Makings and Musings Community

In this class I take you through a relaxed and colourful still life drawing.

I work from a winter themed reference photo and I show you how I break it down into simple shapes and playful lines. I focus on enjoying the process rather than getting things perfect, so you can feel free to be a bit wobbly and expressive in your own work.

The artists I showed you art the start are:

Susanne Rose: https://www.instagram.com/susannerose_sketchbook/

Sandi Hester: https://www.instagram.com/sandihesterart/

This week, I led an art session exploring sunset-inspired drawings using oil pastels, coloured pencils, and other media.

We focused on blending, layering, and creating gradients, with a relaxed pace so everyone could experiment and share their work. I demonstrated techniques for texture and colour harmony, and we discussed how different materials—like baby oil or Vaseline—can help with blending.

We also spoke about the history of oil pastels, and I shared tips for adding silhouettes and reflections to create depth.

Oil Pastel Blending & Lavender Field Drawing Workshop

In this joyful and colourful session, I shared lots of oil pastel techniques with you—from how to blend colours smoothly, to creating vibrant skies and dreamy lavender fields.

Watch Here:

We explored ways to mix and layer colour to build depth and atmosphere, using both oil pastels and wax crayons.

You saw me demonstrate how to use cotton buds, tissue paper, and even the back of a pencil to blend, shape, and highlight. We talked about layering light colours first, how to approach tricky tones like purple, and how to play with texture to bring your scene to life.

In the survey I emailed around recently you creatives asked me for short sessions with quick results. Naturally I wanted to create loads of those immediately and this quick oil pastel drawing sessions is the first.

Let me know if you enjoyed drawing along with this one and please share your creations with us in the homework gallery!

Watch here: