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Winter Homestead with Tracey Maras | Soft Pastel Tutorial

Winter Homestead with Tracey Maras | Soft Pastel Tutorial

A written guide on painting a Twilight Snow Scene on Textured Ground.

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Painting a Twilight Snow Scene on Textured Ground.

When imagining a winter scene, we usually visualize a scene filled with white. But in the low-light hours of twilight, snow can become a blanket of rich indigo and turquoise blue. Pairing that with the warm highlights of the setting sun reflecting on clouds or the warm light emanating from the windows of a house can create a scene that is colorful and expressive.

While this could be painted on any pastel paper, a textured ground can be used to impart subtle drama to an overall simplified scene of an isolated homestead silhouetted against a twilight sky during winter.

Written tutorial with the following learning outcomes:

  • Design & composition
  • Preparing the painting surface
  • Creating an underpainting
  • Painting the scene utilizing broken color to accentuate texture, dimension, and drama.

Intermediate Level

View the tutorial page here… unisoncolour.com/tutorials/winter-homestead-with-tracey-maras

  • Blendable

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  • Lightfast

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  • Mixed Media

    Use our pastels in conjunction with watercolour and acrylic, or in any other creative ways.

  • Soft and Smooth

    ‘Just like butter’ – Our pastels need no encouragement to leave their mark.

  • Highly Pigmented

    Using the best pigments to provide the deepest colouration for your work.

  • Flexible

    Use wet or dry on the broadest range of surface types.

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Ann V. profile pictureAnn V.
18:37 22 Oct 25
Recently ordered the Autumn Rains set. Rec’d fairly quickly and was packaged well. Just started using the set, and really like them. Very easy to work with, nicely blendable, good coverage. Colors in the set are just beautiful. Am enjoying using them!
Erla H. profile pictureErla H.
10:34 20 Oct 25
My first order online of Unison, love the personal assist, Oliver and Dan, thank you. And of course loved the colours :)
I am fairly new to pastels, and have tried few, but when I tried Unison, that was it! The pigment is so good, and to work with them really good. So I am now a Unison fan :)
Mike S. profile pictureMike S.
20:00 17 Aug 25
I ordered the hand made colour charts from Unison. What arrived was a wonderful set of hand made colour charts for each of the colour ranges each coated in a clear covering to preserve the pastel. Each chart is titled with the colour range (e.g. blue violet, red earth) and each colour is numbered. The set comes in a box which also helps to preserve the charts.
davit A. profile picturedavit A.
15:07 15 Jun 25
I m very grateful to have found the Unison Pastel online store because in our country, Georgia, there is a limited selection of pastels. The quality of there pastels is outstanding, with soft gradations. it is convenient to be able to order individually and also in interesting combinations. The delivery is also of high quality. Thank you for helping artists in this way.
Susan W. profile pictureSusan W.
17:42 25 May 25
So I've bought, the mini sets Centenary, Drawing Spring, Winter and Summer Dazzle and some pastel paper. Unison's website very easy to manage/navigate. One thing went wrong, but they were on it and dealt with it very very quickly - thank you Oliver. I've always wanted Unison pastels as they get such good write ups. I haven't been disappointed. Every set is brilliant, so well curated but Summer Dazzle is just sublime. Before this I'd bought Autumn mini set, 36 stick Landscape and Midnight. Midnight is just gorgeous, especially the blue sticks. I haven't tried the paper yet but I'm so glad it's in conjunction with Two Rivers, my favourite paper company. Anyway, playtime now...sorry I meant pastel painting time.
Donna H. profile pictureDonna H.
15:17 19 May 25
I reunited with Unison a few years ago. I have them stored beside my easel and many of my pastel paintings are 70% and up done with Unison. They have become my favorites.

I had been working on the painting below and I just was not able to achieve the brightness in the center of the painting that I wanted. I wanted something with a some sparkle to it. I received an email from Unison and saw Summer Sparkle Mini set and there was my color with the sparkle.! When they arrived I went to the easel and finished my painting."Blue Bells On Campus". And the packaging with this mini set tops the set off with a glittering band. I love this set.
Art always makes me happy but this mini set really made my day. Thank you so much. Donna Housel
Mark S. profile pictureMark S.
08:55 14 Apr 25
Hoping to do 5 day challenge! Yet to start!
However the people at unison could not do enough to support me! Above & beyond!🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️
rosalien N. profile picturerosalien N.
23:30 13 Apr 25
Edith K. profile pictureEdith K.
15:02 11 Apr 25
Unison Color soft pastels are the Rolls-Royce among the different pastel brands I know. Some qualifiers: good hold of the chalks, tenderness of the powder, intensity and brightness of the colors. A real joy to work with.
The family business is very professional. Recently I ordered their color chart and a box of colors and I was served quickly and efficiently.
Lorraine B. profile pictureLorraine B.
17:19 30 Mar 25
Beautiful pastel set, I have a set of hard pastels which I enjoy working with so I'm going to look into the Unison pastel training to make the most of these soft sticks.
Rob J. profile pictureRob J.
20:40 23 Feb 25
Dan and the team at Unison are absolutely fabulous and the soft pastels are THE most incredible vibrant colours and a dream to work with. I cannot recommend them highly enough……..absolutely splendid!
Carol Y. profile pictureCarol Y.
19:33 23 Feb 25
Loved the colours of pastels shosen by Stephen for this challenge. Really good teaching and Q & A was extemely helpful. Would certainly recommend Unison challenges.
Rhona H. profile pictureRhona H.
08:35 16 Feb 25
Unison pastels are just beautiful. I am in love with this product. Shopping was easy. Delivery fast and item is fabulous.
margaret F. profile picturemargaret F.
18:22 02 Feb 25
I bought a gift voucher for a relative who works in your pastels
Debbie D. profile pictureDebbie D.
18:10 10 Nov 24
I recently bought both the Autumn and Winter Mini Sets from Unison Colour. The colours are absolutely stunning in both Sets. Although, I haven't used the Winter set, yet, I have used the Autumn set in the Autumn landscape image. The pastels are perfect in colour, size, their smoothness and are just beautiful. Quality at its best. I can highly recommend Unison Colour, overall.
Susan. C. profile pictureSusan. C.
12:44 05 Oct 24
5 day pastel challenge was a well designed forum for skill refresher, opportunity to receive helpful feedback and discussion. Stephen Fuller conducted the series beautifully, gave helpful tips, listed the specific tools and pastels he used (while encouraging use of substitutes if you were lacking those).
Amanda profile pictureAmanda
09:16 05 Oct 24
The Unison 'Autumn Rains' pastel challenge with artist Stephen Fuller was just excellent. The piece was beautiful, the tuition well-delivered and well-paced, and the feedback was amazing. Stephen generously took the time to do live questions each evening and, incredibly, put an encouraging comment on each picture that participants posted in the Facebook group. He's a lovely man to learn from, and his art is gorgeous. Thanks Stephen and thanks Unison for arranging this. I love your pastels and your associated artists!
Kaliunis F. profile pictureKaliunis F.
19:38 02 Sep 24
These soft pastels came to me expertly sustainably packed.
The pigment and binding medium are very high quality and represent all-round good value. I liked the presentation .. boxes that are strong and nicely designed quite adequate for fieldwork.
My choice of pastel reflects my style and personal preference. The pastel are a joy to use thanks.
Julie H. profile pictureJulie H.
18:13 25 Aug 24
Purchased a couple of single colour pastels to supplement the set I had previously bought. I love unison pastels as they are very soft and blendable but also have fantastic depth of colour. The pastels arrived quickly and were very well packaged. Communication with Unison is great - they really care about the products and their customers.
Ann K. profile pictureAnn K.
08:35 18 Nov 22
Unison pastels come in such a huge range of vibrant colours. I chose them initially because they are British made having previously tried other brands originating elsewhere. I soon fell in love with them. I am a beginner but I find them easy to use and their layering qualities are much greater than others I have tried. Turn round time on orders is quick and the products are well packaged.

The Unison community of users and artists is very friendly and so helpful and supportive of a beginner like me. The pictures below show the vibrancy of the colours.

Unisons 5 day challenges are amazing. They are hosted by unison associate artists and are completely free. I have completed several. You learn lots of new techniques and get to be part of an amazing community of artists. Thank you Unison.
Jenny H. profile pictureJenny H.
10:58 09 Mar 22
I initially purchased the hand drawn colour chart so that I could try and match my pastels (of varying makes) already having a few unison pastels I decided to also purchase the set for The Haven 1 day course after completing the 5 day Durdle Door challenge, which I really enjoyed. Just love these pastels as they are so soft and creamy and blend really well. A great course with excellent tutor Nina Squires and Dan and the Unison team. Very professional with excellent handouts and all questions answered in the Q&A's.
Can't recommend them enough to anyone to try these courses they are brilliant and with unison and the fb community with you all the way encouraging each other, it really gives everyone a boost.

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Colour Chart Guidance

We believe the colours in our web based colour chart are a faithful representation of our pastel range. But with any colours portrayed on the internet, there’s a whole heap of variables which mean that what you see, may not be what we see. That said, there’s some things that can be done to mitigate some of the variance.

Mobile phone and tablet screens tend to be pretty good for colour, so they’re always worth using, when viewing our colour chart.

We hate to say it, but cheaper computer displays, including laptops, can be rather hit and miss, in both colour and contrast, so they might not reveal the depth of the colour, as well as the true tone.

If you’re really keen on getting your computer up to speed on colour representation, you can use a calibration device to reach your display's fullest potential.

With all that said, if you think we’re way off the mark with any of the colours then, by all means let us know, and we’ll give it another shot.

Pastel Size Guide

Half stick size clear bg

Half Stick

Length: 2.5cm
Width: 1.2cm

Available in limited colours and only within sets.

Small stick size clear bg

Small Stick

Length: 5cm
Width: 1.2cm

Full range of Small Sticks available on website.

Large stick size clear bg

Large Stick

Length: 7.3cm
Width: 2.4cm

Large Sticks available in over 100 colours on website.

Please do bear in mind that our pastels are hand made from a variety of traditional pigments, all of which have their own characteristics. This means that size does fluctuate ever so slightly, and the softness varies between the different colours. We do, of course, keep well within our criteria for the perfect pastel, but if the pastels you’ve received don’t quite live up to your expectations, please get in touch and we’ll make sure it’s put right.