Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Pastels!

I already knew that Doreen Kassel was a gifted polymer clay artist, but last weekend I discovered that she is also very skilled at working with pastels.  I took a fun class with her at Michele's Little Bird Creations studio.  I have some pastels, rarely use them, and have never had any instruction in their use, so I was pretty impressed with what I did.

Pat and I sat together (what else is new?) and shared our pastels.  We used all sorts, crayon style, stick, pan, pencil, and according to Doreen, the softer the better.  How did we apply them?  Pretty much direct to paper and then moving them around with our fingers.

 
 
Doreen did a lot of demonstrations.  Very good for a class of newbies to this medium.
 



Two smallish practice pieces:

 
 


After our lunch break I felt confident enough to try two larger pieces.

 

 
 
As you can see, Doreen likes to add some text, cut or torn from magazines.  I like that too!
 



3 comments:

Patzee said...

Pastels are so much fun. I'm glad we had Doreen as a guide--she makes it look so easy. Great job on your pastels. Your style is unmistakable! (And that's admirable.)

Doreen Gay-Kassel said...

Lovely blog post, Eileen! You made it easy to teach & your work came out great. I love the humor in your 'words'!

Unknown said...

Loved seeing what you girls did. Eileen, it's clear you're a NYC girl by looking at your artwork. You do those skylines with such panache!