Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, a two part YouTube video

I created this full length YouTube video of a tiger portrait. In part one I used primarily Pan Pastels with a Zorn palette. If you're not familiar with this palette it consists of black, white, yellow ochre and red. All colors are created from this small selection.

Click on this link to watch part one of my full length Pan Pastel Demonstration of a Tiger Portrait.

Tiger Pan Pastel Part 1

Click on this link to watch part two of my full length Pan Pastel Demonstration of a Tiger Portrait.

Tiger Pan Pastel Part 2

Charcoal Rendering of my dog Renard

This lovely portrait of my dog, Renard, a project I taught in a library Zoom class. I used charcoal and erasers to complete the portrait.

Black and white, an annual event?

 Last year at this time I was overdosed on color so I switched to graphics and charcoal giving away all of my color media. Then I bought them all over again. Now I'm done with color and back.to black and white. I gave away a lot of the color media I had purchased but I kept a lot: Pan Pastels, Derwent pastel pencils, Derwent graphitint, XL graphite and charcoal and my watercolor pencils which I never gave up. I've experimented with new papers, added some graphite and I'm ready for my black and white period and my transition back to color. But this time I'm going to get it soft with tints and limited palettes.

In the midst of all of this, while helping my sister, making changes in furnishings around the house, I have made changes to my art space. No art for the last two weeks. Arrgh. Finally, today, I was able to draw a picture. 

I used Generals white chalk, a touch of white Pan Pastel and Derwent Chinese White drawing pencil on Derwent black drawing paper to draw this hare. The paper is lovely but too slick for pastels; great for colored pencils. The next time I use it, I'll draw with colored pencils. I was so pleased with this drawing. I started and, in perhaps an hour, I was done. Tomorrow more rabbits in black and white on larger paper. A black Cannon paper; 11 x 14 inches. 

Oh. Here's A shot of my work space. The most important changes - my paintings are on the wall. In the past I've had other artists work in my studio.

Sometimes, color gets in the way

 I have just started a new series on my YouTube Channel called Sometimes, color gets in the way. I'm focusing on working in black and white and shades of gray to create volume with light and dark. The first two projects are on black paper. I'll be using a variety of papers and media in this series in the hopes of sharing with folks the "value" of using black and white to understand contrast when color is just too difficult to work with.

Cane leaning against a tree

Elephant Portrait

The videos are under 30 minutes (time lapse). I hope you can take the time to view and like if you like and subscribe if you want to see more of my demonstrations.

Old Door from the Huguenot Village in New Paltz, NY

I just uploaded this Pan Pastel painting to YouTube. It's under 1/2 hour and it's simple. It's based on a reference photo I took about fifteen years ago in the Huguenot Village in New Paltz, NY. 

 I used Pan Pastels: Black, White, Neutral Gray, Yellow Ochre, Yellow Ochre Shade and Yellow Ochre Tint

I used a black pastel pencils and a white charcoal pencil

My paper of choice for this project was Canson Mi Tientes 9 x 12 pastel paper, white

This is the original photo,

Pan Pastel Hoopoe Birds

Zoom Pastel Class

 

I have been teaching an introduction to Pastels for the Seminole County Library for this past month via Zoom.  The class was successful with 17 or 18 particpants each of the four weeks. They produced lovely, colorful and original pastel drawings of the subjects that I selected. 

We started with a landscape so that they could work without the restrictions of a drawing and learn to use most of the strokes and blending techniques.

The following week, we drew this clown fish. The Library them

e for the Summer Reading Program is Tails and Tales and I was asked to include an animal so I included three. I chose animals that were distinctive in color and markings so that the students would have an easier time creating the images.

Next came the Toucan.

And during last night's class we drew a Racoon. This is the image I drew for the class, no mean feat since I have to draw sideways during the class. 

They have drawn fish, fowl and four leggeds and have asked for a monthly class. I'm so glad they enjoyed my favorite medium and somehow I plan to provide these students with a monthly class. 

Pelican for Skillshare class

This lovely Pelican, completed with Pan Pastels and a very few pencils, is the subject of my latest Skillshare Class.

 

A New Toucan Portrait

 

This portrait of a Curl Crested Acarai which is a member of the Toucan family was done with Pan Pastels and Derwent Pastel Pencils on 7 x 9.5 slate Pastel Mat paper, It was great fun and took over a bit over an hour. I like using the swarth of blue in the background rather than creating a fully detailed background or just leaving it gray. This painting was created without a drawing, using the pastels to block out the body of the bird.

You can watch a time lapse video of the creation of this beautiful bird on my YouTube channel. Click here to see the video.

Trying Jane Davenport's pressed pastels in fine art

 Since I began teaching painting with Pan Pastels on Skillshare and YouTube, I've been looking for alternatives to Pan Pastels. I realize that Pan Pastels may be too expensive for some people and that sometimes people just want to try something different.

I had seen a few videos about Jane Davenport's pastels but they were all about crafting and working on preprinted faces. While the color palettes are all cosmetic-like in appearance they are not for use on the face or any other part of the body. Ms. Davenport is quite clear about that. So, for about $45.00 I purchased the three sets of the pressed pastels; Chilled, Birthday Suit and Lit Up. I received two of the three palettes within a day but the third was held up but..... I was really anxious to work with my new pastels so..... I went ahead. These are the two palettes I used, Chilled and Birthday Suit. Because there were a couple of colors missing from these sets I supplemented them with hues from my Pan Pastel Collection.  I used the red for the tulips and the yellow for the pansies and black for shading in both.

The Tulips were painted on Canson Mi Tientes pastel paper, black. The Pansies were painted on Clairfontaine Pastelmat paper. The Canson worked fine but it didn't have sufficient tooth so, if I had wanted to use pastel pencils in the drawing, it wouldn't have worked. They worked well on the Pastelmat paper. I found that I needed to apply more layers of these pastels to work on black paper than I did with Pan Pastels. 

I also found that mixing in the palette as I do with Pan Pastels didn't work as well. They did blend but the colors are tints and shades, not pure hues so that blending to achieve the colors I wanted wasn't possible.  This doesn't mean that what I achieved wasn't lovely. I really did like my outcome; I just didn't like the process. And I found the white to be not strong enough. Does that make sense? I just couldn't lighten the violet shade in the painting of the pansies as much as I wanted.

While I'll keep these palettes to add to my collection of colors, I'll be sticking with Pan Pastels for most of my paintings. I find  Pan Pastel colors richer and the consistency thicker. Covering tinted papers with Pan Pastels was easier. 

Not that it's a bad thing, but I found the differences between colors to be too subtle which is why I am planning on painting a portrait using the Jane Davenport pastels just to see how I like it.

The biggest drawback with these pastels is actually a practical one for me. The little trays (1 x .75 inches) of pastel aren't sold separately so that if you run out of, say white, you have to buy that set (Birthday Suit) again. 

Pastel Classes on Skillshare

 If you're on Skillshare, please take a look at my pastel classes. I've just begun and I have a beginner and an intermediate class. They're free and so is membership to Skillshare. They do have a Premium membership which will allow you access to all classes if you like. 

Here are the links to my classes. 

Thisbeach scene of Belle Aire Beach, Florida takes under an hour. I've included a reference photo, a line drawing, step by step images as well as a list of all of the materials you need for this project.

This intermediate class, Portrait of an Egret runs just over an hour and I give you the reference photo, a line drawing and step by step images as well as a list of materials needed to complete the project.

YouTube Demonstrations

 I'm now posting demonstrations of Pan Pastel and pastel pencil drawings on YouTube. I've committed myself to posting two posts a months and I do hope you'll take a look and if you like what you see, subscribe and give me a "thumbs up". You can search for me under Joan Mansson or just click on this link.

Here are some the the projects I shared on YouTube. Some are full length and some are time lapse. All drawings are done in Pan Pastels and pastel pencils. 

Glorious Glazing

The February 2021 edition of Colored Pencil Magazine featured an article by me, Glorious Glazing, which I described how I used watercolor pencils to glaze water soluble graphite drawings to create beautiful and realistic drawings. For copyright reasons I'm not able to print the article here but I do have a link to the magazine. It's available in print and digitally and the article is on page 34. I hope you'll have a chance to read it and to try this technique.