Tuesdays are for Pastels

When I was young, I read a book called <Friday’s Night Knitting Club>. It’s a novel about different people gathering in one place every Friday night, using ‘knitting’ as a medium to knit and share their lives. I read it so long ago that I can’t remember the details, but I recall it as a story where they intricately knit their unstable lives together, comforting and healing each other.

I’ve been drawing pastel pictures every Tuesday during lunchtime for two and a half years, and this novel just came to mind. There’s the pastel teacher, who’s like a young girl, a homemaker around my mom’s age, a freelance English teacher, the assistant manager from the team next to mine (a colleague), and me. The five of us gather once a week to draw together and share our daily lives. What started by chance, this pastel time, has now become a part of my daily routine. Although I skip lunch, spreading bright colors on my sketchbook fills my soul, making it a truly enriching time.

Before I started pastels, I simply assumed it would be a work where I’d just pour my artistic soul into it, rubbing various colors here and there to complete a piece. But as I learned, that wasn’t the case. Even rubbing pastels has distinct fundamentals and rules, before you can unleash your artistic spirit with a “feeling.”

First, you roll the pastel in a circular motion from the left to the right horizontally on the sketchbook to lay down the color. Then, with your index finger, you gently and delicately rub it in small circular motions sideways. What’s important here is to maintain the horizontal line and slowly spread the color. You must properly spread the original color before mixing it with others. It’s a task that requires quite a bit of patience. Then, with your fingertip, you carefully introduce other colors to blend. It’s successful if your eyes naturally follow the blend, as if they were the same color from the start, and your mind finds peace, without noticing they were different colors.

Below are some pastel artworks I’ve drawn so far. I’ve even framed them and given them as gifts to people I’m grateful for.

The same drawing style, but just changing the colors makes the feeling completely different! The charm of pastels really shines~

The diverse and beautiful landscapes of the four seasons, pastel colors always look so, so good~

Spreading colors in circles, one by one, to complete a drawing like this~

A piece I drew, inspired by a beautiful sunset photo I received.

Drawing on a sketchbook every time got a bit tiresome, so I decided to draw a picture on a large canvas that I could hang at home.

This oil pastel drawing took about three months to complete. I documented the process with photos, and now it hangs in a corner of our living room.

Ta-da, it’s finished!!!

A perfect match for the golden sofa! So proud :)

Every Tuesday, I draw pastel pictures with four people who are so different from me. Being able to regularly and consistently do something I love feels like a true blessing and something sacred. This year, I’ve specifically decided to create a 2021 calendar as an annual project. I’ve already finished the first piece, the June drawing, and I’m currently working on April’s. Just thinking about it makes me excited. I’ll have to gift them to people I’m grateful for!

pastel drawing_since 2017.09.12