Life Drawing 2: Portraits in Pastels
9 Week Class | Registration opens 2026-02-10 12:00 PM
Soft pastels sit right at the boundary of drawing and painting (as such, this course may be a good complement to portrait painting). With their easy application, opaque, vivid colours and ease of blending, both dramatic and more subtle images can be developed quite quickly. The medium is equally well-suited to fast colour experimentation and more finished work. Participants will try a few different colour strategies: Monochrome, Analogous colours, warm/cool and the traditional 3-colour portrait approach. Instruction will consist of short lectures and demonstrations and extended time working with life models. We will finish with one or more full-colour drawings.
Recommended prerequisites: Introduction to Drawing, Portrait Drawing Basics
Note: There will be no class on Monday May 18th- Victoria Day
Base Tuition: $442 + Model Fee: $110 + Material Fee: $20 = $572 Total
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- What You Will Learn:
- Strategies for effectively organizing colour choices (colour harmonies)
- Application and colour mixing with pastels
- The role of different coloured paper supports
Please keep all purchase receipts in case items need to be returned.
- 1 pad of 18 x 24” or 24 x 36” Kraft paper
- 1 set of 24 or more dry (chalk) pastels* (24 is enough to give us a broad starting set of colour options, and we can blend them like paint to create a wider range). Recommended: Mungyo Gallery`semi-hard’ pastels or Prismacolour Nupastel sticks
- Foldback clips, kneadable eraser
*Some specific colours will be supplied as half-sticks of better quality pastels, such as Talens Rembrandt.
- Some paper will be supplied as well, and pastel papers will be discussed in the first class.
Thomas Hendry
Thomas is a Toronto-based artist, has been an instructor at the Toronto School of Art since 1996. Hendry has been active as an art instructor for over a decade, and he believes that learning art should be a positive discovery process. He practices this teaching philosophy beyond the Toronto School of Art at Sheridan College, The Haliburton School of Fine Arts, the AGO Gallery School, OCAD Outreach Program and the Toronto District School Board.
His drawings, shown in numerous exhibitions, use the means of traditional art to create contemporary images, images that address the beauty, mystery and complexity embodied in the human form.
1996 BA (Honours), University of Guelph
1994 Diploma (Honours), Ontario College of Art
1983 Arts; Sake Inc.