
The Pastel "Try It" Table near the Pastel Aisle at the Seattle DANIEL SMITH Store for the Annual Spring Pastel Event
Our Annual DANIEL SMITH Stores’ Spring Pastel Weekend Event arrived this past weekend. Not only did we finally have beautiful Spring Day here in Seattle, there was lots to watch and learn at our all of our many FREE demos , and to try at our Pastel “Try It” tables all weekend long!
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I attended most of the first hour of
Barbara VanDyke-Shuman’s 2 hour demo (11am to 1pm) with her talking and showing everyone how she creates her
Pastel landscapes. Be sure to visit the
Gallery section of her website to see her pastel work.Â
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First I want to pass on to you is, one of the things Barbara told the audience after some questions were being asked about 15 minuets into the demo, was that she learned the answers to many of HER questions about using Pastels and other art materials by attending the
FREE demos at
DANIEL SMITH! And, if you did not know already, there are also available on the
DANIEL SMITH website in the “
Art Tutorials, Articles and Techniques ” link at the bottom of the homepage a great selection of “
How To” articles, here is the link for
Pastel Tutorials .
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Okay, back to Barbara’s demo….Â
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Barbara VanDyke-Shuman Pastel Demo at the Annual Spring Pastel Event at DANIEL SMITH
Barbara likes to work in Plein Aire when she can, so she usually works at an easel. TIP Here: when working on an easel, Barbara has made an inexpensive pastel tray to catch the pastel dust by folding a mat board into a tray. She scores the mat board a couple of inches from the bottom, then scores it again on the same side the width of her easel tray area. Barbara then bends at the first score to a 90 degree angle, then at the second score also with a 90 degree angle with the major part of the mat board upright. Then she lays the mat board in her easel tray so that she can now rest her pastel panel in the mat board tray on her easel.  The now cupped shaped mat board collects the pastel dust for easier clean up.
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When working in the studio, Barbara works from her thumbnail sketches, and at first studies values in the sketch with a “
Picture Perfect Value Finder “. Then, working onÂ
Wallis Sanded Paper or
UART400 , Barbara tacks the paper down, then lays down some pastel in large, rough areas to give herself a good, color ground to work from. Using orderless mineral spirits and a brush, she smooths the pastel ground and then lets it dry before beginning her real pastel work using her sketch as a reference, photo too if she has one.
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Some of the art supplies Barbara uses include:
Pastels (
Unison ,
Rembrant ,
Sennelier , and
Nupastels ) Sanded Pastel Paper:
UART400Â ,
Wallis Sanded Paper ,
Arches Cover ,
Finger cots , Pastel Primer, Rubber tipped blender,
Brushes , Odorless Mineral Spirits,
Barrier Cream,
Color Wheel.
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Thank you Barbara!
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Every Day,  Express Yourself with ART….
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~Deborah Burns