Painting with pastels: Portraiture course
- Tuesday, 7 April 2026
- Tuesday, 14 April 2026
- Tuesday, 21 April 2026
Enrol
| Standard: | £540 |
| Concessions: | £486 |
Please book a ticket to attend this course which will take place in the Roden Centre for Creative Learning.
Tickets include entry to the National Gallery. Please arrive in good time to access the building and find the event.
Bookings close 10 minutes before the event begins.
Concessions are for full-time students, jobseekers, and disabled adults.
This event is open for Members priority booking until Sunday, November 23, 2025.
About
This three-week course, led by portrait artist Robin-Lee Hall, explore the beauty of pastels through practical sessions exploring the medium, and by looking at pastel artists in the National Gallery Collection.
In the early 1700’s pastel portraits became very popular. The soft, colour infused velvety texture of the medium captured skin tones in a natural and unique way, making it an ideal medium for portraiture. Participants will have the chance to work from a live model, and learn about proportions of the face, skin tones and creating lights and darks in relation to colour. Studio sessions in the Clore Art Studio will be enhanced with visits to the Gallery to better understand portraiture and pastels.
This course is suitable all levels, from beginners to experienced artists looking to refresh their practice. All materials are provided and you can take your artworks home with you. Handouts with extra resources are also provided. All sessions take place onsite in our state-of-the-art Clore Art Studio in our Roden Centre for Creative Learning.
Painting with pastels: Portraiture course
Participants will work from a live model, using three basic colours. They will learn about proportions of the face, drawing individual features and how to apply pastel to mid-toned paper. We will look at early pastel artists like Baroque artist Frederico Barocci in the Gallery for inspiration.
Painting with pastels: Portraiture course
In week two, we will choose a wider range of colours and learn how to blend them successfully from light to dark, with some simple exercises. Participants will visit Room 42 and look at the work of 18th-century artists Jean-Etienne Liotard and Rosalba Carriera. We will work from images by these artists, exploring their different approaches and palettes.
Painting with pastels: Portraiture course
Our final week will commence with another visit to Room 42 to look at the work of Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas and Odilon Redon, exploring mark making, composition and optical colour mixing. Back in the studio, participants will create work inspired by these artists. We will work from a life model for this final session.
Your tutor
Robin-Lee Hall is an award-winning portrait painter and Past President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Her paintings have been hung at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, as well as other galleries in and around London. She has won the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture and Gold Medal at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition. As well as being a practicing artist, Robin delivers talks, tours, group drawing and painting sessions. She works for the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts. She is currently writing a book on how to paint in egg tempera, a medium she specialises in.