Soft Pastel Adventures

I like the colours of this one, the teacher said. Although the painting class stopped we stay in touch. I shared some fish (far from perfect) and we share our work, ideas and exchange info.
You can also paint with acrylic, she continued, but I can't right now since I have to keep my foot up. So I sit on the couch with a blanket on my lap, on top of it the easel, phone and a cloth surrounded by soft pastels. Not an ideal way to work but it works.

I am glad you joined us, she wrote and so am I.

I still struggle with the pastels and the paper. I tried the hairspray on the background you see underneath. It didn't work out like expected (most likely my mistake since this paper cannot handle many layers, and many layers I used because I had to correct at least 4 times. 😐)

The colours above feel like 'The Scream'. Turns out since I work with soft pastels orange is always in.

The first fish





The second fish.
I can't make the pastel pencils (Castell Faber) work and they smell.

By now I try a different technic where I hope that rubbing in the colours by hand belongs to the past. Although, Rembrandt soft pastels are middle hard and therefore hardly crumble, I start developing allergies. The dust (I don't blow) affect my eyes.

Rembrandt soft pastels are good for drawing and the first layer plus the last details, so it feels I shouldn't have bought the pencils since a coloured pencil sketch can also be done with watercolour pencils or average colour pencils.

I tried to use a few old soft pastels on the first layer but it feels it doesn't stick. I will try that out once I have my own softer soft pastels.

It seems that I muss: different shades of red, blue, pink, violet, purple and white. For now I continue with what I have and will challenge the old box I have.

_{Material: bamboo paper 250 mg - Rembrandt soft pastels l - hairspray - some left stumps very soft soft pastels - tape
4-1-2026}