Due to their ease of use and the lush effects they can create with a single stroke, pastels are becoming increasingly popular with artists of all levels of experience. No more must an artist suffer dirty brushes or the odors of oil paints and cleaning materials! Pastels are portable, handy, and "user-friendly," the perfect medium for the contemporary artist. In Pastels Made Easy, award-winning artist and instructor Anne Heywood shows beginners everything they need to know about working with pastels. Best of all, no knowledge is ever assumed! Filled with no-nonsense guidance and 200 lush, full-color examples of the author s own accomplished work, this step-by-step guide shows new artists such practical basics as when to use a fixative, how to set up a work place, even how to hold a pastel stick. Next, a series of progressive hands-on lessons demonstrate how to gain control of pastels--creating strokes, marks, blocking in, and more--without having to worry about painting a realistic subject. Finally, once readers master these basic techniques, they are encouraged to create their first still life, landscape, or portrait.