And Holly, you are just AWESOME for sharing your story!! I’m over the moon that you are really enjoying the course!!
Thank you thank you for making my day!!

I don’t know if you have ever been to SMA, but is the perfect place for a an artist. The town itself is an inspiration. It also lends itself well to photo ops. Every morning after breakfast, I explored the town adding to my photo possibilities for paintings.

Your instructional videos were truly awesome!! I love the shorter videos and the gamut of information that you provide
(a kind of A-Z coverage of pastels). Each day, I watched some videos and did homework. I also worked on paintings. I came home w/ 5 new paintings, which was very satisfying!!

I didn’t work through all of your videos and homework while in SMA, but will continue this while home. I have learned a great deal from you thus far. I so appreciate your passion and thoroughness….

My mom has been an artist all her life and has actually made it her livelihood, which is very unusual. I am just now really taping into my artistic side, and am working to grow my craft! I absolutely adore pastels.

Wanted to share this w/ you and express my gratitude for your VERY awesome course!! It’s a treasure…

Best,
Holly Daley
Estes Park, Colorado

Ahhhh Bonnie, I don’t think Aaron is showing us his failures! These are successes for sure! We all each have a pile of artwork that don’t quite make the grade…the thing is, they rarely see the light of day so no one knows about them. And what we see on social media are our best outpourings wouldn’t you say? And all the pieces that don’t work so well, aren’t they relative to each of us and where we are on our journey? Let’s do the work and be open to our learnings from our mistakes and risks. Therein lies our growth.

Welcome Robert and thanks for writing! You certainly work in a lot of media 🙂
As to your frustration of pastel dust, I know what you mean. What I do now is tap the back of the painting to get rid of excess dust. Then I roll with a piece of paper towel and brayer (could use a wine bottle!). Then I may give it a light spray of Lascaux fixative. And so far, so good. I also work at an easel where the excess dust falls off the work.
Hope that helps!

Thanks Hannah. Two ways to find out where and what I’m teaching:
1) If you’re a subscriber to the HowToPastel blog, you’ll hear as soon as I know (this is the fastest way of hearing)
2) Workshops are listed on my HowToPastel website under Instruction > In-person workshops and classes

Hello Mitak,
It’s tricky to answer your question without knowing the actual brands of pastels and paper that you are using. For instance, some papers won’t take many layers or thick pastel and yes, the pastel will fall off.

For sealing a pastel, you can use fixative. I suggest either Lascaux or Krylon Fine Art Fixative. I have heard that Daler Rowney’s prefix is a good option too but I haven’t used it myself.

For shipping, I always wrap the pastel in glassine then tape it firm cardboard then add another piece of cardboard on top. Depending on the size, I will often add another piece of cardboard on either side. Then I wrap the whole thing in bubblewrap and put in a box. If the painting is large and/or valuable, I may then put that box inside another one. Unframed pastels are a whole lot easier to send than framed ones!!

Happy to know you find my website useful!!

Such a powerful painting Katherine! So glad my comments resonated with you. It’s always a risk I take bringing my own interpretation to a piece!