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Jeanne Rosier Smith
A Pastel Painter’s Playbook
Most people come to pastel from another medium, and fall in love with pastel painting’s tactile qualities and banquet of color. That’s what happened to me over twenty years ago, and I’ve never looked back. I love their velvety texture and vivid colors, and I find the medium flexible, forgiving and exciting to work with. There is always more to learn.
I’ve been teaching pastels in weekly classes, workshops, and on plein air trips for more than twenty years. This video library gathers the pastel painter lessons, tips and techniques I’ve developed over years of teaching to share with you in one place.
How should I use this site?
With almost two hundred hours of video lessons, there’s plenty to explore. This site is designed so that beginners have a solid place to start (See SILVER: PERMANENT VIDEOS, or GOLD: BEGIN HERE), and more advanced painters can explore their own interests in depth. The ARCHIVED LIVE DEMOS offer a huge variety of in-depth presentations, so take advantage of them. These extended demos were recorded live, and allow you to see a painting develop in real time. Register for live events at 50% off as a member.
I recommend the four WORKSHOPS for all levels: COLOR CONFIDENCE, COMPOSITION AND DESIGN, UNDERPAINTING, and LOOSEN UP! Find answers to technical questions and how-to’s on all things pastel in TRICKS OF THE TRADE, and dive into WORKING WITH PHOTOS for organization, cropping, developing your artist’s eye, and making editing choices.
Choose special topic videos according to your interests:
For in depth study after the MAKING WAVES workshop, SEASCAPE ELEMENTS includes videos on luminosity, seafoam texture, shimmering water, etc. WATER IN THE LANDSCAPE offers techniques for reflections, ripples, lily pads, rocky streams and translucent water. SKYSCAPE, WINTER LANDSCAPE, FLORAL, AND SPECIAL DRAWING CHALLENGES offer many more options to explore.
Materials
In short – the best thing you can do when you first land here is take a few moments to explore what’s available. Your study here is self-directed, so take your time and explore what calls to you. My hope and my goal is to equip you with better tools to express things your own way, confidently, and with joy. I hope the ideas and concepts here encourage you to hone your own work and creative voice.
And, if you’d like to see something that’s not here, send me an email! I am always adding to the collection so I’d love to hear from you.
Pastel Painter’s Materials List
On the right you’ll see a link to my materials list. In it you’ll find Terry Ludwig, Diane Townsend, Girault, and all the materials I generally use.
Happy Painting, and welcome!
- Free Videos
- SPECIAL EVENTS
- Silver: Permanent Videos
- Silver: New Videos
- Gold: Archived Demos
- Gold: Begin Here
- Gold: Color Confidence Workshop
- Gold: Composition and Design Workshop
- Gold: Underpainting Workshop
- Gold: Loosen Up! Workshop
- Gold: Tricks of the Trade
- Gold: Plein Air Painting
- Gold: Working with Photos
- Gold: Making Waves Workshop
- Gold: Seascape Elements
- Gold: Florals
- Gold: Skyscapes
- Gold: Water in the Landscape
- Gold: Winter Landscape
- Gold: Boats, Buildings, & Figures
Select a Tab to See Jeanne's Videos
Check out our artist's Special Events
SILVER SUBSCRIPTION VIDEOS
Unlimited access to Jeanne’s New Videos for three months, plus these Permanent Core Videos
Silver Subscription: Permanent Core Videos:
This first set of core videos and the pastel fundamentals workshop are always available for all silver subscribers. The Silver: New Videos Tab is a set of new videos are available for three months after publication. A gold membership has access to all of Jeanne’s videos indefinitely for as long as the membership is active.
WORKSHOP: Pastel Fundamentals
If you're new to pastels, start here. This workshop is an onramp to get you started with pastel painting and leave you feeling confident to explore and tackle everything on this site. You'll learn about materials, mark-making, thumbnail sketches for value and composition, underpainting and layering, skills which you will use over and over as you continue painting.
NEW Silver Subscription Videos
These are New Videos recently added, and available to Silver subscribers for three months
CLICK FOR DEMO REFERENCE IMAGES
If you’re new to pastels, start here. I’ll take you through a complete beginner workshop that will get you started with the basics of pastel painting and leave you feeling confident to explore and tackle everything on this site. Have a question that’s not answered here? Send it to me and we’ll try to cover it
WORKSHOP: Pastel Fundamentals
If you're new to pastels, start here. This workshop is an onramp to get you started with pastel painting and leave you feeling confident to explore and tackle everything on this site. You'll learn about materials, mark-making, thumbnail sketches for value and composition, underpainting and layering, skills which you will use over and over as you continue painting.
An essential guide to color mixing for pastelists. Painters speak in the language of color. Whether you are a native speaker or need a guidebook, these video lessons are designed to up your fluency and confidence, with a mix of structure and play
A workshop that will strengthen and refine your composition skills by focusing on the abstract elements underlying every good design. Special focus on the landscape and trees
Discover the why’s and how’s of underpainting and sharpen your skills and strategies
Do you long to loosen up? Bold, graceful strokes looks easy, but anyone who’s aspired to them knows otherwise. There are significant steps we can take to make our paintings bolder, looser, and more assured. This self-directed video workshop will help you shake off that tendency to meticulously describe, tightly render, or overwork your paintings, and learn to paint boldly, loosely and with more assurance. Enjoy, play, practice, and paint more boldly and confidently with these exercises and demos. I have arranged them in order for you to follow as a workshop.
Here you’ll find answers to the burning questions that always come up at demos and workshops: How and why I use fixative, framing tips and practices, mounting paper, what kinds of pastels and papers to use. Have a question that’s not answered here? Send it to me and we’ll try to cover it
These three demos are Jeanne’s foundational seascape lessons, beginning with a single wave, moving to the full coastline and adding the coastal landscape. These are the backbone of her approach to seascape
Once you’ve gotten the basics handled, dive into these special topics in seascape to refine your practice: the behavior of water, changing light effects, and subtle foam textures all get attention in these demos
Brush up your sky skills and build your cloud confidence with these exercises and lessons. Maximize the expressive potential of your skies
Pond Reflections Demo Series
This four part series highlights special techniques for underpainting, getting depth and texture in your trees, and creating rippling translucent water
Water is challenging to paint convincingly; these demos are full of tips and tricks for creating more compelling water in your landscapes
Snow changes the landscape completely and offers new painting challenges. These lessons offer approaches to all sorts of winter landscape challenges, from sunny riverbanks to blizzards, so you are ready to tackle winter
Special Drawing Challenges
These demos offer practical, approachable methods for adding challenging subject matter to your work
Painting Figures in the Landscape
Figures add life and action to any scene. Use these lessons to practice creating more believable figures for your landscapes
