How to paint with pastels

Pastels
Using Pastels is called painting and they are one of my favourite mediums because they are so direct, you mix colours directly on the paper so there is no use of a palette like there is in oil painting. There are a wide range of makers of watercolours namely Windsor and Newton, Rembrandt, Rowney to name a few. I personally use Windsor and Newton because I find them softer and more manageable. Pastels are great for sketching and for more detailed work and are a bit similar to oil painting in the final effect.
 

Different techniques are available with pastel, you can use the edge of the pastel for thin lines or you can use the side of the pastel for more broader strokes. For blending you can use your finger or a stump or even a brush but I prefer to use my finger as it more direct. You can use fixative to secure the pastel to the paper, in certain areas you might want to obtain a different effect so you can spray fixative over a colour you have already put on, leave it to dry then lightly paint over the underlying colour, leaving a nice grainy effects called scumbling. See the History of pastel >>

Papers Generally pastel is painted onto paper but you can also use pastel boards which are now available, I personally use bockingford paper which I think is the best paper for pastels you can buy today. The paper isn't so thin like some makes thereby you can work on it more and there is a good texture so you can paint layer upon layer on as long as you use fixative before each layer. If money is tight like it was for me once upon a time I used the rougher side of brown wrapping paper and did some really good work on it.

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Pastel Painting techniques video clip

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Pencil portraits

Pastel portraits