 Welcome to Monet cafe and to my patrons on my patreon page I'm sharing this video in two formats to both groups. I hope you enjoy this very interesting New way to paint with pastel some people may have tried this before but I'd never done it this way before I'm literally using the pastels almost like little watercolor palettes But first let me give you a little tour of my backyard for my subject matter I recently did a video which I will share with you guys on the Fibonacci sequence also called the Golden Ratio and how all of nature permeates this beautiful order sequence and design and when we learn these things it only helps our art get better So please be sure to see that video and now just enjoy this simple little tour in my backyard Well, I talked to you guys a little bit I wanted to make sure I often don't say please subscribe like this video and share comments It really does help my standing with YouTube and also I'm gonna be asking some questions during the video So I hope you guys will answer that's how this channel gets better is because of you You guys have shared with me that you like my recent format of laying my paintings out flat So you guys can see better and see my supplies I will be giving a full supply list in this video So I want you to join in on the fun Monet cafe will get a version That's a little bit shorter. My patrons will get the full version and they will also this is part of their homework assignment So this video has a lot of content, but I think it should be very easy to follow I think I missed my calling as a nature photographer. Has anyone ever done this with a little bloom? These are crepe myrtles in my backyard All right, let's get started Okay, here we go with the supplies you basically need a piece of watercolor paper I have one of these watercolor blocks. It's made by Kansen. It's the arches block and I love this because the edges are already kind of glued around the edges and it keeps the paper from buckling a little But I also like the real textured surface here. Now you could just use any kind of watercolor paper I thought I'd show you my little watercolor Tablet here or pad where I have used it to actually do pastel paintings Yes, you can do pastel paintings on watercolor I did not coat any of these with clear gesso that I often talk about to make a surface for pastel These were literally just done with mostly new pastels made by Prismacolor They're harder pastels and they can work on watercolor just fine So I find this kind of a fun and neat little way to sketch I don't even put any glassine or tracing paper in between them probably would be a good idea to do that But I find if they just you know touch the other paper They still look pretty much like they did when I painted them. Oh, that's my little Oreo in the backyard. I love her. She's my heart So anyway, you can use Watercolor paper with pastels and now in this video I'll share how you can use pastels to paint on watercolor paper So some this is just a charcoal sketch. Some of these things are just really Experimentation and that's what Monet cafe is all about having fun These are just some little color studies I did of a little waterway with some trees and we want to experiment We want to have fun and then often we discover new ways to do things what I am going to share with you today Using pastels like watercolor. I will definitely use again I absolutely had a blast doing this and I want to share as well that you don't have to use watercolor paper if you use Any pastel paper that's water-friendly such as the you art paper I just showed and also pastel matte paper is also water-friendly and the white Surface the pastel matte white works great with regular watercolor So I'm sure it would work great with this technique as well In this lesson I used primarily the Derwent ink tense blocks. These are great for doing under paintings And they are ink tense is the name because they're intense with color And that's one of the reasons that I thought this would be a great type of pastel for using this technique And indeed it was regular soft pastels I haven't really done much of that with this watercolor technique But these are literally almost like a little watercolor palette watercolors and pastels are really the same thing just Combined differently and in a little bit of a different format So I also recommend using Neocolor wax pastels for this technique you can literally pick these up and just paint with them with a brush and And use them like watercolors just like the ink tense blocks So I'll be using a combination of both of these I didn't use any regular soft pastels for this example now You could also do the same thing with new pastels harder new pastels they work Well, they're not quite as intense and bold in color as the ink tense blocks You can kind of tell it from looking at the video those are really bright and bold with color color, and they're a lot of fun And also keep in mind you can use regular watercolor in conjunction with the pastels because they are both made of similar substances they work great together and The goal is just to have fun have some Painting freedom time and don't keep yourself so much in a box that you can't play and now Of course, you're gonna need some brushes. I have a pretty decent set of some brushes that I like But you can use whatever you have I use a lot of cheap brushes as well Now this next little section is patreon only content They got the full version of this and I'm not going to make you guys watch this in real time the whole time So I'm gonna speed this up and just describe kind of what we did in our patreon group We've been working with the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio, so I had my patrons for their homework They have homework over the weekends, which is fun homework. It's not like tedious. You want to do it It's fun, and then we share it all together in an album, but I have them go outside explore nature Find some things after watching the Fibonacci golden ratio video that I mentioned earlier it's the video right before this one and After exploring their world to bring some of the outdoors in or take some pictures of things and Literally to paint something that you you saw or you had in your life or in your backyard And then I had them I showed them how to create a graph And make a Fibonacci spiral and I wanted the spiral to be part of the painting the golden ratio it's a way you you draw out the blocks in the same sequence and the same measurements as the Fibonacci code or or sequence and It was a lot of fun, but you don't have to do this for this lesson. Let's just get to the actual painting I just wanted to describe that in case you're like, what is that spiral in the background of the painting? Okay, let's get to painting and we will be using pastels like Watercolor paints and here are some of the other flowers I collected from my backyard and I literally just laid them around my work surface area as Inspiration to paint I didn't work from a reference photo. I worked from real live models my little flowers so you can see how I laid the sunflower over to the right there and Once again, I'm just using a brush with water Just like I would watercolor and using my little intense palette there just like a watercolor palette tray Once again, if I haven't shared this already those little wells work out perfectly. You see those little empty spaces there to mix Water and pastels together just like you would with a little watercolor palette where they have the little areas where you can Kind of pre-mix some of your watercolors. You'll see me doing that later You can kind of see on that palette where I did it up to the top there now when I start out I like I said I have never done it this way before I started just applying the water Literally like a watercolor palette later You'll see me actually lift the pastel up I kind of angle it so that water doesn't drip down all beside it and And make the pastel kind of get underneath it and everything So it was just more of an efficient way to kind of prop the pastels up as I worked on them It's real easy though. Now. I really love this arches paper. It's a It's a block of Watercolor paper that is literally glued around the edges and it kind of keeps your your surface flat You know how watercolor paper buckles now if you add a lot of water it still will buckle some but it definitely helps and I like that. It's pretty heavily textured. It's Kansan arches watercolor paper block and I I like the texture because if you don't have your brush Overly saturated with water. I mean you definitely want to use enough water That's one thing I've learned is water is your friend with watercolor painting If you don't add too much water, you can get kind of that painterly look where it kind of skips over certain areas and Just keeps that kind of textural grainy look to it. I like that actually I end up kind of covering that up anyway But I was having fun here and that's my encouragement to you with this lesson We're always trying to learn and explore new techniques and if we get so serious about everything It takes the learning away and it takes the fun away, too, you know That's an example with this yellow one how I was a little heavy-handed with the water and I started to see how it was kind of deteriorating the pastel and letting it drip down underneath it So that's why later. You'll see me lift them up like I described, but I'm going to share with you I'm mixing a little bit of that yellow and a little bit of the orange together and I'm using my watercolor palette next to me can barely see it to the Left there. I'm using that before I realized I could use those little wells there in the Derwent thing to actually premix colors in the same ink tense little palette there, so Now I'm going to show you how I approach painting these sunflower petals with the pastels as Watercolor. All right, here we go. I'm gonna zoom in and show you this a little better. What I do is I Come out just kind of thin from the flower and then I press the brush To get a thicker petal. I like to keep a little bit of air in there next to the center part of the flower Because otherwise your flowers end up looking all smushed together and later You can go in and add some of those petals that are behind that when I smushed a little too fast But I I noticed that that one was kind of smushed together when I looked over where the sunflower was laying down So but just keep in mind that sometimes it's good to leave a little space keep a little thin line And I am I'm looking at the sunflower how it's laying down So I'm kind of trying to recreate that one But see how I flatten the brush to get the petals wider. All right, I'm gonna speed this up a little bit now so you can You get the idea Now notice that I get my general Petals in and then after I get all the way around and once again, I'm trying I'm trying to avoid monotony or every see every Petal being the same or the same distance apart So I'm turning them this way and that way but after I get that first Kind of layer in the forefront of petals I go in see how I'm doing that and kind of add little hints of kind of a secondary layer behind it Now I'm just grabbing some the the paper is pretty wet Like I said, don't be afraid to use a decent amount of water when you're using water color Especially if you've got a good watercolor paper because it really does lend towards that painterly effect and Also keep in mind that water color. I mean I'm keep saying watercolor even though I'm working with pastel because it's going to behave Very much like watercolor You're not going to be able to Get the lights back again. You want to preserve the luminosity So if you want those petals to look light and airy like they do now You don't want to get too thick with your paint. Now. I know that the center is Dark typically the sunflower centers are pretty dark I like the fact that they sometimes have a little bit of red in them Or I find that it looks neat a little red and purple in there with some of the dark and maybe a little hint of orange in there It definitely gives them more interest rather than just making a black center like so many people do So I'm gradually going to just keep working this up. See you can even hold the pastel like I'm doing right now Getting it a little darker. Also keep in mind that water color again We're using pastel like watercolor. It dries lighter typically So it's a balance for sure you want to make sure you don't get too dark too quickly But it also will dry a little lighter than you're thinking so now I do go in and add more of that orange I got that little liner brush. You see how thin that brush is it's a type of brush That's really good for doing little vines or little The veins that are kind of in the flowers, so I added a few of them and I was just playing Okay, this was not even supposed to be anything serious I thought it would be fun to try to recreate the Fibonacci spiral and do a painting over it and Again, it was a great lesson or I hope it's a great lesson for my patrons So and I thought the Monet cafe cafe channel would really love this part Which is about using pastels to paint like watercolor So I'm just giving the flower a little more depth a little more Vibrancy with color and having fun reds of a really fun or a really RNG kind of a red is a fun color to add To sunflowers instead of just the typical yellow and brown, you know, it gives it Just I don't know a little more pizzazz see how I've started to lift my pastels up out of their tray The ones yellow down there. You can see like the third yellow one up I had added so much water that it started kind of getting into mud So that's why I decided to kind of start lifting them up and that really did work Well, and I and I started to be more careful about how much water add now You can see here where I use the little Derwent ink tense box those little wells I use them just like a little watercolor Well that you would use I liked this color Because it's not it's a it's a cooler green and I noticed the sunflower leaves Were they were warm out in the sunshine, but they they weren't just so vibrant green when I brought them inside I really liked that coolness that they had I add a little warmth to it later, but um, but I'm just like I said I'm just playing having fun and Again, I'm kind of using that brush Sometimes I let it purposely skip along that textured surface because it adds that that artistic painterly feel And I kind of I kept playing with this you'll see as the painting progresses I just I didn't want to quit, but there's a point I'll share when I get to it that I'm like man I kind of wish I'd have just left it the single sunflower with the Fibonacci spiral I I'm thinking I still might go ahead and use my I'm gonna show you an interesting little marker when we're done To that works so well with watercolor on watercolor paper You got to watch to the end to see it, okay So there's a little teaser to keep you guys watching it does help my YouTube channel when you guys watch all the way through but anyway, so I Ended up doing more More flowers and more background Here's where I'm using a little bit of a darker almost a brownish green to give the impression of I had this sunflower literally laying down the the stalk of it is going up to the upper Right-hand corner, and this is where I was saying kind of wish I had just kept it like this like it was laying down I end up changing it in a minute to where it actually is more like it's growing on a stalk with other sunflowers So I don't regret any of it because I had a good old time, you know, and you're always learning the more that you do so I'm adding a little bit of variety in color and But again, I like the simplicity of just the Fibonacci spiral with the sunflower But I want you guys to play and Don't get so there's a little bit of warmer green that I'm adding don't get so oh Just hard on yourself. We can't do that. Can't we artist? I'm talking to myself too, you know Because I do it too and don't compare yourself to art other artists learn from them But understand the people that you're probably emulating or recreating their work They've been doing this a whole lot longer than you have so That's where I'm using that little liner brush, you know, some flowers have these little Outer tendrils that come out sometimes from it. So again, here's where I kind of liked the simplicity of it But I decided to use I think this is where I decide to do a little bit of a oh not yet I still do a little bit on the sunflower, but I end up doing a little bit of a purple-y background and And I liked it, but I think I want to do this again and just do the single sunflower So alright guys, you enjoy this. I'm gonna let the process of this keep going. You see what I'm doing now I do end up I've never done this before but I've always heard about watercolor artist using salt to give texture or to give some Interesting effects and I used some salt in the center of my sunflower But here's why I'm gonna start adding the purple. I think yeah But I don't think it was wet enough or it could be because I don't use regular eye dyes I die salt. Is that what it's called like table salt? It's really bad for you right here I'm applying water. You'll see that I I end up adding the purple to it. This is a wet on wet technique It's gonna make it just really really loose. Okay, so I do kind of like the purple. It's kind of nice But um, but anyway table salt is not good for you I won't give you the whole scientific reasoning, but I just I use This salt called pink Himalayan pink salt And it's so much better for you, but I that's all I have So I used it and it didn't give the texture It could have been because I didn't have it wet enough in the center Or it could have been because of what type of salt it was. So as you can see, uh, the purple I really do like the purple as a kind of a complementary color to some of these oranges and yellows that are going on So, um, again, kind of liked this simplicity. Maybe just the flower and a little bit of the purple I kind of liked that. I got a little drip there. You see that so I thought I'm just gonna go with it So I get some of that purple. I take my brush put a little water on it and I just hit the brush on my hand and voila You got a little fun Abstract kind of thing going on it Now this is the sunflower that I decided to kind of use um and just keep playing and going with it I literally just kind of traced around some of the leaves. I thought that might be fun So, uh, I don't stick totally with that composition there of the flower But it was kind of a neat way to do it. So play play play have fun Paint like you're a kid again. Try this technique with the watercolor I mean with the past I keep saying watercolor because it feels like you're using watercolor um, so Try it with uh soft pastels. Do me a favor. Let me know if you try it. Let me know of your um results And if you're a patron if you're in our patreon group, of course, you're going to share My patrons share in an exclusive group that I have. Oh, I do like that turquoisey the color that I added to All right, maybe I am liking adding more. Um, my patrons have an exclusive patreon group in facebook um And uh, if you become a patron, I share the group and everything with you so you can share your work We also have in the patreon group where I have these albums where my patrons share their work in these albums Not in facebook because some people aren't on facebook and it's so cool because I get to see all of your work together in this neat album And uh, it's really fun and I give you guys points for your homework which leads to a prize Every month i'm giving a prize for art supplies Most likely typically it'll be dickblick a gift card So every patron who participates in the homework assignments gets a chance and the more you participate The higher your chances are of winning the dickblick card each month. So it's just a lot of fun So, you know, obviously my patrons are watching this and they'll be doing their homework, which is cool Now if you're in mone cafe and you're not a patron and it's only five dollars a month to become a patron I really do appreciate those who pay. There's some people who they don't even, you know Participate in a lot of the stuff They just pay to help this channel because I'm I'm bringing art lessons to people everywhere Which is really cool to me So, you know, you can do it just to support this channel or you can do it to kind of participate and have fun with This we're like a neat little art family So but if you're just in mone cafe and your financial means aren't where you can support and or you're just too busy And you don't have time to support You can and you prop many of you already have become members of the mone cafe art group on facebook Because that's the art group. We just hit over 10 000 members One of the biggest pastel art groups in facebook on facebook So and it's loaded with people who will help you We've got artists of every level, but what I love is the fact that it's it hasn't left lost its sweetness Everybody is still so kind Advanced artist will answer your question if you're just beginning. So it's just such a great resource for you guys To grow and learn as an artist now. I am gonna tell you I was going to ask you guys some questions I want to ask you guys now that i'm using pastels like watercolor watercolor is probably my second favorite medium to pastels and You know, I named the channel mone cafe for a reason Because I didn't want to totally isolate myself to only doing pastels And I thought mone cafe was kind of like a neat place You know, it's like a fun free loose impressionistic place. We can get together and learn art I mean, I wish we could all just have coffee and paint together But this is the online way that we do it and I wanted the name To be broad enough to where I could introduce other mediums and mixed media So that leads me to my question Let me know if you like me adding in every so often a little watercolor tutorial I mean, even if I'm using just watercolors rather than mixed media with pastels So, um, are you guys okay with me not just doing pastels and introducing some other things here and there? Let me know in the comments also most likely I I know I'm not going to veer totally away from pastels That's that's my love, you know But um, but I would like to get your feedback if you'd like to you know, mix it up a bit sometimes I think it would be fun. Uh, plus I think exploring other mediums only Increases your Art skills abilities when you learn how different mediums behave you might realize hey I like doing a little mixed media work mixed media only meaning kind of what it sounds you mix different mediums like pastel and Acrylic and watercolor. I like acrylic painting too. So um, so again, let me know Okay, now i'm intensifying this first sunflower because it's going to be the star of the show it's the one that's closest to us and the biggest and um, the other ones I do add a little bit of fun You know color to it, but I the the little one in the middle that's back in the back you as an artist you have the ability to um Create detail where you want it and it's usually a good idea to not make everything so detailed all over the whole painting So, uh, that's why that little guy is kind of subdued and in the background Um, so anyway getting close to done and then I'll share with you a little bit about the markers that I used if you're doing the Fibonacci sequence Combination with this painting. I'll tell you what I used to to accomplish that. I love these markers Well, I just realized it's almost at the marker section. So I'll just keep talking. I did add a little bit of depth With some darker values. Um, this is where I said I kind of made that sunflower with the stock I probably made the stock a little too wide But I I wanted to get a little bit more of the darker values Um, and also to ground it a little bit. You'll see how I add some of A darker value down like where the the roots would be or where those stalks are going down I also didn't really I wasn't liking that background to the upper right because that's when I had had the flower laying down I decided to make it kind of like a sky rather than the leaves I would had made before that's the neat thing you can change things up What I did is I actually after I was done Again with watercolor, you better preserve your light or you can't get it back So because I had already made that sky in the upper right dark, I literally just got some new pastels of a light blue and a A white and I lighten it up. So when you see the final here and it looks a little lighter in the sky up there That's how I did it Okay, some more purple, you know, if you've watched my channel's my videos much on my channel, you know I love purple. I'm doing a little bit more of the little splatter technique just having some fun Getting creative on a saturday and it was awesome All right, so here's where I was telling you I reinforced my Fibronacci spiral with these pasca Markers these markers are awesome for using on top of watercolor Now the cool thing is they have white as well as black So I know that was a lot of information in one video But I had a lot of fun with it and I hope you learned something I hope you will try using soft pastels like watercolor. Wasn't that neat if you try it Let me know what you thought become a patron if you'd like and happy painting