Two of the prints in my shop — the Brown Trout and Cozy Cacti — are different from everything else I sell. The originals were drawn by hand in pastel pencils and colored pencil. What's in the shop is a reproduction, scanned and printed through Printful. I want to be upfront about that.

I'm a new studio still learning who my customers are and what belongs here long-term. Print on demand felt like a reasonable experiment when I started. I'm not sure that it's still the answer.

These two listings may disappear after the Blanden Arts Festival in June — or they may evolve into something else. Either way, I'd rather tell you that now than let you find out later.

What I do know is why these mediums matter to me. That part is the same regardless of what format they end up in.

Pastel pencils — Brown Trout

Pastel pencils sit between drawing and painting. They have the precision of a pencil with the vibrancy of soft pastels — and it's that vibrancy that pulled me to them. Color that feels alive on the page without fighting the medium to get it there.

Before the Brown Trout, I created a piece for my wife using pastel chalk and pastel pencils together. I was genuinely surprised by how well it turned out — surprised enough that it became the first time I'd pushed my art to a point where I felt good giving it to someone I love. Not a childhood drawing to mom. A real piece, made with intention, given as a gift. That moment stuck with me.

I didn't do much deliberate blending on the Brown Trout. Pastel pencils can be blended with a finger. Mostly I let the strokes do the work and kept the marks direct.

Colored pencils — Cozy Cacti

Colored pencils feel safe to me in a way that's easy to explain: they're close to regular pencils. The tool is familiar. The learning curve lives in the color work — blending, layering, getting mixtures to do what you want. It's similar to mixing paint, but also different. I am still learning.

Which is true of all of these mediums, honestly, to varying degrees. I don't think that ever fully stops. The fun is in pushing something a little farther than last time and seeing what happens when it works.

Curious about the other mediums I work in? Check out The Mediums I Work In for a deep dive (or to continue down the rabbit hole) into how I got into each one and what they mean to me.