Translating weather is also evident in her work. “Weather makes a landscape painting come to life. How I love to show leaves blowing in the Autumn time, snow falling in winter, or a beautiful thunderstorm approaching in my summer paintings.”
Christine finds God’s handwork in all aspects of nature and tries to translate her awe and reverence in her artwork. Never disappointed, she relies on His creation for inspiration.
Step by Step Soft Pastel Demo
About Faith
Graphite Pencil, Charcoal Pencil and Pastels Artist
Hello! My name is Faith Te. When I was 16, a great desire to capture nature and the people around me started my passion for drawing. I began to look at drawing not just as a hobby but something which I wanted to do all my life.
I practiced every day and for many hours since. I taught myself to draw by experimenting with different techniques and materials and through helpful tips and advice from other artists.
Initially, charcoal and graphite pencils were the only mediums I used. When I began working in color, I used pastels, and more recently, oils. My main subjects are portraits but I also enjoy doing many other subjects including still life, landscapes and flowers, especially orchids.
Step by Step Mixed Media Art Demonstration
About Sandrine Pelissier
I grew up in France but have been living in Canada for the last 12 years, I am currently located in North Vancouver and work from a studio on Pemberton Avenue.
Watercolor is my medium of choice because of the unique way it allows me to render light. The transparency of this medium can make it look like the painting is lit from behind and the light is shining through the paper In my portraits, I like to tell stories about the people around me. I am very interested in childhood fantasy or fairy tales (I wish it would snow Flowers, Hair Balloon, Georgia, the Spanish dress and the Eclectus Parrot). I also like to induce a dialogue with the viewer in some paintings dealing more with introspection and mood (Mixed, In the studio).
Those portraits are not about likeness or knowing the people that are being painted, as I see my models as actors in a movie, they are the faces that will allow me to tell a story or to show emotions. Those faces are a source of endless fascination and I find the subtlety that can be achieved with watercolor well suited to the complexity of the human face.
My technique involves the accumulation of many transparent layers of watercolor. Then I like to incorporate mixed media in the background, work sometimes with some contouring. I also sometimes like to add some drawing on top of the painting or some graphic elements…
Wildlife Art Demo of a Lion Cub
About Eric Wilson
Eric Wilson has established himself as one of Britain’s leading wildlife artists, a multi-award winner whose paintings are now widely collected throughout the world. His artistic ability was evident from his earliest schooldays; “Eric has an artistic talent way beyond his years” wrote his art teacher in 1967.
As a child of Scottish parentage, Eric would spend his formative years roaming the highland mountains of Scotland where his lifelong love of wild places was born. It was natural and inevitable that Eric would combine his talent with his love of wildlife and become a wildlife artist.
Eric has exhibited widely in London, Germany and the United States, exhibiting at the prestigious Florida Wildlife and Western Art Exposition and The National Exhibition of Wildlife Art where his work has won several awards. His paintings have appeared in magazines and books such as “The Best of Wildlife Art” and “Keys to Painting Fur and Feathers”, by North Light Books. Read more
Leopard Painting Demonstration in Pastels
About The Artist
Carol Santora, PSA, has loved animals of all kinds since she was a child, and remembers always wanting to be an artist. She had numerous well-used Jon Gnagy drawing kits and would copy pictures from magazines and sketch things around her home.
Santora (BFA, summa cum laude, Framingham State University) began her formal art training in 1983, while working as a registered nurse. One thing she wanted to learn to paint desperately was her dog, Flossie. After that first successful portrait, Santora realized she had a special talent and passion for animal and wildlife portraiture. Over the next 20 years, Santora would explore oil and watercolor painting before settling on soft pastel as her perfect medium. She painted landscapes and still-lifes, studied human portraiture and the figure, but the animals kept calling to her and appearing in her work.
Santora’s intimate portraits are insightful interpretations that express her passion for animals with excitement and energy by pushing the boundaries of color. She visits farms, rescues and wildlife areas in New England and out West to study and photograph her subjects. She takes hundreds of photographs and spends countless hours watching the animals that inspire her paintings. Her work is grounded in representation, but she is not bound by that. As she works, a completely realistic depiction gives way to a more artistic, contemporary rendering that serves her colorist and expressive purposes….
Learn more about Carol and see more of her work at her Website:
Pastel Painting Demo Step by Step
About Christine Kane
Christine Kane is a pastel and watercolor artist who is inspired by the Midwest landscape and it’s seasons. To find new ideas for her paintings, she hikes in the forest preserves during all seasons.
Christine began drawing at an early age. She focused her education on art and has a degree in Graphic Design. She is continuing her studies and is currently pursuing a degree in Natural Resources.
Translating weather is also evident in her work. “Weather makes a landscape painting come to life. How I love to show leaves blowing in the Autumn time, snow falling in winter, or a beautiful thunderstorm approaching in my summer paintings.”
Christine finds God’s handwork in all aspects of nature and tries to translate her awe and reverence in her artwork. Never disappointed, she relies on His creation for inspiration.
Pastel Painting Tutorial of a Tiger Step by Step
About Eric Wilson
Eric Wilson has established himself as one of Britain’s leading wildlife artists, a multi-award winner whose paintings are now widely collected throughout the world. His artistic ability was evident from his earliest schooldays; “Eric has an artistic talent way beyond his years” wrote his art teacher in 1967.
As a child of Scottish parentage, Eric would spend his formative years roaming the highland mountains of Scotland where his lifelong love of wild places was born. It was natural and inevitable that Eric would combine his talent with his love of wildlife and become a wildlife artist.
Eric has exhibited widely in London, Germany and the United States, exhibiting at the prestigious Florida Wildlife and Western Art Exposition and The National Exhibition of Wildlife Art where his work has won several awards. His paintings have appeared in magazines and books such as “The Best of Wildlife Art” and “Keys to Painting Fur and Feathers”, by North Light Books. Read more
Landscape Painting Demonstration Using Pan Pastels
Here is a wonderful landscape painting demonstration by Artist Deborah Secor using Pan Pastels, Sofft Tools and Pastelmat paper. PanPastels are a unique pastel painting medium that you may not be familiar with. They differ from ordinary stick form pastels as they come in little pan like containers and are applied with special tools called “Sofft Tools”. There are other differences between PanPastels and ordinary pastels and you can learn more about them in this free video demonstration from the makers of Pan Pastels here.
Deborah begins this pastel painting demo by first making a sketch on her paper using one of her oval Sofft Tools . She uses a gray color to do a rough layout of where her main shapes will go. She then grabs a yellow ochre and begins to sketch in the lighter clouds. She is not trying to be exact at this stage. She uses a paper towel to remove some of the pigment if necessary.
She then takes a turquoise and an ultramarine blue color, adds them to her sponge tool and begins to indicate the sky. She then adds other shades of blue and mixes and blends them all together right on the paper to create a very realistic looking sky color.
How to Make Soft Pastels by Hand
About Phyllis Russell Franklin
Phyllis has always painted. From her earliest memory she recalls how much she enjoyed the play of color and the creative process of all visual arts. During her childhood years she found many creative ways to fill that need to make things beautiful by playing with house paints creating many paintings that are still in her family today. She always looked for ways to “color” things and even went so far as to make her own dyes from seeds and plants for fabrics and other creative projects.
Working in the corporate world for some 30 years and taking care of her family left little time for exploring and developing her artistic talents. After retiring she has enjoyed and put to good use the time she has each day to learn and grow as a fine arts painter. She says “It’s such a pleasure to be able to have an opportunity to enjoy a second career and for it to be one that you actually get up each day wanting to do. I particularly enjoy painting outside doing small color studies and then bringing those studies back to the studio to use as memory maps for larger paintings. I am thankful each day for the life and talent God has given me and for the opportunity to share my paintings with others”…
Please follow this link to learn more about Phyllis and to view her work
Soft Pastel Drawing Tutorial Step by Step
About Kari Tirrell
A self-taught artist, Kari Tirrell spent her formative years drawing animals and people. Both subjects continue to factor largely in her work today. She paints predominantly with soft pastels and has a great love for realism. “People often comment that my paintings look like photos, but I’m not aiming for photorealism. I try to make whatever I’m painting look like a painting, but still appear to be real.”
Kari Tirrell relocated from California to the Pacific Northwest in 1992. She is a member of the Northwest Pastel Society, Pastel Society of the West Coast, Peninsula Art League, and is a juried member of EBSQ Self Representing Artists. Tirrell has won numerous awards, and her work has been purchased by private collectors around the globe.
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