👉 How to Paint a Dramatic Night Scene in Soft Pastel (Beyond the Reference)

Learn how to paint a dramatic night scene in soft pastel while moving beyond the reference to create a more expressive and atmospheric landscape. In this soft pastel painting tutorial, I take a simple reference image and push beyond it to create a dramatic, moonlit night scene filled with atmosphere, glowing light, and expressive mark-making. Instead of copying the photo exactly, I’ll show you how to use your reference as a starting point—then make intentional decisions with color, composition, and value to create a more artistic and emotionally engaging painting. This lesson focuses on painting a convincing night scene in soft pastel, including how to capture the glow of moonlight, build depth through layered strokes, and simplify complex areas into painterly shapes. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced artist, this approach will help you loosen up, trust your instincts, and create work that feels more personal and expressive. In this tutorial, you’ll learn: How to paint a dramatic night scene in soft pastel How to move beyond your reference photo with confidence Creating glow and atmosphere with value and temperature shifts Using expressive, painterly mark-making for trees and landscape Building depth and focus in a limited lighting environment Materials Used: (affiliate links may be included) 👉 Canson Velvet Paper: https://amzn.to/4mOXrQp 👉 Prismacolor NuPastels (for sketching): https://amzn.to/4vWP9Kz 👉 Color Cube (for palette inspiration): https://sarahrenaeclark.com/?ref=125 Want the full real-time lesson + extras? Join me on Patreon for extended tutorials, reference photos, and more: 👉 [Your Patreon Link] Related Lessons in This Series: Poppies:    • My New Favorite Way to Pick Colors (and Wh...   Interesting Greens:    • I Used the Color Cube to Pick My Colors… a...   Neutral Palette:    • I Painted This Using ONLY Neutrals… Watch ...   ✨ Just Starting with Soft Pastels? Here’s my simple beginner supply list (no overwhelm): 👉 https://amzn.to/3Ndz94G (This is the same simple setup I recommend to my beginner students.) 🎨 Art Supplies I Use & Recommend Many of you ask what supplies I’m using in my videos. I’ve organized all my favorite pastel supplies, papers, and studio tools here so you can easily find what you need: 👉 My Amazon Art Supply Shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/monetcafe... 👉 Dick Blick Art Supplies: https://tidd.ly/4o4rQcQ (If you use these links, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — thank you for supporting my teaching ❤️) BECOME A PATRON ON MY PATREON PAGE! 👇 ➞   / susanjenkins   BUY ME A COFFEE!! ☕️ Would you consider leaving me a small tip for this lesson? Your support helps me to bring more free content coming to this channel!! https://buymeacoffee.com/susanjjenkr My AMAZON Shop / (for Many Products Featured in Videos) 👇 ➞ https://www.amazon.com/shop/monetcafe... (I earn money from qualifying purchases at no cost to you) My Etsy Shop 👇 ➞ https://theartofsusanjenkins.etsy.com Visit my Website 👇 ➞ https://www.susanjenkinsfineart.com My Instagram Link 👇 ➞   / susanjenkinsartist   My Facebook Page 👇 ➞   / theartofsusanjenkins   Facebook Group 👇Monet Cafe' Art Group ➞   / monetcafeartgroup   Monet Cafe' Art Store (with Fun Tee Shirts and More) 👇 ➞ https://monet-cafe-art-store.creator-... #pastelpainting #pastelpaintingtutorial #paintinglessons #softpastel