Spring 2018 Pastel Class

Spring Pastel Class - The Plus Side: Acrylic Demo

Since my class is listed as "Pastel Plus" one of my non-pastel students asked me to do an acrylic demo based on a book she got on painting the landscape. The book was written by the man I learned to paint acrylics many years ago on PBS: Jerry Yarnell. He is still on PBS and Create TV after all these many years and he is still a good fundamental type of teacher, the link to his website is in the sidebar under Lerri's Links.

One of the things I think that that my students realized that even though it was an entirely different medium using paint and brushes instead of chalk and fingers, many things still remained the same: Things like composition, color mixing and working from back to front/dark to light all transfer between many of the different mediums with maybe the exception of watercolor (it likes to be different) at least working from dark to light, it is opposite in watercolor.

This is a fun thing for me to do and also to give a shout out to Jerry. He doesn't try to finish a painting in 30 minutes but takes several weeks to go step by step, I try to remember this when I am teaching so I don't lose my students along the way.

I will maybe finish the painting next class so you can see how it all comes together. Just keep painting and I will see you in class.

From Jerry Yarnell's book on Landscape Painting.

/Updated /

"Peace be Still" orig by Jerry Yarnell. My demo version.

Spring 2018 Pastel Class

Pastel Class Demo

Since we/I finished the Magnolia last week, this week I did a demo, more like a warm-up, for the demo I will be doing at the Torrance Artists' Guild on Tuesday. I needed to see if I could get it done in the time allowed plus I was able to find the colors I needed so I didn't have to look for them during the demo.

Another thing I think it is important for beginning and intermediate students to see is how other artists work. When I am teaching I am not going at my normal speed and I break up what I am doing into smaller chunks for students to digest but for me, it breaks my train of thought. When you paint, you can get into a groove and your brain is working several steps ahead of where you are so you see where you are going, that is how you build up speed no matter what you are painting or what medium you are working in. It was fun to just run with this and to see if I could bee the clock. I did with time to spare.

See you in class.