I’m standing at the front of a classroom and I’m terrified. Who knew a dozen mature-aged art students could be so intimidating. I put it down to their unnaturally kind eyes and also, this is the first time I’ve ever taught anyone about working with soft pastels.
I was posting my own pastel works on Instagram when I was first approached by a local community college and asked to teach a five week course (two hours, one night a week) on how to paint birds with soft pastels. I was tempted to tell them Wednesday nights are when I stay home and wash my hair but because it’s good to occasionally do something that scares the living daylights out of you, I said yes.
Here’s a week-by-week blow of what teaching those classes taught me about my own soft pastel practice.
Week one. Everyone wants to blend. None of my students could keep their fingers out of their work. They blended until the only colour left was mud. Turns out, I don’t blend. I might put colour on colour but I don’t stick my fingers in them. I’m pretty sure the impressionists worked this way (can I please be an impressionist?), dabbing pure pigment directly onto the canvas.
Week two. Don’t be scared of the eraser. It came as a surprise to my students that you can erase soft pastels. I love erasing. It allows me to remove, replace and keep colours clean. I can also use the eraser to push pastel around and refine shapes.
Week three. Not a bird but the idea of a bird. The more accurate my students wanted to paint, the less their work looked like the thing they were painting. It’s amazing what you can get away with by not painting everything that’s there. At some point the artist has to take over and leave the reference behind (maybe this is where the art begins). Allow your audience to fill in the gaps.
Week four. There are colours only you can see. Painting’s all about seeing and people see differently. Sure, it’s a brown bird but has anyone noticed that smidge of lilac or pale blue, or is that just me? I can’t explain this but I know if you paint the colours only you can see, your work will be better for it.
Week five. Fail spectacularly. My students were pretty scared of messing up and to be fair, so am I. Here’s the thing, it’s okay to make mistakes, that’s how you learn. Yes, I know that’s a cliché but I’m a teacher now, so I’m allowed to say it. I stuff up pastel paintings all the time, it hurts but I get over it and have another crack tomorrow.
To see more of Peter’s work go to www.peterforceart.com or on Instagram @peteforce24
17 Responses
Hey Peter, I loved this blog!! Everything about it resonated!! I’ve done demos and soon to do my first workshop. Despite having had a demanding job (lawyer) in a previous life, I too find the thought terrifying but I too recognise that it’s good to do things outside your comfort zone. And because it’s art, 1. People are supportive and 2. I always thoroughly enjoy the experience (the same was not true of the day job!!!). Thank you!
Thanks for the comment Andrew and good luck with your first workshop. The students I had were a hoot, really fun and supportive. Also, well done on escaping the law.
Hi
I also still am nervous every time I do a workshop. Mostly because you have to paint on demand and what if it’s not the most brilliant thing you’ve ever done!! I know tons about pastels having been using them over 10 years but still there’s that self doubt. But it hasn’t killed me yet so I realize it’s all in my head. Thanks for the blog post. Love the birds!
Jo willoughby
Love that you love my birds Joanne, I’m pretty sure self-doubt and creative endeavours go hand in hand and it sucks.
I loved this story and I so relate to your fears! I’ve recently been teaching pastels to my students during our weekly classes and I learn something new about pastels and about myself with each lesson. My students also blend themselves into muddy corners of oblivion and then I have to coax them out of self-loathing and encourage them to keep going. I say to them that their paintings will probably look like #*?!** until close to the end but it’s the last few correcting marks and highlights that pulls it all together, and then they get it! It’s been so rewarding! I love your series of bird specimens!
Regards Louise
Thank you Louise. Agree, highlights are so important and I always think if you can get the eye right you’re halfway there. My birds have been really popular, I like to say they’re not a bird but the idea of a bird. It frees me up a bit.
I loved this blog as well. I found myself in much of it. Nicely written and on the short side, which is nice sometime. It allows the brain to catch and retain the “bullet points”.
Thanks Toni, glad you’re in ‘much of it’ and I agree, short is good. Was it Oscar Wilde who once said. “I would have written you a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time”?
A really interesting article and l too “blend” until you spoke of this l didnt even think if not doing it so may next task is to give it a go. Never been good at drawing and l think thats why l find pastels forgiving l can blend then make “marks” found this do interesting
There are no rules Jean, as long as you’re having fun, right?
I have been drawing/painting for 50 + years. To me it’s all drawing you draw with a paint brush, draw with a pastel, draw with a pencil and some times with my finger. I showed my pictures for about the first 10 years and realized I was going to be a hungry artist. So I went to work in the machine shops did well and ate well. I always had that little bug in my ear and would paint at least 1 or 2 oil paintings a year, actually I drew the picture to work out the composition and then drew it in pastel to work out the color scheme and if I still liked it I painted it in oils. I have closets and rooms full of paintings. I think some of them are pretty good but my wife just says “not another one”. I don’t advertise or sell if someone I know wants one I give it to them. I just love to create pictures what my wife does with them when I go I don’t care. Interesting the article of birds I read today I have been painting and drawing birds for about 2 years now. Now that I’m retired I paint a lot more and I have about 100 birds in all mediums, shapes and sizes. Museums, shows, sales and just sitting in the back yard give me inspiration. I’ll draw till I can draw no more.
I too have loads of drawings and paintings that I keep and never ever even try to sell it’s such a personal thing what ever happens to them like you said we will not know.
Hello Peter!
I laughed so much at the way you wrote this blog! It’s gas as the saying goes here in Ireland, so fresh and realistic and yet so true!!! The bit about seeing other colours I can absolutely relate to, some people who visit my little studio ask me this question and I just have to say that that is the colour I saw (maybe in my mind’s eye) but there it was, I often wondered how that came about but it must be a thing that artists encounter? Or am I going mad?
I’m seeing those colours too Maggie, so we’re both mad! Thanks for the kind words and glad you enjoyed it.
Hi, really love your blog and your work. You are demystifying the use of pastel. I always doubted my work not being good enough or realistic enough or whatever not good enough regarding the standards. Thank you you make my day. Love your work.
Thanks Michele, I’m actually trying to get less realistic. Throwing away reference and doing stuff out of my head.. It’s incredibly liberating and might just be the way to find your own artistic voice. Well, that’s the theory.
Very helpful! Your article takes the pressure off taking a retired person’s art class. Have longed to be doing this since 6 years old. Also like John Slater’s comments, couldn’t make a living but found a way to keep his art alive throughout. Also like “drawing becomes pastels becomes oils,” I didn’t know that, & that justifies current art class. When my son took violin at 7 years, I suddenly realized music was his voice, same as learning English. Same with visual arts for some. Carry on the torch good fellows!