Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

  A different way to use dry media!   Did you know that chalk pastels, soft pastels, and charcoal are all actually water-soluble? I learned this little trick in one of my drawing classes in college and I was flabbergasted the first time I heard about it!    Left-Right-Top-Bottom- Generals charcoal pencil, Pan Pastels, Conte pencil, Royal Langnickel pastel pencil, Derwent pastel pencil, Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel pencil,Blick charcoal, Koh I Noor extra soft pastel, Sennelier extra soft pastel, No name student grade chalk pastel, Grumbacher chalk pastel.    Using water with these very dry mediums can open up a lot of doors for creativity. It's an excellent way to blend, create expressive marks, and to create a painterly feel with your sketches. I love using this technique when I am feeling particularly experimental with my work. You can introduce brush marks, splatters, and washes into your drawings. This technique is also great for plein-air sketching as it requires very little tools

   1.   Start small! Start with an item and draw it everyday until you are confident. When you first do a full picture start with a small canvas so you do not feel overwhelmed.     2.   Break your piece down into individual sections, this will also help you “see” what you are drawing instead of what you think you should see.    3.   Realism is like a puzzle made up of small abstract shapes. Train your eye to look for those shapes.    4.   Do not be afraid to push your values! High contrast usually makes for a more interesting image!!    5.   When starting out, if you struggle with color, work in black and white to get a feel for detail and values. You can always glaze later if you want to.     6.   When working in color, use a view finder if you are having trouble figuring out what color you are trying to recreate. Take a white piece of paper, punch a hole in it and put it up to your reference, this will help you to identify the color more easily.  

Here are some tricks I that have helped me over the years!           1.        Use a thermos, travel mug or water bottle for your beverage while painting. This way you do not have to worry about dipping your brush into your drink, and it lessens the risk of your drink being spilled all over your project.    2.        If you do not like using harsh chemicals such as turpentine to clean your brushes there is a product called “The Masters” Brush cleaner that works great for Oil, Acrylic and Watercolor. They also have hand soap and a marvelous stain stick. If you are short on cash Dawn dish soap works well for brushes, even oil brushes. Dish soap is made to cut grease so works well for oil paint, it may take a bit longer than traditional brush cleaners but you are likely to have it on hand, it’s cheap and more importantly safe. Some shampoos may also work for the same reason.    3.        If you have been drawing intensively for a long period of time and have an