 Welcome to Monet Café Studio. I'm artist Susan Jenkins. Did you know you can sketch with soft pastels? This month we will embrace the beauty of pastel sketching. I'm going to give you a little flip through of some of my pastel sketchbooks and give you a little teaser of some of the fun and learning we'll have this month in Monet Café Studio. While pastel artists often sing praises to the sanded pastel surfaces that are a lot more expensive, I have found that I can use regular sketchbooks to create pastel paintings that are not only more affordable but serve multi-purposes for my pastel painting needs. These are some of the sketches that I have done in regular sketchbooks using a variety of soft pastel brands. I believe this painting was created primarily with very affordable Prismacolor new pastels. I use a variety of sizes and brands with these sketchbooks and I often like to do a preliminary sketch in marker or charcoal prior to starting a pastel painting. I love doing little studies in sketchbooks that help me to work out color palettes and composition prior to starting a serious piece. These are some of the surfaces that I will be using this month to teach you my techniques and also how you can use some of these more affordable surfaces to create a travel journal which is always fun to do some pastel sketching when we're on the go. These two paintings were actually created when I was in the car and my husband was driving using Rembrandt pastels that aren't too messy. I use these books to create studies for my Patreon page and I even like to turn some of these pages into a sanded surface by using my favorite and affordable technique of adding clear gesso which adds a little bit of grit. I prepared these surfaces in advance with different colors and used this as well for a travel journal. All of these paintings were created while on trips with my husband and my family. It's always been my desire on the Monet Cafe channel to offer alternatives for beginners and those who don't have the budget to afford these expensive pastel painting products. So this month's theme should inspire lots of beginners. I also loved using the Strathmore toned gray paper and I have painted portraits directly on this surface without prepping it with anything else and I simply protect the pages with a sheet of tracing paper in between each page. I even like using sketchbooks with black paper and these cans and pads are great for that. I use it to paint directly on the pages and once again protect them with sheets of tracing paper or glass scene between each page and while you can't get the amount of layering in a sketchbook or unsanded paper as you can on professional surfaces I have found that pastel sketching in this way often lends itself towards a style that is more energetic full of color and movement. I also use these sketchbooks with black paper to store some of my other pastel sketches that I may have done on different surfaces. So I hope this little flip through through some of my pastel sketchbooks will inspire you to create your own. I also love to see other artists who create sketchbooks, pastel or other mediums and use it as a means to journal to write down where you were, what the date was, what inspired you to create that piece and it creates a lovely keepsake for you and your family to enjoy years down the road. Keeping pastel sketchbooks is also a great way to preserve your little studies that you're doing to just get better. These are some that are from my Patreon page with some examples of lessons that we were working on of a particular category. And this month's theme is not just about pastel sketching but the concept of a sketchy quality that can create energy and life in your artwork breaking you out of the doldrums of tight and fussy paintings. This type of painting can also lead to new discoveries leaning a little bit more abstract or impressionistic. So what are you waiting for? I hope you will subscribe to this channel so you won't miss any of the creative fun with this month's theme of pastel sketching. And if you're a patron of mine on my Patreon page we will be having extra content in my series I call Storytime where we learn from different pastel painting workbooks. For this month's theme my patrons will be learning lots of techniques, principles, and tips for this type of painting and learning a bit more about the principles of painting as well. And if you would like to become a patron to get the extra content share your work and in my beautiful Patreon family it's real easy and real affordable. You can subscribe at patreon.com slash Susan Jenkins it's only $5 a month and you can cancel at any time. So what are you waiting for? Come join my beautiful Patreon family and subscribe to this channel so you won't miss the content that will be coming here on the Monet Cafe YouTube channel. As always, God bless and happy painting.