 Hello patrons and welcome to today's story time. We're doing something a little different. I know we have been in the pastel workbook by Jackie Simmons, but I thought I would just take a little departure and show you some of the different pastel books I have so you can get an idea of what we might do next or some books you might get. So join me in this video where I'm going to flip through a lot of these books and give some of my recommendations and input as to many of the different books available. All right, here we go. Hello patrons, it's Wednesday, so that means story time and today we're doing something a little different. I had a suggestion by one of the patrons of what book to do next after the pastel workbook, the one that we're currently in and I thought it might be neat if you guys could see some of the books that I have. So a little departure from the pastel workbook will jump back in it next week and I'm just going to go over with you some of these books that I have on my shelf. I've found that even if you can't afford to buy them, a lot of times libraries will have these books. By the way, the book that was suggested to be the next book was an Elizabeth Mallory book and some of you may have seen, my heart was just saddened when she recently passed away. She's one of my favorite pastel artists and I loved her work and she just seemed to have just the perfect artist spirit. You know, she just seemed like what our minds think of when we think of an artist and a beautiful soul. So that was one of the books that this particular patron recommended was a pastel book by Elizabeth Mallory and I happen to remember, I thought I gave my book away because I didn't have it anymore but I realized I had gotten it from the library and before this whole pandemic I used to go to the library a lot. So I just kept rechecking it out. I had it like for a long time so I need to get another one of those books again. So anyway, I'm going to show you some of those books and kind of give you some food for thought of things you might want to get or perhaps some of the next books will go into. Also too, I wanted to say thanks for the positive and good response on the recent video for the painting on the wood slices and I had another question was does that recipe that I made work on other surfaces? It does absolutely. As a matter of fact, that's the next video that's coming up or hopefully soon is I I actually did this painting on a board that I prepared with that same surface. This is just a piece of mat board and I also coated three more pieces of mat board with different. It's the same recipe. It's the marble dust and the clear gesso but I coated them with different techniques or under paintings. I should say colors and some I combined acrylic and some I combined I think acrylic ink in one and some some fluid acrylics. So anyway, I'll be sharing how to make your own board and these work so great. I really like this new surface. So anyway, that is coming. I just wanted to let you guys know. All right, so let's take a look at what some of these books are on my bookshelf and get excited about the things that we can explore next. All right, here we go. All right, so I've got a stack of books here and I think I do have more somewhere, but these were the ones that I had the most easily accessible And this is the little book. I think a lot of people or pastel artists may be familiar with it's got so much information in it It's called the pastel artist handbook. Hey Jackson And sorry, my dog. He just walked in. He knows when I'm filming. He walks in. He's like, oh, she's busy and then he walks out A practical guide to pastel drawing for the home artist, you know, I never even knew that little subtitle was that But I like the book because It opens up nice and flat because it's like the pastel workbook we're in right now It's uh, the same ring type of system and it just lays so nicely if you want to, you know, work from looking in at the book And also too, it's just laid out so nicely With some beautiful artwork to look at as well So it covers materials techniques color and composition style And subject so once again like the pastel workbook that we're in now. This is another workbook type of Well, I shouldn't say workbook. I don't know how many exercises it has But it gives you so much information a brief history Into pastels materials. I believe that's kind of how Jackie Simmons book does too. I think she starts with the materials Choosing your colors taking care of your pastels Paper color surfaces to work on additional equipment on and on and on yet And this is a little bit similar to Jackie's in that I think she covers material and then some of the basic techniques that we've already been through that chapter in her book and Then let's see blending. I'm getting if I go through every book this Much this is going to be a long video broken color. Oh, yeah, that was in Jackie's book too feathering Look at that. Isn't that beautiful? And we did some of that. We've already done some exercising on broken color and talking about how pastels actually You can blend with techniques such as cross hatching So anyway, I'll flip through the rest of this but look at this. It's it's big I mean, there's a lot of information in this book. So combining different mediums with soft pastels I didn't see what I was looking for. Was that a richard mckinley painting? No out Alan Oliver. Look at the color in that. Isn't that gorgeous? But anyway, I didn't see as many And I'm flipping through kind of quickly Well, yeah, I guess there are some Yeah, exercises. That's what I was thinking. Do they have any actual? exercises for you to do and and they kind of do with this right here and with color mixing like this So it's a really really Nice book with a lot of material and information I think this is a great one for your for your pastel or art library in general in general Isn't that beautiful? Oh my goodness. Yeah, here's one that you can kind of follow. I love this Beautiful. Okay. So once again, I won't be able to go through every book with this much Information but this one was worth it because it really really Is very good for the beginner pastel artists or any level really Now this is the one I kind of gave a brief little introduction to in the last video While we're doing the Jackie Simmons book. I thought at the end of the lessons I might just show you a few of the paintings in this book called pure pastel This is not as much of a teaching book as it is an example of some outstanding pastel artists And we went through a little bit of this Last week, like I said, so I guess you could say it's like one of those awesome coffee table books That could just sit and browse through and be like, oh, look at all this gorgeous work So this is another one That I like just for seeing pastel art by some of the best pastel artists and once again, not as much of a teaching book But um, amazing amazing work. So oh, I happen to just love this sunflower painting And many of you may know or remember I went to a sunflower field recently and I just love how these morning glories are Um, just growing up amongst the sunflowers. Isn't that beautiful? So anyway, this is another great book Gosh, I'm just tempted to keep looking at all these paintings. It's a large book I mean, look at all this artwork and it'll have some artists in here that you recognize Um, if you've been, you know, kind of finding your favorite artist in the pastel world So gorgeous gorgeous. Oh, okay. So that's another goodie And this is one that I remember I got early on in my pastel art explorations pastel techniques The encyclopedia on pastel techniques a comprehensive visual guide to traditional and contemporary techniques I apologize for all the sounds of the road because I my studio is near a busy road Um, so anyway, this one is also very good. This one does have it's more of a teaching book Let me prop it up here. Um, once again, most of them start out with materials Actually, this one part one techniques. This one didn't start out with materials. So another one that's really great for you to Study and practice with so this is a great book as well. Let me flip through this one This seems to have a decent amount of exercises in it for you to Practice and I encourage you again if you um, if it's not within your budget or you can't find these books online Then uh, call your library see if they have them And I know a lot of libraries now have you know with the covet thing They have it to where you can pick them up or you know, they have some safety Or safe ways to get the books to you so you might want to check that out if you're vulnerable Let's go on to the next one pretty stuff. Oh my goodness Now many of you may have this book or know of this artist. I love richard mckinley's work. He's been kind of a pioneer in the recent pastel world This book happens to also have A 27 minute bonus dvd. I'm embarrassed to say I have not looked at it I got this book when I was on a going on a trip And I uh, I read through the book But I haven't yet gone back and let's see. Here's the dvd at the back of the book here So this is an awesome book Um, it has a lot of his gorgeous artwork, of course Oh, I love his work. Do you see how loose and impressionistic that is? Nothing is Definite it's all very suggested. Oh, and I appreciate the comment. I can't remember who it was Who was very thankful for I guess it was the last pe lesson or one of the let No, it was the critique that we had last thursday and I talked about broken lines Instead of making lines like in fence posts, you know, the the barbed wire between fences Or lines from the sailboat that I did or lines on the telephone poles or electric poles Notice notice this line now. I'm giving a lesson again How it's not even there in some parts and notice with this there's not even a Barbed wire or any wire in the fence post, but it it doesn't bother you, you know, because that's not the central focus Anyway, okay, let's flip through this book. All right. So his book has contents materials composition light and color the underpainting techniques Plain air painting the business of pastels fun and lifelong learning. So golly, there's a lot of information in this book as well Oh my goodness. Look at his work Gorgeous. Oh, I love his use of color. Ah Okay, I'm just gonna get my coffee and sit down and look at some of these books after this. Look at this gorgeous one Man, I better get going because this video is going to be so long. All right Next book the pastel or pastel painting techniques 17 pastel painting projects Illustrated step by step with advice on materials and techniques by guy rodin. Now. This is more of a Show you how to do it book. Okay. So here's the contents the pleasure pastels Everything you'll need pastel techniques using mixed media composing the picture working with color and with each one He gives some I believe let's see here about pastels. Yeah, okay Here's where you start getting into all kinds of things that you can actually do Additional equipment. Here we go. Let's see here. He gives a linear strokes Once again, kind of like we've been learning in the pastel workbook side strokes blending And then it will get into actual exercises. You see that even that little kitty painting. He teaches you how to do um bird painting so I like um, I like the picture books too But I really like the books where there's a like a course and you can Do some actual paintings Step by step. I guess is the right word to say. So anyway, lots of great information in this book as well All right. So is that him? I don't even know Maybe that's him. I don't know. It's just a guy there. I don't see a name anywhere. All right So let's see the next one Is the pastel book materials and techniques for today's artist bill creepy and this one Has let's see the table of contents here. Look at all this information in this book. This one's loaded All right, introduction materials and tools All different pastel types hard pastel soft pastels. Oh my gosh, there's so much to learn and See here I'll just flip through this so you can see basic pastel techniques This I'm hoping will just give you an idea of being able to somewhat see inside the book. That's gorgeous And um say oh those are the type of books that I need I always love this lobster painting. You know, it's done with a lot of linear strokes Um, I say always because I've looked at this book a lot I take these books when I go on trips You see how this one's giving you almost like a Steps on how to do it a step by step And uh, so it's nice when you go on trips You can actually sit down and and read these things and then maybe take a few little supplies to practice or do some things All right, so let's flip through this one once again a lot of step by step Lessons in this book really really nice. I like this book I should see if I can Give my suggestions of my favorites, but that's hard to do. They're all my favorite now This is a book that I just really like. I think I bought it. I'm sorry for that shimmer there of my light I think I bought it Like on sale at some bookshop or library or something but capturing light and color with pastel So this one just has some really neat information on light and color I've looked through this one too and some gorgeous artwork, of course Um, so I don't even know let's see who's this one by This is oh doug dawson fantastic pastel artist. So it's just neat. I remember reading about him and uh I like his artistic outlook on things. He's uh, he's a neat guy So anyway, lots of great information on this one This one's a little bit more of his techniques and things that he does and just art education In general. Oh, he's just fantastic Great artist. So I I would recommend this book if you Can find it. Um, I hope it's still available. So that's another goodie. Here's one pastel I'm gonna knock my coffee over. Let me get a sip of my coffee. You should see how I'm having to work around my camera here I'm turning into a gymnast Okay, I better remove that coffee. It's gonna get spilled So This one is called pastel Interpretations it is by madeline and Woolwich and it's got some gorgeous artwork and let me show you the contents This one has one rural landscapes the figure seascapes cityscapes no scene. So I think this one Won't go into as much of materials and things like that, but it does have her Um, step by step information on each painting which I find is a lesson in itself when you can watch the Building up of a painting and see how it was created. You can learn a whole lot. So most of her Oh, actually these are different artists. It looks like that. She's doing they're not Oh, here's elizabeth malry that I was talking about. Oh, this is neat. I don't know I don't remember even seeing this. This is some of these artists Like I said step by step process and building up their paintings And I'm thinking this author must have had to contact all these artists and ask them for these step by step pictures You know to see how their paintings progress. Oh, I need a waltz. This painting is gorgeous So again, if you like to see this kind of stuff and see how the painting was built up by different artists This is a great book. Oh Man, I love that style. I think that's just gorgeous. I love all the texture in that too. All right Let me flip through this one and uh, almost done here. I'm gonna end up making this Video that I thought would be short really long Oh my goodness. There's some beautiful work in here. So once again, you get to see a lot of step by step um, photography of Different artists in this book a great book All right. So there's that one pastel interpretations And okay now I'm down to the books that aren't pastel books But I think we don't have to just stick with the medium of pastels when we get books because there's so much of art That transfers to all different mediums art Concepts and education and principles are not medium specific some things are But perspective, you know, we did a little bit on the the road paintings or the road Drawings that we did recently just teaching a little bit about perspective But understanding perspective Is not only just if you're doing architectural work and things It does help you with landscapes. I know we think oh, we don't need to know perspective that much But it really does help like like I said the road example that we did And this is a really really good little book on perspective. Let me see who this one was by after I flip through it So oh and I love this one that it does actually have exercises for you to do And these are fun, you know, I think of I think if I could live, you know 200 more years. Wow the things I might be able to achieve as an artist And you know, but then I'm even more hopeful because I know where I'm going and I can't even imagine The things we'll be able to do in heaven And the colors, you know, it says there's colors. We haven't even seen yet. Can you imagine? So anyway, this is a great little book on perspective and it says pocket art guides understanding perspective Well, this author is really humble. He doesn't even have his book. Oh his name on the book, but he has it on the side Barons that must be like a book publishing company for for art. Anyway, so this is a neat and a really really handy book I got this book when I went to this beautiful botanical gardens where I live or near where I live And it's called the art of botanical drawing. It's kind of like Leonardo da Vinci talked about Shared in his writings how he Actually studied the anatomy of people when you would draw them and when you understand the subject matter of what you're drawing Your painting So well, you're obviously going to draw or paint it better So this is just an example of you know different books you might get if you're interested in a particular subject matter And it does have a little bit of art education in it. So if you like drawing plants and things like that It couldn't hurt to get some books along this, you know line Now I like to stress the importance of good drawing skills I don't know how this rumor came about but there has been an expression that you don't have to be able to draw To be able to paint and I disagree your drawing skills are like a firm foundation that your painting is going to build upon So this is a book that I really like and it was one that was recommended to me in college I've mentioned numerous times. I majored in graphic design I had a few art classes and one drawing class that I had an art class that I had the professor recommended this book and it's called how to draw what you see And structure form perspective light and shade composition value still life outdoors figure hands and feet Heads and faces children charcoal wash opaque acrylic ink lots of stuff in this book So, uh, this is a really good book on just basic drawing skills once again going into perspective Which I think too I want to get better at Like a two point perspective three point perspective and all those things can really really help you then they're shading Light and shadow So lots of great and this has some exercises of sorts that you can do So another really really good book hands and faces and feet and I have a lot of people asking about portrait Demos or tutorials and there are some rules to faces. I'm not a primarily a portrait artist I have studied it a bit and I love doing faces now I used to not like it at all, but uh and figure work. I actually like too. Okay, so that's another really good Basic drawing book. I do recommend this book by Rudy Day rena And of course there are I've accumulated a few art magazines You know, sometimes you can get these really cheap at used bookstores and places Also to just collect books if when you can, you know, when you can afford it of artists that you like I particularly love the figure work of this artist Royo and I'm fascinated by his use of light and color And the impressionism of his paintings how it says so much with just Basically light value and color Without a lot of detail, you know, isn't this gorgeous? So anyway, you may have your favorite artist gorgeous gorgeous work and It's nice to collect some books like this so that you can sometimes just sit down I learn a lot by just looking at other artists So anyway, this is this is one that I really like. I love his work This is another book that I got. I believe on sale somewhere. It's called landscape painting essential concepts and techniques for plein air and studio practice by Mitchell albala And I this is another book. Well, I will just sit around and just look it does have some good instructive information in it about greens and so this is not pastel specific But once again There's some sketching in the book It has information that that works for whatever medium you're using Value divisions in a landscape and you know, I'm just like crazy about the importance of values. So So anyway, another great book with lots of information gorgeous painting there Pretty pretty work. Oh my goodness. Oh, I love that. Look at the color gorgeous and This is another book that I've got a few of these of different artists. These are just large so large it doesn't fit in the screen Just large picture books of van Gogh's work. I have one on Monet and I think someone else It gives a little bit of information about the artist I do love learning about particular artists and their early work, you know, like Picasso and even if an artist isn't your favorite, it's kind of neat to learn a little bit about them So and then of course it has some of his gorgeous paintings in here So there's a big old chunk of information for you there And um, hopefully that will be helpful for Building a pastel or art library in general And but if I had to take out of these the ones that I would recommend first, uh, good drawing book I wouldn't say first, but if you want a good drawing book, that's it. And then that's a great drawing perspective book This one is this is hard I love all of these but probably if you're a real beginner I would say this book And where was that other one that was so good This one these are just loaded with information these two here And then some of these that have the actual this is more materials. It has some Yeah, this has some lessons in it too, but either this one or this one for some good lessons and of course The pastel workbook that we're in right now for story time by Jackie Simmons. I think I would choose that one Before these two and then these two would be next so general pastel information a lot of great content is these pastel techniques the encyclopedia of pastel techniques And then this one the pastel artist handbook and then these two So that's just my recommendations for beginner pastel artists. So anyway, I hope that was helpful And I hope you are enjoying these story times. I know I am I love giving this information So we'll be back next week with a regular story time. We'll finish lesson four in the pastel workbook I'm excited about all the new patrons that have come on board And new patrons you can find all of the story times at the top of my patreon page at the top of the posts And there are little bubbles where you can click where I've tagged them with certain subject matters So all right guys happy painting and I'll be back tomorrow with throwback thursday. Bye