Imagine trying to hide a smile while seated at a kitchen table surrounded by coloured dust on your fingertips. The white sheet before you is a stage, not only paper. Colors blossom and mix unexpectedly as you glide pastel sticks over it. On the first week of our The Tingology pastel painting workshop, many students felt like a patchwork of anxieties, enthusiasm, and subdued hope.
They declared things like, “I can barely draw a stick figure,” or “My only art has been doodling during phone calls.” By week three, everyone is wiping annoying crumbs off masterpieces while discussing negative space and dropping terms like “sfumato.”
Learning pastels is a little prod on the rear, not a shove. Your errors disappear with a finger stroke, and occasionally a splatter turns out to be the highlight. The course does not send you off with just directions. Rather, it is bursting with different demonstrations. You will observe how a shadow lends life to a cheekbone or how a background transitions from plain to strong.
No mountain of goods to purchase exists here. Enough is a modest handful of sticks and some good paper. Old cotton sweaters may act as mixing instruments. Grandma’s Christmas present might save your clouds, who knew?
The instructor is? Imagine Bob Ross with a sloshful of genuine conversation. He laughs at himself quite quickly. He shrugged, turned it into a branch, and added, “Happy accidents really do happen!” one time after dropping a pastel and producing a stripe. After that the group conversation came alive. Here there are just fresh paths; there are no bad solutions.
For those yearning to break the pattern, the course covers landscapes, still life, even abstracts. One person labeled their breakfast toast “Carbs in Harmony.” They painted it. For shaky beginners, there are easy exercises; advanced hints are available for brave people as well.
Your aging walls start to look as blank canvases during the third month. Sunsets never seemed to be so luscious. The instructor leaps in with playful nudges whenever your hands feel stuck to inspire motivational talks or odd painting prompts. Learning is liberated, messy, and joyful.
If your cat sits on your finest sketch or you find blue fingerprints on your shirt, who gives a damn? You were building, not merely observing.
If you believe you cannot, most likely you can. And, if you know you can, bring your most imaginative ideas. This workshop is about daring that white paper and witnessing what happens when, for once, you are both the artist and the audience. It is not about strict restrictions. Who else knows? Perhaps your latent ability is only waiting for you to say yes and get your hands a bit dusty.