Pastel painting equipment

First, there are the cakes themselves. They are made from pure powdered pigment bound with a small amount of rubber binder (low quality pastels have added chalk). Cakes come in many varieties (hard, soft, sticks, pencils, etc.) but they are essentially all the same – the final choice is largely a matter of personal preference.

What is probably most important is the type of paper you use with the pastels. When pastel is drawn on a surface, the pigment crumbles and thus settles on that surface. Using the correct type of paper ensures that the deposited cake will adhere to the paper and not just stay on the surface. In other words, good pastel paper will have a “tooth” or grip.

Tooth and texture are not the same. Velvet paper has a rich, smooth texture, but not much tooth. Art Spectrum Colourfix papers have little texture, but a fantastic tooth, like very fine sandpaper. The choice of paper usually depends on the type of painting you want to do. Briefly, the toothier the paper, the more pastel it will grip, allowing for more color mixing and tint intensity. However, a strong tooth can restrict the ability to register fine details. The final choice is often a compromise and comes down to experimentation, but the key point is: don’t use old paper for pastels; use a paper made specifically for pastels.

Pastel work requires a fair amount of mixing and reworking – some pastel painting techniques require the use of water, so it is important to use a paper that is sturdy. My personal recommendation is that you use the heaviest pastel paper you can buy, something that will take a bit of shock.

One final consideration is the color of the paper. Pastel papers come in a wide variety of shades and although white is usually an available option; it is rarely a good choice. Colored papers are preferable for several reasons. Unlike paintings, pastel work often allows part of the paper’s surface to show through. Choose a paper color that is sympathetic to the overall color of the painting you want to make, and the background color will serve to subtly complement and unify your image. The paper color you choose will also help set the mood for the image. Finally, in the same way that painters often place a base color on a white canvas (as a first step in their painting), choosing a colored paper has the same effect (you are already on your way before you even start painting). ).

Making pastel on paper requires techniques that go beyond just drawing on the surface. Once you’ve left a mark, you usually need to do something else: bend, stain, fix, erase / clean, etc. You can use your fingers, but some simple tools do a much better job.

Torchillons (or paper stumps) are good for “pinning” and “short” mixing. What I mean by pinning (in this context) is pressing the pastel into the paper so that it is less prone to smudging 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 little distance (for example to blend two different colors along your edge).

A brush is ideal for a softer blend (a color or tone graduation). While a torchillon pushes the cake towards the tooth of the paper, a brush lifts and transports the pigment, for a more gradual mixture.

You can also buy something called a “color carver” (best described as a pointed piece of rubber with a brush-style handle). These work like super torchillons (they really push the cake towards the tooth). They also act like a wet-on-wet brush and allow the densely spread pastel to flow like paint. However, if you overdo it or push yourself too hard, they act like a draft (a job that is usually best left to a draft).

Speaking of erasers, you will also need one of these. It is not there to correct mistakes; It is necessary for cleaning (because the cake does not tend to stay where you put it). The best type is a putty eraser. These are very smooth and can be pinched at points or thin edges to remove small dots or fine lines of color from your image, without damaging the paper.

What about sharpening pastel pencils? Options are knives, sandpaper, pencil sharpener. Opinion varies, but I use a good pencil sharpener (when absolutely necessary) and accept that pastel pencils don’t last forever.

Pastel painting is a very complicated business. I often think of pastel work as powder painting. That is why it is better to use the tools described above, rather than relying on your fingers. Get your hands dirty and you’ll inevitably make a mess.

Guess what? There is even more equipment you can buy to help deal with dust problems, but before I get into that, I think I need to explain the dust problem a bit more. No matter what type of cakes you use, what type of paper you work on, or how much you press and mix the cake on the tooth, the fact is that some will grab and some will just settle. on the surface of the paper as dust. The problem is that the dust will move at some point and pollute your environment. For example, the black next to the white will drift and the grayish the white, while the white will float on the black and make it lighter.

One solution is a pastel easel. These lean forward, so the dust will mostly fall to the ground below. However, if you don’t like “standing up” (so to speak), this may not be the answer. I “flatten” it and use scratch paper to cover the areas of my image that I’m not working on (surgeon-style). It’s not foolproof, but it does help a bit. Some advocate blowing across the surface of the paper to move dust (but you need to be careful not to accidentally spit it out) or using compressed air (sold in aerosol cans). When I blow, I carefully choose the best direction to blow the powder; the one that causes the least damage to sensitive colors. I try to blow only when absolutely necessary – it dusts off, but it also spreads it out.

The last piece of equipment you may need is a setting spray. Opinion is divided on the use of fixatives. Cake is possibly the most permanent medium there is. There is no oil that can darken or crack. Pigments are much more permanent than their watercolor counterparts. The only weakness is the detachment of the pigment from the paper through rough handling. Some say, shake the picture well and frame it under glass. My picture framer says he hates framing unset pastels.

There is no question that fixative dulls the cake, but it does have a number of positive benefits. The first is … set the cake and stop the dust. The second is that it can be used before finishing a painting to renew the verbiage of a paper. When you can’t get more cake to adhere to the paper, spray with fixer and the problem is solved. Third, it lets you control what you do and don’t want to smudge (for example, by overlaying colors). Don’t use hairspray (except on your hair) – use a specifically made pastel fixative. Don’t overdo it (in terms of frequency and quantity). Paint as long as you can before fixing unfinished work. Apply several light coats instead of one heavy. Rework reflections as the final step of any painting, and don’t fix them.