How to Get Started in Pastels

My experimentation with soft pastels started about ten years ago. It started with a cheap box of 24 colors, a plain black journal, and of course, a can of fixative spray. Nothing fancy just the essentials. When I first started working the pastels, I didn’t have any composition in mind, I just sketched. And to me, it was a magical experience. The colors were so vivid and I could blend and create effects that could take hours in painting. After my first pastel sketch, I was hooked. Soon my brushes and paints became dusty while I experimented with the pastels. And to this day, soft pastels are my medium of choice. They travel anywhere I go. I can start sketching at a moment’s notice without the prep work that can be involved with painting. And they are very inexpensive. While you can spend a great deal of money on higher grade pastel kits, I am still working with student grade pastels and am very content with the results.

So how does one go about getting started in pastels? Well, at first, you need to understand that there are different types of pastels . . .

Soft pastels are the medium that I work in. On the plus side, they are great at blending colors and creating a wide range of effects. On the down side, they are dusty and messy, but as an artist, I’m don’t feel I am creating unless I do create a little bit of mess. Let’s just say I’m proud of my paint stained shirts. To me, that’s an art form in itself. Soft pastels can also break easily. But you can continue to work with them. To me, it’s not as upsetting as when I was a child and I broke a new crayon.

Hard pastels are used for preliminary sketching. I actually purchase a set of hard pastels once by accident, and have hardly used them. To me, they are very difficult to work with. However, I have heard that you can sand the ends so color flows better onto the paper. Also, some pastel manufactures try to sell hard pastels saying they are firmer and break less. Yes, this is true, but you want your pastels to have some softness. Otherwise, you spend all day trying to achieve the same results.

In my opinion, if you want to do some preliminary sketching or touch up the detail at the end of a sketch, you should buy a small set of pastel pencils, which will sharpen easier than the hard pastels.

And then, there are oil pastels. Oil pastels are completely different from soft pastels. The consistency is similar to a waxy crayon (sort of). While you cannot blend oil pastels, you can use a little turpentine on a brush to create some blending results. Also keep in mind that oil pastels don’t travel as well. If try to take them to the beach or even just leave them in your car, since they are wax based they will melt. At one time, I owned a set of oil pastels, but I think I ended up giving it to my sister, they just don’t have the same versatility as soft pastels. And you cannot mix the two.

Now that you have an understanding of the different types of pastels, the next step would be paper. In all honestly, pastels will work on any paper surface, but different types of paper will obviously create different results. For my pastel journal, the paper is just plain smooth paper, which allows for a lot of blending when working with soft pastels. However, one thing to note when working with soft pastels is that your colors can become very muddy very fast if you are not careful. When working with soft pastels, you can only layer so much color before you with a) need to call it quits or b) apply a small mist of workable fixative spray so you can continue to add more layers if you so choose. However, in my experience, even after you add the fixative, you cannot quite build up layers in the same way that you can with painting so if you find yourself wanting to keep working on the piece, you might want to purchase paper that has more texture. For example, you can use watercolor paper, sandpaper, mi-teintes (designed with pastels in mind), or you can even apply gesso (a painter’s primer) to any surface. You can also select colored paper for some dramatic results. And if you do decide to purchase a bound sketch pad to work in, only sketch with your pastels on one side. Even when applying the fixative spray, over time the sketches will rub against each other. And by only sketching on side of the page, you can write poetry or little thoughts about the sketch you made at the time. Again, experiment and see what works for you.

When it comes to pastels, you don’t need a lot of accessories, and some of them you can even find around your house, which makes pastels a very affordable hobby. In all honesty, I have rarely used any accessories when working with pastels. While you can purchase brushes to help blend colors on the page, I normally just use my fingers. I think sometimes the oils from your hands help the pastel adhere to the page whereas brushes can brush away too much color. If you don’t have the budget to purchase brushes and you don’t like getting your hands messy, you can try cotton swabs or tortillons, which are just regular paper rolled up and taped. If you are using soft pastels, you’ll probably want to purchase a kneadable putty eraser, which is handy at correcting mistakes and very cheap, and of course, you’ll need a can of fixative spray. Just keep in mind that when you use the fixative, you want to apply a small fine mist several times. If you saturate the paper, it can and will ruin you sketch. So I would recommend that if you haven’t worked with spray paint before that you might try the fixative out on some your rough sketches before apply it to something you like. Oh, and if you are flying, take tracing paper with you and leave the fixative at home. The airport security will and has taken my cans of fixative (even on checked luggage). The tracing paper will help keep protect your sketch until you can apply the fixative. Oh, and one last accessory that is nice to keep on hand is a damp rag or baby wipes to clean your hands as you sketch.

Over time, your soft pastels will start to get dirty from being mixed with other colors. Instead of throwing them away and getting a fresh new box, you can clean them by getting a small bag of cornmeal, which is very cheap. Place the cornmeal in a container along with a couple pastel sticks and watch as the cornmeal just sucks up all the nasty dust. Pretty soon, they look like new!

So to sum it all up, here is a list of supplies and a handy check list to use when preparing your pastels for the road:

* Box of pastels
* Pastel pencils or charcoal for sketching (pencil shows through)
* Paper/Sketchbook
* Drawing board or book (if using loose sheets of paper)
* Masking tape (to hold down the paper if sketching outdoors)
* Kneaded eraser
* Tortillons or cotton swabs
* Rags or baby wipes
* Fixative or tracing paper

And for further information on supplies, you might check out Dick Blick art materials. I have not personally purchased supplies from them, but they do have an excellent page devoted to pastels supplies.