Who else remembers their first time?

E-J · #1 10-19-2003, 12:58 PM

A few threads back, someone posted their very first pastel. As it takes courage to share one's first attempts at anything, I thought it might be a nice idea if the rest of us could post our own first pastel paintings/drawings. Then I figured, why not also post a recent work you're proud of, which shows how much progress you've made?

I did this with cheap Inscribe pastels on plain white copier paper back in 1991. It's very loosely based on a photo (wasn't aiming for realism ... couldn't have achieved it back then!!)

I loved the smudgeability of pastels but found them awfully messy and didn't really know what I was doing with them, the upshot being that I didn't touch another pastel stick until February 2003!!

Here's a landscape I painted last month. Another French scene. This time round I wasn't using copier paper

Would love to see other people's firsts and latests

Mary Robinson · #2 10-19-2003, 01:06 PM

This is my very first pastel, my very first attempt at color also...

Except for the time when I was 8 and 'borrowed' my father's oil paints.

And my latest attempt is under Cloud-Seascape WIP

Thanks EJ, this is a nice thread...

CarlyHardy · #3 10-19-2003, 01:17 PM

Had to go back and find this....July 25, 2000, my first pastel over a bad watercolor!

and this was my first "real pastels" painted plein air - July 26,2000. Pomegranates outdoors in sunlight!

One of the most recent ones....a study of fall color in North Georgia. Afternoon...gray, cloudy day...plein air.

E-J · #4 10-19-2003, 02:24 PM

Aka, that's a very accomplished first pastel but if you were borrowing oil paints from the age of 8, no wonder you're so good!

Carly, I see you did trees too

Those autumnal colours are beautiful ... it's a more limited palette than I'm used to seeing in your work, but no less pretty for that.

Dark_Shades · #5 10-19-2003, 03:26 PM

.... sorry.... deleting.... that went through twice

Dark_Shades · #6 10-19-2003, 03:28 PM

Nice idea EJ....... shame you have only just started portraits.... we could have done a similiar one....... maybe next year

.... Ok, my first was about 8 years ago..... did 3 .......

....... never touched them again, until last year, once kids had grown and had more time...... after a holiday in Spain, took a pic of this village with the intention of painting it...... on looking for local art classes on the net.... stumbled into WC..... the rest as they say........ is........ History ..... so this was my very first posting to WC ...... and I never did find any local art classes

One achievement to date...... 'Greens'

Mo. · #7 10-19-2003, 07:25 PM

Good thread E-J... will have to do a search tomorrow for you.

It's great to see how everyone has progressed, with some in a short while, while for me it took a little longer I'm afraid.

Mo.

cjkelly · #8 10-19-2003, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Here's a landscape I painted last month. Another French scene. This time round I wasn't using copier paper

E-J - I absolutely adore this painting!

You have come up with a great idea here, but I will really have to dig deep for my earliest attempts (possibly 20 years ago!).

cj

Kathryn Wilson · #9 10-19-2003, 09:01 PM

Great thread - wonderful progress for everyone!

This one is one of my very first - and still unfinished - I take it out and ponder on it every once in awhile - then I thought the other day about adding a Carolina Wren -

This one is my most recent and just added it to Mo's Water Project:

ctmobitz · #10 10-19-2003, 09:25 PM

This is one of my first. It is a portrait of my Father. A more recent painting if of the RI Shore.

Claude

ctmobitz · #11 10-19-2003, 09:27 PM

This is a more recent of the Rhode Island Shore.

Claude

E-J · #12 10-20-2003, 03:12 AM

Thanks all for posting your pics! I hope lots more pastel people will share.

Dawn, funny to see that you started out with landscapes ... no hint back then of portraits or still lifes! Just like me when I first started painting ... holiday photos had a lot to answer for

Yours are terrific for early attempts but your recent one is so zingy it just leaps off the screen at me. Your recent portrait thread showing the progress you've made over the last year was really cool, too.

Kat, your water painting is GORGEOUS. As to the berries, I don't know what a Carolina Wren might be so won't even begin to advise on whether you should put one in there!

Can see how your skill and confidence in this medium have grown.

Claude ... your shorescape is good but so is that portrait, for a first! It does look as if you're much more assured (ashored? LOL) in your use of colours now. How long have you been pastelling?

Mo and cj, look forward to seeing what you produce after a good rummage

E-J · #13 10-20-2003, 12:00 PM

OK, it looks as if everyone here was just TOO GOOD when they started out so I thought we needed to lower the standards a little

This is the very first pastel I attempted from life and was my first 'weekly sketch', posted on 17 Feb of this year ...

... and here's the still life I'm most proud of, done three months (and many sketches) later:

Come on you lot, get yours out

Mary Robinson · #14 10-20-2003, 01:17 PM

As far as my first pastel goes, I was living in Germany, my german was so bad that I was not able to work at the time, so I took a drawing class. The teacher was from Greece, and he decided I should be doing nothing but portraits, so most of my class was spent doing people. In pencil though, not in color of any kind. So I did have a background in people. I think personally I just got very lucky with my first piece. I had ordered my paper and pastels from Dick Blick because they would deliver to an APO box and off I went. But being as stubborn as I am, I refuse to limit myself to just one subject. My very first landscape/seascape painting, however, was atrocious. I painted the moon in front of the clouds and spent three weeks staring at it trying to figure out what was wrong with it.

And no you will never see it, it is long since gone, I lost it in one of my many moves...

I can't say I'm particularly proud of any one piece of work, I think what I'm most proud of is what I have learned through the last 8 years in terms of painting and how I've watched myself improve and grow. I started with pencil then pastels, then tried watercolors, then oils and acrylics, then colored pencil and back to pastels where I feel most comfortable. And from the pieces that you've shared, EJ, I can see the talent was always there, but it takes time to develop your own style, you should be proud of yourself, also, you done that wonderfully well. Your work is rich and vibrant.

daydrmr317 · #15 10-20-2003, 01:55 PM

Yes, I remember my first time too.... love the subject heading. Lol....

This was my first attempt at a portrait in Pastel on MiTientes paper. I was nervous about coloring it because I felt I had done so well on the portrait.

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