Class Description and Supply List: Soft Pastels Hints and Hacks - Workshop with Debra Van Leen

Class Description and Supply List: Soft Pastels Hints and Hacks - Workshop with Debra Van Leen

Class | Available

All Levels
7/11/2025 (one day)
10:00 AM-4:00 PM EDT on Fri
Download iCalendar
$150.00
Member Discount Available

Class Description and Supply List: Soft Pastels Hints and Hacks - Workshop with Debra Van Leen

Class | Available

Debra has painted in soft pastel since she was 5 years of age.  She has discovered ways to make the experience of soft pastel painting easier, more enjoyable and less expensive. Join her in this class to learn techniques and short cuts to create a beautiful painting of your own. She will cover ideas on studio set-up, Plein Air equipment and pastel safety. Surfaces and surface preparation, under painting, and selecting a palette will be discussed, as well as tricks for application that will result in a successful painting. For fun she will help you “save” an unsuccessful painting and make your own pastels.

All Levels - ages 18 +


Supply List (to be purchased by student and brought to class).

Note: I encourage you to bring any work with which you are having difficulty. I’d love to help you solve the problem. If you’d like to begin a painting, please bring a reference photo of your own. I do not encourage using published photos.

  • Material List for Pastel Hints and Hacks

     
    Required:

    • A selection of hard, medium and soft pastels and pastel pencils.  Please, no Oil Pastels.
    • An assortment of vine charcoal, charcoal pencils or blocks
    • Pastel paper or board
    • A drawing support, a board or panel to hold your paper, it is recommended to pad this with sheets of paper, foam core (or as I use - black neoprene over a wooden support).
    • Kneaded and other erasers
    • Sharpener and Sand paper block for Pastel pencil

    Recommended:

    • A table easel or easel
    • A smock or old shirt to keep yourself clean
    • A tray or box to hold your selection of pastels.

     

    Resources

    • Dakota Art Pastels, www.dakotapastels.com, 1-888-345-0067
    • Jerry’s Artarama, www.jerrysartarama.com, 1-800-827-8478
    • Art Supply Warehouse, www.aswexpress.com, 1-800-995-6778
    • Dick Blick Art Materialshttp: www.dickblick.com 1-800-828-4548
    • Rochester Art Supply, www.fineartstore.com, 1-800-836-8940
    • You may also be able to find soft pastels and paper on EBay and Amazon

     


Van Leen, Debra
Debra Van Leen

It is all about the light. I have always been fascinated by the way light reacts to shape, color and the designs it creates with objects illuminated. Light allows all of us to see the world before us. I feel I can translate that light into a pleasing image to be enjoyed whether of my own invention or a commissioned work.

 

Growing up in a home filled with art, music, literature, science, and love, I was encouraged to explore and reflect on anything and everything. A large personal library, visits to museums, concerts and plays were a big part of family activities. My inspiration to paint comes from these.

 

Like many artists I started my career in graphics and illustration with the expectation of someday returning creating fine art. I am fortunate now to be in just that position. As with any profession artists change and grow as their career progresses. With each painting I learn a few new steps for the next creation. I look back to former works to see how my skills have evolved. How my vision, observation, and interpretation have changed, and look forward to using my experience to translate my next vision for my audience.  Animals have are also a favorite subject. I have painted them, both as wildlife renderings or as commissioned works. My life has also been deeply involved with horses, a favorite subject and also one of multiple commissions.

 

A Michigan native, I have traveled the country for education and employment returning in 1989. Realizing that Michigan’s seasons, lakes, woods, farms and dunes were truly remarkable inspiration for artists, I decided to once again made this state my home. Exploring these natural elements and bringing them to life is one of the my creative drives.  I enjoy painting landscapes of northern Michigan, my home now, and of Greece, my second home. These works are either created on site en plein air, or from my own photos with field sketches and notes.

 

My artwork has been included in multiple exhibitions and has received awards in local, regional and national competitions. My work is held in private and institutional collections in the US and abroad. I have held board positions on several local and regional art associations.