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Gail Sibley
Artist. Blogger. Teacher.
My love of pastel and the enjoyment I receive from teaching about pastel inspired the creation of this blog. It has tips, reviews, some opinions:), and all manner of information regarding their use through the years – old and new. Please enjoy!
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31 thoughts on “A very good place to start!”
Great site Gail….What a Christmas treat for everyone!
Thanks so much Dianna. I am excited to see how it grows and evolves!
Hello Gail. I have only just stumbled across this site. Very interesting and helpful. Thank you. love from East Lancashire, NW England. 😘
Hi Mark,
Glad you found HowToPastel and that you find it helpful!
Good luck with the new site, Gail. I look forward to making it my “go to” pastel spot.
Thanks Jeff 🙂
If there’s anything you wish the site to have please let me know!!!
Great site, Gail. Didn’t get here before your contest was over but so glad am able to connect with you.
Rivqa SNA’r 🙂
Rivqa, Thanks so much for popping on and commenting! And thank you for subscribing 🙂
Hi Gail,
What a wonderful blog! Just received your email with the most recent video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with so much enthusiasm ! Happy Holidays.
Thanks so much Susan!! Happy Holidays to you too 🙂
Love the site, it’s easy to navigate, enjoy your videos, love your palette and especially your bright small format paintings! I’m more into representational art than abstracts, personal taste, and I’m a cat lover becoming a cat specialist as a pastelist.
So here’s a personal challenge for you – can you paint a gray tabby cat or a brown shaded Siamese cat using your limited palette of spectrum colors? I know how I’d do it, but I would love to see what you do with my favorite subject. My cat is a long haired Siamese so he’s my favorite model – I don’t have to rely entirely on photos for him and can always check color and markings by looking at the real animal even when I’ve captured a fleeting moment with my camera.
Thanks for the compliments Robert 🙂
I love cats myself but don’t have a cat companion. I do prefer to work from life but if you would like to send me a selection of photos, I’d be happy to take up your challenge!!
Very nice Gail!!
Thanks Kathleen!
Good luck. I hope everything is going as planned. You are a very inspirational woman
Many thanks Anna for your kind words.
Hi Gail!
I discovered your blog by accident a few weeks ago and have enjoyed reading several articles, including this video. This is my first time commenting and I want to thank you for the opportunity to How to Pastel.
Hope your tutorials and master-classes help me to understand what is Pastel is first hand.
Thank you, Gail.
Valeri
Valeri, how lovely to hear from you! Thank you for taking the time to comment. I also hope that my blogs and workshops and masterclasses will help you on your way in pastel. I encourage you to take advantage of my FREE 15-min call offer to discuss how I can help you further! https://www.howtopastel.com/schedule-a-call/
I can’t thank you enough to for all of the dedication, posts, hints and encouragement I have received from HowToPastel. I just voted and hope you win! Looking forward to reading your blog, it keeps getting in my junk file is there a way to remedy that ?
Susan, that’s so wonderful to hear. It really is motivation to keep at it especially on days when I might not feel so energized! Thanks for the vote and yes it would be fun to win. As to going in your junk folder, perhaps add me and my email address to your contact list. That should help. Thanks again Susan for your kind comments!
Hello Gail and thank you for the opportunity to ask questions.. I’m new to pastel painting and I’m trying to pick a good quality pastel that’s not that expensive. I’ve started out with Mungo and Faber Castell soft pastels. Then I bought a set of Nu Pastel firm and Rembrandt soft pastels. Then I tried the Jack Richeson landscape soft pastels and I liked them, they are similar to the Rembrandt pastels. They are also a little cheaper so I decided to buy another set of the assorted colors. Finally I got a set of the hand-rolled soft set from Richeson.. So I’ve been experimenting with the different brands to learn as much as I can, with the different brands and types of paper.. So my question is, have you ever used the Jack Richeson brand and if so what do you think about there quality and how would you stack them up with some of the other brands like Rembrandt..
Hi Anthony, thanks so much for sharing your journey using different pastel brands. I do have a few Jack Richeson hand-rolled pastels. I haven’t put them to good use yet but I have made marks with them and they feel lovely and soft. They also have some fabulous colours!
As to how they stack up with Rembrandt as a brand, I’m not sure how to answer you. Rembrandt pastels have been around for years whereas, as you know, the Richeson pastels are relatively new, particularly their hand-rolled ones. But I’m sure they want to be in the pastel game long term so would have done their research into coverage and lightfastness etc. I’d say use and enjoy them!
Other soft pastels I suggest for beginners are Unison, Mount Vision, and Sennelier half sticks. You can read about it here.
Hi Gail and thanks again for getting back to me and answering my questions.. I want to say that I’m really enjoying your videos, they’re very informative! Now I plan on really trying out my Richeson’s pastels, I have the medium soft and hand rolled. I have a couple of ideas that I’ve done thumbnail sketches for, so I’ll start with them. I think my next step is to try different types of paper. So far I’ve tried multi media paper and I wasn’t too thrilled with it. Then I tried Strathmore pastel paper and that seemed a bit better. Canson so far has been the best paper I’ve used but I would like to try sanded paper soon. I see a lot of artists use Uart paper, I will look into that. As for now I’ll work with what I have.. Thank You once again ! Gail….
Love that you are experimenting Anthony – that IS the way to learn! Happy to hear that you will really get to trying out the Richeson pastels.
And yes, paper will affect your outcome and your enjoyment. You’ll find using sanded paper is a whole lot different from say Canson Mi-Teintes. You will be able to layer more and the pigment will appear more saturated. Some people are happy using the smoother Canson while others prefer sanded paper. Go experiment and use what you have on hand now. Then branch out to other possibilities!!
Hello Gail , hope you are well! I was thinking about getting sanded paper and how you mentioned it would save me headaches in the long run.. I plan on buying some in the near future but what are you thoughts on making your own sanded paper? I did a little research and found the I could make my own using clear gesso and a heavy paper like water color paper or pastel paper.. So have you ever tried making your pastel paper and if so where you happy with the outcome?
Hey Anthony, Yes, making your own textured paper is a good option. I’ve done it before and loved using it but sometimes, for me, it’s easier to just buy the sanded paper already made lol!
Hi,Gail,
I enjoy your site so much and love seeing all the artist’s work. I can only hope to someday produce work I’d be proud to show!
I’m hoping you can help me with a problem. I signed up for one of your classes last fall. Unfortunately, shortly after that I was diagnosed with heart failure and had to have open heart surgery. I’ve fully recovered from that and am now hunkering down like most people who are at risk of getting the virus. I would love to work on the class I never got to take but can’t remember the password to start the videos. Can you help me with that? I’m hoping it’s not too late to take the class. Thanks for your help.
Warm Regards,
Gail Witt
Hi,Gail,
I enjoy your site so much and love seeing all the artist’s work. I can only hope to someday produce work I’d be proud to show!
I’m hoping you can help me with a problem. I signed up for one of your classes last fall.
Unfortunately, shortly after that I was diagnosed with heart failure and had to have open heart surgery. I’ve fully recovered from that and am now hunkering down like most people who are at risk of getting the virus. I would love to work on the class I never got to take but can’t remember the password to start the videos. Can you help me with that? I’m hoping it’s not too late to take the class.
Thanks for your help.
Warm Regards,
Gail Witt
Hi Gail,
First off I’m so sorry to hear about your medical problems – yikes!! – but very happy to know you are fully recovered. And yes, a perfect time to dig into online classes!
I am assuming you purchased Pastels 101. Here’s the link where the course resides: https://www.howtopastelmembers.com/my-courses/
You will need to sign in with your email and password. If you’ve forgotten your password, no problem, just click where it says “Lost your Password?” and reset.
Let me know how it goes!!!
Hi Gail! I just ran across your site, thanks to your article on Richard Suckling, one of my favorite pastel artists. I’m looking forward to looking through your ither posts and checking out your workshops as well. Thanks for providing such a great resource!
So great to hear from you Linda and glad you’ve found How To Pastel! I’m always keen to hear from readers about what they would like to see in the blog so be sure to let me know.