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Peter Smith

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I have just done my first pastel picture as one of the art groups I go to is encouraging us to try different things and get out of our comfort zones. A very good idea but also a bit terrifying! I have had help from friends about what paper to use and so on and have bought some decent pencils and sticks but now I'm sitting here looking at a dusty picture that I daren't touch. It's not good enough to frame but I would like to keep it; should I spray it with fixative or is that not a good idea? At the moment it's in a clear plastic envelope. Any advice you can give would be very much appreciated.

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by Peter Smith

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Peter Smith

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I've now done what I should have done in the first place and read the postings below. I'm still not sure what to do though and the bit about not blowing off the dust because it's toxic worried me. Acrylic paints are so much easier!

Alan Bickley

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Just stand it upright and let the bits of dust drop off. Then take it outside and give it a light spray with pastel fixative. Yes, it may make your image slightly darker, but let’s face it… you aren’t entering it in a competition - I always spray my pastels albeit I don’t do many!
IMG_8857

Marjorie Firth

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Or hold it upright and tap the back lightly….or you could “ tonk” it, i.e. carefully place a piece of kitchen roll over the top and gently press down.
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Peter Smith

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Thanks, I'll get a can of spray and see how I get on.
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Peter Smith

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I've just done this portrait but I really don't like it. The pad of pastel paper has arrived but every sheet is either dark brown or grey which isn't what I was expecting. It has been really difficult to get any colour into the skin tones as the dark brown still shows through. I'm going to try colouring the background to see if that helps but I thought I'd photograph it like this first. Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

Alan Bickley

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I like the toned papers, including the portrait colour. A touch of background colour showing through can create harmony, not every square inch needs to be covered. I think darker colours as backgrounds looks good… My personal opinion of course!
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Peter Smith

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I think I'm still comparing it subconsciously with my acrylic paintings and of course the two things are totally different.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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They are totally different, as you accurately observe!  The squirrel  is quite a difficult subject - I know that, I've tried to draw the ones around here, and the little horrors won't stay still - the portrait; well .... these are perishing difficult in any medium; you do seem to have limited the spread of the eyes (you are a sucker for the tantalizing eye, aren't you?), and have made them rounder, and not quite so much Maurice Chevalier's "eyes that send you crashing through the ceiling" - did you have a live model this time?  It does help.  I'd just say you may find it productive to do more pastels, to get your drawing arm in; and do try charcoal, or carbon pencil, drawings; or Mars Lumograph pencils - and work from life, not so much from your favourite glamour pusses: but - if that's what you really love to do most of all, don't listen to me - it's what you enjoy to paint that matters: we don't all have to aspire to be Rembrandt. 

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