Pastel Workshops

Would you like to have a personal critique of your painting?

In my online critiques I send you a complete written critique, often with digital fixes or suggestions, if I think they will be helpful. I want to help you find where you already have strengths and suggest additional things that might be helpful to you. You can ask for a hard or soft critique, depending on what you think will be most helpful.

My area of expertise is landscapes and pastel, of course, but I'm happy to give an opinion and suggestions on anything. Outside of pastel I don’t have a lot of advice on techniques, however I'm happy to analyze the classical elements of painting.

I'll send you a complete evaluation of the painting, including discussion of things such as:

Composition

Color/Value

Contrast

Area of interest/Movement

Technique/Strategy

Mood/Emotion

Perspective/Proportion

And anything else that seems appropriate. Occasionally I’ll ask a couple of questions, so we might e-mail back and forth a bit.

I prefer to receive a little bit of information from you--title, size, media used, of course, but I'd also like to know the process you used (what paper or pastels, if applicable, or if it's a mixed media painting what you used--that kind of thing), your level of experience, your goal in making this painting, and the degree to which you believe it's finished at this time. I'd like to know YOUR assessment of it, too, which often helps me to help you more. If you have multiple paintings you want critiqued please allow extra time. Two weeks turnaround per painting is average.

The charge for one painting is $15.00 USD. I ask you to send a check or money order to my home address. You can send the digital image as a jpeg file, and once I receive your payment I'll prepare and e-mail the critique to you. Contact me to make sure I have time in my schedule to evaluate the painting(s).

Thanks for your help (that's a lot of effort for $15.00) I really appreciate it!

Dan Michael, VA

I got your extensive comments last night and I greatly appreciate them. I was somewhat amazed that you spent so much time. Your comments and suggestions are so helpful and I certainly see all of your points; this is what I need. While I "thought" that I had finished this painting, I am excited to try some of your suggestions. The comments on the composition are very meaningful and things that can easily be played with, and of course you are right in putting emphasis on what can be learned, and to employ the lessons on future paintings. The most important thing about your comments is that I can take the "lesson" and apply it to things I'm working on now. Thanks so much and I look forward to additional comments on other paintings.

Tony Crosby, CO