Botanical Expressions in Pastel and Mixed Media

Let’s loosen up with bold and beautiful Pastels and discover the versatility of this age-old medium!

I will show you techniques in layering, blending, and adding texture by using some unconventional tools to add marks and mayhem such as a brayer, stencils, torn paper, and much more! We will experiment with adding inks and other matte mediums to our backgrounds and will use botanical subjects such as flowers and plants to bring our musings to life! There are no rules in this class. Just have fun and free your creativity with the wonder and beauty of Pastels! 

We will use both still life and reference photos for our inspirations. I will most likely use mainly photo references since the pastel and mixed media applications support a more speedy approach and it will be much easier to have a photo in hand to reference instead of looking at a still life. I will bring color print outs of my main subject and will provide each student their own to reference. 

What To Bring Materials list: 

• Paper: If you want to really experience the full potential of Pastels I would highly recommend investing in some Pastelmat..it can be painted on as well as accepts pastels beautifully but it is expensive. Otherwise, since much of our time spent will be experimental you can actually use less expensive papers such as print-making paper or sketch paper. Rives BFK and Stonehenge papers work well. 
• Pastels: I will use PanPastel, pastel sticks and soft pastels. There is quite a range of pastels and they can be quite expensive so if you’re not sure of whether or not you’d like to invest in them, I will have a range of pastels in class for you to experiment with and you can then decide which ones you prefer. Actually, Blick’s brand of chalk pastels are nice and they would be a good starter set. 
• Other mediums: Sumi ink, charcoal, colored pencil, wax pastels. These are all additional mediums we will use for adding accents and marks. If you have any of these at home, bring them along. I will bring in my own supply to show you how they work to build interest in our pieces. 
• Stencils: I have tons of patterned stencils which I will bring to show you how they can be integrated into the art pieces…they add another dimension of interest and plus they’re really fun!

Additional materials: 

• Black charcoal pencils 
• Kneaded eraser 
• Brayer: for mark-making and drawing. They come in different sizes such as 1.5”, 2”, 2.5”, and 3”. I like using the 1.5”, 2” and 2.5” so those would be good sizes to have. You really only need one, though so I would start with a 2” or 2.5”. 
• Texture makers: I have a bunch of silicon rubber tools which have cut edges in different types of patterns which are fun to use to add textures into wet media. I will bring mine so you don’t need to purchase any of those.

Experience Level: Beginning to Intermediate