What I learned About Pastels And Painting Portraits: Wonderful Workshop at Writers' and Artists' Holiday

Self-portrait by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 2019 Feb 18.

The Location and Course
I saw the pastels in the box of art materials for us to use each year provided by Writers' Holiday.
Workshop teacher and artist, Susan Alison,had some supplementary materials of her own, mainly used by her to demonstrate.

Boxes Of Paints, Pencils and Pastels
I avoided mixing up the boxes or touching her personal materials when she was not there and had not offered to lend them. I rummaged through the communal box to see what else I could try, and found the pastels.

Pristine Pastels
I had bought pastels years ago when they were on sale in large branches of W H Smith stationery store in London, and in art shops. But I had never tried the pastels.

I didn't know what to do with them. Use them neat, add water?

I concluded that if they were like water colour pencils, you draw first and add water later, to avoid the risk of too much water in one place curling thin paper.

Pastels, Chalk And Dust
The pastels were like chalk. If you added a second thicker layer or pressed hard, you created a coloured dust.

UNTOUCHED PASTELS
Unopened boxes of paints, new pads of paper. You don't want to start and spoil them. You hesitate. You procrastinate.

I had procrastinated years. My water colours at home in paintboxes and boxes of paints had probably dried out.

Here at Writers' and Artists' Holiday in Wales was a box of pastels, already worn and broken. I could not harm it. It was there for my use. My chance to do a pastel drawing and get art teacher Alison to look at my work and give her comments.

I was in a hurry. I drew a black outline. Unlike pencil, the black pastel was hard to erase or disguise.

SKULL
My circular head outline was in the wrong place. I had to turn it into a headband or halo or background.

JAW
The rounded edge square jawline was too heavy for a woman. I have a heart shape face. I had to add the v shape or u shape chin above. then what could I do with the lower line? Turn it into a necklace or a scooped dress or top.

LIGHT
The U shape necklace was now lop-sided. Next time, draw around a saucer or circular object.Use it as the edge of a shadow. Add a light fitting in the corner, if it's an indoor picture.

For an outdoor picture, I would put the sun or moon top right with shadows on the left of each protruding object, the nose, and so on, the top lip darker, the lower lip lighter.

Later I corrected it.

As I drew, my fingers were covered in colour. Unsightly. Maybe poisonous. I remembered how people in the middle ages, Queen Elizabeth's era, painted their faces white and died of poisoning. So I used a piece of kitchen roll paper around my fingers to smudge the pastels and wipe away dust. I blew away dust. the hotel cleaners would eventually deal with that, or the open glass doors would blow away the dust in the breeze.

At home I would have to put newspaper on the floor or vacuum clean the floor to avoid treading the coloured dust over my carpets. Or do both.

FEEDBACK FROM THE TEACHER
Our art teacher, Susan, was sitting chatting and relaxing after dinner. Could I really raise the subject of art, when she was off duty?

I sat beside her, waited for a lull in the conversation, and told her, "I used the pastels and got dust everywhere, on the picture my fingers and clothes! I made a mess. I think I should stick to water colours!"

Susan said she had had exactly the same experience as me and reached the same conclusion. She said, "When I was at art school, and starting out, I tried everything: oil paints, water colour, pastels. Everything else made a mess. That's why I do water colour painting."

Great news. It's not just me. Not just me being prissy. Not just me being messy. Not just me with no space for an oil painting studio where you can make a mess. Thank you, Susan.
I thought that when I got home if I had not time or money or energy to varnish and set the pastels, I could content myself with the photo of my painting, and copy the pastel painting as a water colour.

So now you know, and can benefit from my experience. If you want to book an art holiday, here are the details:

Useful Websites
writersholiday.net
susan alison (See her on Facebook and her websites)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, artist, caricaturist. Please bookmark useful posts and share links to your favourite posts.