How To

How to Draw Like Paula Rego

Follow our step-by-step guide to pastel drawing with artist Katy Papineau

A bit of background

Artist Paula Rego, is known for her paintings and drawings based on folk tales. Her work often reshapes traditional stories to reflect personal experiences, and focuses on female roles within the family.

In 1994, she began to experiment with pastels and has continued to use them ever since. She describes working in pastels ‘like painting with your fingers’. The scenes in her drawings almost always take place in domestic settings and are filled with mystery.

I think that if you do pictures, they’re about what's inside you as much as what’s outside you.
Paula Rego

As you are drawing something, it very often turns into something else, and you can go with it. It develops in a completely different way. It’s organic and it’s done with the hand.

Paula Rego

Ready to draw like Paula Rego?

Follow our step-by-step guide and learn how to draw with pastels like Paula Rego.

We'd love to see how your drawings turn out. Show us at @Tate on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

See the Paula Rego exhibition at Tate Britain 16 June – 24 October 2021

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