Imagine Yourself Creative
Pastel Painting Workshop
A One Day In-Person Workshop for All Skill Levels
£115.00
Including All Materials
This pastel painting workshop is for everyone with an interest in painting colour and light. Explore the luminous world of pastel painting where you’ll discover how to capture the mood and atmosphere of a landscape, or the delicate features of a still life.  and translate them into the rich velvety qualities that make pastels so wonderfully expressive.
We’ll begin with mixed media underpainting techniques, using watercolour or acrylic washes to lay down a foundation of colour and texture before building up your pastel layers. This approach opens up a whole new world of depth and effect, and is great fun to experiment with — no two results are ever quite the same!
Whether you’re picking up pastels for the first time or looking to deepen your practice, this workshop is designed to be warm, exploratory and full of those satisfying creative discoveries.
What You’ll Learn
- By the end of the workshop, you’ll come away with a solid set of skills and the confidence to continue exploring
- Underpainting fundamentals – how to use watercolour or acrylic washes to create a dynamic base layer that adds depth and energy to your finished piece
- Colour and tone – how to mix, layer and blend pastels to capture light
- Texture and mark-making – how to use different pastel techniques to create movement
- Building up layers – letting your underpainting breathe through for richness and dimension
- Fixing and finishing – how to protect your work and know when a painting is truly done (trickier than it sounds!)
- Working from reference – how to simplify a scene and make confident compositional choices, whether working from a photograph or life
I deliberately keep numbers limited to 5 or 6 students to ensure that I can offer group, and detailed one to one instruction throughout the day. You may also be interested in Pet & Animal Portraits – Pastel Painting Workshop
Included in the workshop is everything you’ll need for your pastels for the day.
- Easel & pastel papers, and premium sanded paper board ready for painting.
- A selection of pastels, watercolour paints, inks, pencils, charcoals and brushes.
- Excellent, high-quality subject material and references to work from.
- Detailed structured teaching notes that accompany the workshop to take home.
- Refreshments, tea, coffee and homemade cake.Â
Please see the tab below What To Bring for more information.
The workshop includes materials as standard, however, if you’d prefer to bring your own materials you can choose the ‘Without Materials’ option below at a lower price.
Arrive at around 9.30 to get settled in, and after a quick run through of the day we’ll get straight into things at around 10.00.You’ll start with some useful exercises  experimenting with pastels on the surfaces we’ll be using, both as pure and mixed medium, then practising some applied techniques to illuminate how you can create depth and interest in your paintings. You’ll then be working on still life & landscape compositions starting out with simple tonal sketches – taking us to lunch via a short break late morning.Lunchtime usually works its way round to a relaxed chat about what we’ve accomplished so far, and the work ahead.Complementing your work in the morning you’ll be moving more into colour; as a language which you can learn best mainly through practise rather than as theory. The focus of the afternoon is to represent your chosen subject in colour as simply as possible, practising your visual language – and from that conversation a painting begins to emerge.After a short, and usually much needed, break mid afternoon, a quick review will focus us on the next steps to finessing your work toward being “finished”.We’ll wrap up somewhere around 4.00 with a casual “debrief” and chat about the revelations of the day – and there will be many, some of which can be quite magical.
This workshop is for everyone. All my Imagine Yourself Creative workshops are structured to cater for a wide range of abilities, and reflect my teaching style – one small imaginative step at a time.My own artwork is a blend of process and practise founded on a few simple rules, one of which is to keep things as simple as possible.
When you have a beginners mindset, you’re not worried about looking smart. You’re more interested in exploration, discovery, asking questions, trying new things, and perhaps above all you see opportunities instead of obstacles in your learning experience.
How to Practice the Beginner’s MindsetAsk more questions. Especially basic fundamental questions.Be open to feedback. This should feel like a conversation between you and your creative project.Let go of being right. Focus on being open, learning not winning.Try something completely new. We are numbed by comfort, push yourself into a new space.Stay curious. Imagine how a child would respond to what you see and feel.
You can read the full Imagine Yourself Creative post on my blog [here]
My purpose built studio is located in East Cowton, DL7 0DX (Noble Fine Art), which is about 6 miles north of Northallerton. It’s a creative space where in addition to running art workshops I offer picture framing, fine art reproduction, scanning and giclée printing, along with (my husband’s) lovely old vintage printing presses.Â
Please click the link Contact Me & Studio Location Map above to view more details on my location.
What to bring? All you need is suitable comfortable clothing and a packed lunch, the studio is well heated. There’s a small kitchen with tea and coffee making facilities, a fridge, microwave and toaster in the studio which are all available for use. I recommend an apron or old shirt, and a beginners mindset, everything else is provided.
Read the Imagine Yourself Creative Beginners Mindset post on my blog [here].
The studio is a new building with good access which is suitable for wheelchairs, and all of my courses take place on the ground floor directly through the main double door access to the studio.We have a small kitchen area with tea and coffee making facilities, a fridge, microwave and toaster which are all available for student use. The kitchen is immediately accessible from the central ground floor area.
Click the Contact Me & Studio Location Map link in the top section of the page for more details.
Younger Students – 14 to 16 are always very welcome, though they will need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Gift Vouchers –Â Painting is one of the most therapeutic pursuits, and benefits us in so many ways, improving our mental health, concentration and general feeling of well-being.
You can purchase a gift voucher for £25 / £50 / £100 which you can use against any course / workshop & one to one tuition, or use against purchases for framing, prints and original fine art.
If you’d like any more information please just click on the link in the upper section of the page Contact Me & Studio Location Map.
Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, and if you’re unable to attend a course you’ve paid for, and would like to cancel I will always try and accommodate any request as fairly as possible. In any case, please just get in touch.
More than 8 weeks notice – You’ll receive a refund of 80% of the cost of the course.
More than 4 weeks notice – I’ll transfer you to another workshop / course to the same value. If there isn’t a suitable one free, your credit will be maintained and you’ll get priority bookings as more courses are released. Or, as below I’m happy someone to take your place.
Less than 4 weeks – I’m happy for a family member or friend to take your place, just let me have there details to confirm the booking.
