First of all, there are the cakes themselves. They are made of pure powdered pigment held together with a small amount of gum binder (lower quality pastels have chalk added). Pastels come in many varieties (hard, soft, stick, pencil, etc.) but in essence they are all the same: the final choice is largely a matter of personal preference.
What is probably more important is the type of paper you use with the cakes. When pastel is drawn on a surface, the pigment crumbles and settles on that surface. Using the right type of paper ensures that the deposited pastel adheres to the paper and does not just sit on the surface. In other words, a good pastel paper will have a “tooth” or grip.
The tooth and the texture are not the same. Velvet paper has a smooth, rich texture, but not much tooth. Art Spectrum Colourfix type papers have little texture, but fantastic tooth, like very fine sandpaper. The choice of paper often depends on the type of painting you want to do. Briefly, the more jagged the paper, the more pastel it will grab, allowing for greater color blending and tint intensity. However, a strong tooth can restrict the ability to record fine details. The final choice is often a bit of a compromise and comes down to experimentation, but the key point is: don’t use any old paper for pastel painting; use a paper made specifically for cakes.
Pastel work requires a fair amount of mixing and reworking – some pastel painting techniques require the use of water, so it’s important to use a sturdy paper. My personal recommendation is to use the heaviest weight pastel paper you can buy, something that will hold up to a bit of abuse.
A final consideration is the color of the paper. Pastel papers come in a wide variety of shades and while white is often an available option; it is rarely a good choice. Colored papers are preferable for several reasons. Unlike paints, working with pastels often allows part of the surface of the paper to show through. Choose a paper color that is compatible with the overall color of the painting you want to do, and the background color will subtly complement and unify your image. The color of the paper you choose will also help create a mood for the image. Finally, in the same way that painters often place a base color on a white canvas (as the first step in their painting), choosing a colored paper has the same effect (you’re already on your way before you start painting). ).
Getting pastel on paper requires techniques that go beyond simply drawing on the surface. Once you’ve made a mark, you usually need to do something else: bend, blur, fix, erase/clean up, etc. You can use your fingers, but some simple tools do a much better job.
Torchillons (or paper stumps) are good for “fixing” and “cutting” mixing. What I mean by pinning (in this context) is pressing the pastel into the paper so that it is less prone to smearing and/or has a sharp, defined edge (for example, for detailed work). What I mean by short blend is where you want to blur a small distance (for example, to blend two different colors along their edge).
A brush is ideal for smoother blending (a gradation of color or tone). While a blowtorch pushes the pastel onto the paper tine, a paintbrush lifts and transports the pigment, for more gradual blending.
It’s also possible to buy something called a “color carver” (best described as a spiky piece of rubber with a paintbrush-style handle). These work like super torchillons (they really push the cake towards the tooth). They also act as a wet-on-wet brush and allow thick layer pastel to flow like paint. However, if you overdo it, or push it too hard, they act like an eraser (a job usually best left to an eraser).
Speaking of erasers, you’ll also need one of these. It is not there to correct mistakes; it’s necessary for cleanup (because cake doesn’t tend to stay where you put it). The best type is a putty eraser. These are very smooth and can be pinched at thin dots or edges to remove small dots or thin lines of color from your image, without damaging the paper.
What about sharpening pastel pencils? Options are knives, sandpaper, pencil sharpener. Opinions vary, but I use a good sharpener (when absolutely necessary) and accept that pastels don’t last forever.
Pastel painting is a very complicated business. I often think of pastel work as painting with powder. That’s why it’s better to use the tools described above, rather than relying on your fingers. Get your hands dirty and you will inevitably make a mess.
Guess what? There is even more equipment you can purchase to help deal with dust problems, but before I get into that, I think I need to explain the dust problem a bit more. It doesn’t matter what kind of pastels you use, what kind of paper you work on, or how much you push and mix the pastel on the tine, the fact remains that some will grab and some will just sit. on the surface of the paper as dust. The problem is that the dust is going to move at some point and contaminate its environment. For example, black next to white will drift and white will turn gray, while white will float on top of black and lighten it.
One solution is a pastel easel. These are tilted forward, so the dust will fall mostly on the ground. However, if you don’t like “doing it standing up” (so to speak), this may not be the answer. I “make it flat” and use scrap paper to cover the areas of my image that I’m not working on (surgeon style). It’s not foolproof, but it helps a little. Some recommend blowing across the surface of the paper to move the dust (but be careful not to accidentally spit it out) or using compressed air (sold in aerosol cans) instead. When I blow, I carefully choose the best direction in which to blow the dust; the one that causes the least damage to sensitive colors. I try to blow only when absolutely necessary: it removes the dust, but it also spreads it around.
The final piece of equipment you may need is a setting spray. Opinion is divided on the use of fixatives. Pastel is arguably the most permanent medium out there. There is no oil to darken or crack. The pigments are much more permanent than their watercolor counterparts. The only weakness is the detachment of the pigment from the paper due to rough handling. Some say, shake the picture well and frame it under glass. My framer says he hates framing unfixed pastels.
There is no doubt that the fixer dulls the cakes, but it does have a number of positive benefits. The first is…. sets the cake and stops the dust. The second is that it can be used before a painting is finished to renew the locution of a role. When you can’t get any more pastel to stick to the paper, spray with fixative and the problem is solved. Third, it allows you to control what you do and don’t want to blur (for example, by overlaying colors). Do not use hairspray (except on your hair) – use a specific pastel fixative. Don’t overdo it (in terms of frequency and amount). Paint for as long as you can before fixing up the unfinished job. Apply several light coats instead of one heavy coat. Rework highlights as the final step in any painting and don’t fix them.
