Live Virtual Workshops
Learn pastels from the comfort of home
Be inspired, and boost your skills.
Join me in a one-day or two-day workshop, and learn the processes and techniques I use to paint award-winning pastel landscape paintings in an interactive and encouraging small class setting.
Join A Live Virtual Workshop
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I have taken many good workshops over zoom and learned a lot, but I have never learned as much from a workshop as I did from Clint’s workshop on how to paint water. Clint’s easy to understand explanations of the physics of how water, atmosphere, and light work, how the eyes see the world, and how to paint what we see in 3D in 2D was both interesting and very helpful to my understanding of how to paint better pictures. I will definitely be signing up for more workshops by Clint Howard.
— Ann
Other Upcoming Events
IAPS Convention
The Language of Distance
In-person or virtual pastel painting workshops
My pastel painting workshops are designed to help artists move beyond formulas and start seeing more clearly. Instead of focusing on tricks or step-by-step recipes, we spend time understanding what’s really happening in front of us: light, shape, value, color relationships, and edges. Whether the subject is water, landscape, or atmosphere, the goal is to simplify the scene and paint with intention rather than hesitation.
These workshops are hands-on, approachable, and suitable for a wide range of experience levels. I work primarily in soft pastels on professional sanded paper, and I share the same tools, concepts, and decision-making process I use in my own studio practice. Students are encouraged to loosen up, trust what they see, and develop confidence in their own visual voice, not just copy a finished painting.
To get an idea about my teaching style and artistic approach check out my videos on the Pastel Workshop YouTube Channel.
Workshops for your society or art group
Workshops are available for art associations, pastel societies, galleries, and small groups, and can be tailored to fit your space, schedule, and experience level. Topics may include painting water, capturing atmosphere, simplifying complex scenes, and developing stronger color harmony. If you are interested in hosting a pastel painting workshop, please contact me directly using the form below to discuss availability, location, and workshop options.
Pastel workshop topics
Reflections and Currents: Capturing Water in Pastel
In this workshop, we’ll set aside the idea of “painting water” and focus instead on what’s really there: colors, shapes, values, and edges. When you stop thinking about water as a special subject, it becomes easier to see the simple visual relationships that create the illusion of reflection and movement. We’ll discuss what to pay attention to, and just as importantly, what to ignore.
Through demonstration and guided practice, you’ll learn how to develop layers of depth and movement. The goal is not detail for detail’s sake, but capturing the feeling of water in our dusty medium with confidence and restraint.
Make Your Pastels Sing: Simple Color Harmony
Let’s take the confusion out of color by looking at how it actually works in practice. You’ll learn how the modern color wheel differs from what many of us were taught, and why understanding those relationships makes color choices feel more natural and intentional. Rather than memorizing rules, we’ll focus on seeing harmony and contrast in a simpler, more usable way.
We’ll also talk about how to choose a limited color palette that supports mood, light, and atmosphere using helpful tools available on your smartphone. By learning to select colors with purpose, your paintings will feel more cohesive, confident, and expressive without relying on guesswork.
Build Your Painting: A Structured Approach to Pastels
It is challenging trying to find consistent improvement and predictable success if you don’t have a solid plan for creating a pastel painting. So let’s create one together! In this workshop we’ll explore a simple approach: building your painting in easy to understand steps. Once you have a firm process in mind then experimentation and beautiful paintings become much more feasible.
We will cover key topics, including establishing a foundation with your underpainting, learning how to not overcommit and build too quickly, and when and how to finish a piece. And we’ll have fun and explore!
Captivating Compositions: Learning to See Beyond the Dust
Composition is (almost) everything. You can get the colors, values, shapes, everything else right, but a painting falls flat if the composition is not engaging. But good composition can feel a bit mysterious.
Let’s pull the curtain back and make it simpler. We’re heading outside where Clint will show you how to find interesting compositions, how to take photos of them, how to edit those photos to experiment and prepare painting ideas, and then how to execute those ideas in studies and final pieces.
Timberline: Painting the Personality of the Mountains
We’ll explore what gives mountain landscapes their sense of presence, scale, and character. The focus will be on understanding form, value, and atmosphere, and how subtle shifts in color and edge can suggest vast distance and changing elevation. You’ll learn how atmospheric perspective helps separate planes and create believable space.
We’ll break mountains into clear layers of depth, from foreground structure to distant ridgelines, using simplified shapes and thoughtful color choices. The goal is to build paintings that feel grounded and expansive, capturing the bold personality of the mountains.
Materials List
The following materials list applies to all workshops. I like to keep it simple.
- Three sheets or panels of your preferred pastel surface (I work on sanded paper, but bring what you are comfortable using)
- Blending tools of your choice (fingers are fine)
- Your pastels, of course
- Two or three reference photos related to the workshop theme
- Optional – isopropyl alcohol (any grade/concentration) in a misting spray bottle, and a one inch wide paint brush (a cheap house painting brush works great)
Book your workshop
Fill out the form below. Let me know what group you represent, where you’re located, what topic you think your group would enjoy, and any other details you think I should now. I would love to paint with your crew!