Art Journaling Course: Lesson 2b - Pastels & Tinted Charcoal

We have prepared our books and organized our study material and it is now time to get started on creating some art. In this lesson we will be exploring a variety of oil-based pastels, chalk pastels, as well as tinted charcoal. On top of that, we also have a number of picture pages in our books that we need to personalize and incorporate into the theme of the lesson, by applying mixed media and collaging techniques. Let's get started!

If you have missed the first blog in this two-part blog on lesson 2, you can read it by following this link: Art Journaling Course: Lesson 2A - Prepping. In this first of the blogs, I showed you how to go about preparing your book and course notes for the lesson. If you prefer to watch this as a video, I have created a slideshow video with a voice-over track to talk you through the process. You can watch this slideshow video at this link: Art Journaling Course: Lesson 2a Video - Prepping.

The first art medium which we explore is Oil Pastels. I have recorded a video on using soft oil pastels in an impasto technique. The video also demonstrates me using glycerine to blend the oil pastels to a smooth finish. If you would like to find out more about these techniques, you can watch the video here: Soft oil pastels explored. You can buy these kinds of soft oil pastels on Temu by simply clicking on the link I've created.

We used these tools to create the impasto techniques. I drew the initial pictures with the water-soluble graphite pencils.

This is the impasto painting I managed to create in order to show you how it works.

Here is a close-up of the impasto flowers.

I have also created a video on using oil pastels, exploring the different kinds of oil pastels available and finishing off with a quick oil pastel painting. You can watch the  video here: Oil pastels explored. You can buy oil pastels on Temu by simply clicking on the links I've provided: Oil pastels, Water-soluble oil pastels.

I created a similar arrangement of flowers in traditional oil pastels.

This is what the oil pastels look like close up.

I also used these on a lighter shade of paper.

A close-up of the oil pastels on a lighter background.

Once you have familiarized yourself with soft oil pastels and oil pastels in general, you can watch the video on creating your own oil pastel painting, using both of these types of oil pastels, on one page. The video also shows you how to turn the first of the double-spread picture pages into a journaling page which becomes part of this journaling process. You can watch this video here: Art Journaling - Lesson 2b: Oil Pastels.

In this video I created the painting above with a mixture of soft oil pastels and traditional oil pastels. I also talk you through how I dealt with the picture below.

The second medium that we incorporate in our art journal for this lesson, is chalk pastels, also called soft pastels. I have created a video giving an overview on how to work with chalk pastels and you can watch this video here: Chalk Pastels Explored. 

Chalk pastels come in pencil format. Here is a set in skin tints as well as a variety of bright colours.

I also have a series of pencils made by Derwent.

It is more common to find these chalk pastels in sticks.

This is what I created with the chalk pastels.

Here is a close-up of the chalk pastels.

Once you have familiarized yourself with chalk pastels, you can create a chalk pastel painting in your journal. This time we use black paper for the background. I have made a video of my own process in creating a chalk pastel painting for my journal, along with some ideas for how to handle the second of the double-spread picture layouts in the journal. This time the picture ran over two pages, but the bottoms of the two pages, still had typing on it. You can watch this video by clicking on this link: Art Journaling - Lesson 2b: Chalk Pastels.

In this video I created the painting above and also walked you through I handled the picture below in my journal.

The third and last medium we explored in this lesson, was tinted charcoal. I yet again made a video on how to use the medium, introducing you to its particular characteristics. You can watch this video here: Tinted Charcoal Explored.

I created the painting above in tinted charcoals. Below you can see a close-up of the painting.

Once you are ready, you can create your third and last painting for the second lesson in the journal, this time using tinted charcoal. I also show you how I have dealt with a picture that covered only one page, with a pocket page next to it. You can watch this video here: Art Journaling - Lesson 2b: Tinted Charcoal.

I created the painting above in the tinted charcoals during the filming of the video. I also show you how I've dealt with the last picture page for this lesson in my journal, pasting one of my earlier drawings in as a page decoration for the pocket page I've created.

Included in the fees of this lesson, each participant also received this goodie bag pictured below. This concludes the blogs and videos on this lesson. See you soon for lesson 3!

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Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:

You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
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