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The Neglected Medium?
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Posted
I have very rarely worked with pastels - and I'm not good with them. I have taken, however - given a gift of pastel paper and having won some pastels in one of the TAPC competitions - to sketching out work in pastel prior to painting it in oil or acrylic, to give me a better idea of how a given composition will work in colour: I'll insert one of these sketches, but please remember before condemning it that a sketch is all it is! (It's a study for an acrylic painting which can be found in my Gallery.)
There must be more potential to pastel than I've so far discovered, and what I need to do is lay hands on some larger paper: what I'm using at the moment is a book of rather elderly Ingres paper, 8" by 9": which isn't giving me much scope to experiment.
I do know a lot about oil and acrylic; I know a fair bit about watercolour, although knowledge doesn't always help; all I know about pastel on the other hand is that it's been around a long time, and some people achieve results with it which stagger me. Now, it's obvious from the fact that this thread was last added to months ago - and then it was about oil pastel, not soft - that POL doesn't boast many pastellists; or maybe they just keep themselves to themselves.
If there is a seasoned pastellist out there who could answer a few questions for me, though, I'd be grateful - and it would encourage me to do more with them.
So - a) what do you do for deep darks? Do you use black? If so, is it a black pastel, or charcoal - or something else? b) Can you sharpen pastels to achieve finer lines? I've tried pastel pencils, but can do nothing with them.... c) how about fixing? Do you actually need to, and if you do what's the best way to do it? I already know that spraying directly onto the pastel isn't advisable, having tried it.... And d) what papers would you recommend? I don't really want to buy a bulk pack only to find it's not for me - although this is a common issue whatever medium one uses, of course. 
I have watched Arnold Lowrey's pastel work on YouTube, which has been a help: but a suggestion or two on those specific questions would be gratefully received.
I have watched Arnold Lowrey's pastel work on YouTube, which has been a help: but a suggestion or two on those specific questions would be gratefully received. 
Posted
Robert, I don´t know if this 2 hour video will be of any use but it does mention a few facts such as using spray varnish.
https://youtu.be/GY56T_eAslg
Posted
I tried pastels many years ago. I never seemed to have enough shades to represent the colours that I saw. Greens especially are hard to get right when doing landscapes. Even if I mixed the greens from their constituent colours, the resulting colours always looked unconvincing.
There's also the problem of the dust, which gets everwhere and the difficulty of storing finished pictures without rubbing off the pastel colour.
If I use oil paints instead, it's a bit messy but after a couple of days the paint is dry. I can then put the painting in a ready made frame without having to faff around finding a suitable mount and a pane of glass. So I gave my pastels away and now just use Conte carre' hard pastels occasionally in life classes.
I admire pastel paintings, it's just that I can't get along with the medium.
Posted
Thanks indeed to all - certainly the dust problem is still very real: I don't (yet...) have breathing difficulties, but would think twice about using soft pastels if I had. As it is, it's impossible to avoid a certain amount of it settling on everything: but I notice it doesn't stain, and can simply be vacuum cleaned away. I have had considerable trouble getting the darkest of dark tones without using a little black - but I did take a tip from Arnold Lowrey, and draw out my composition lightly in pigment ink, rather than graphite: pencil doesn't work with pastel, but a little touch of charcoal or carbon pencil came in useful....
I'm still troubled by fixing .... yes, I fixed the first layers and worked on top of them, but to fix the final one would set up an endless cycle - paint, fix, have to paint again,have to fix again, and so on. Perhaps there is no answer, other than to protect the surface from smudging and get it under glass as soon as possible?
Posted
I don't profess to be an expert on pastels but it is my favourite medium and I've picked up a few tips from fellow pastelists over the time I've been using them.To get dark darks, if I have to use black I always add a bit of dark blue over it, to get a bluey black or even dark red, though you can get some really dark pastels these days. Charcoal works well as well. Colour shapers with the soft silicon tips are great for blending the pastel, but fingers are even better:). I've never tried to sharpen a soft pastel, just snap it and use the edge without being too heavy handed. If I have to fix a pastel I do it before I put the finishing touches to it though I sometimes don't fix it at all as long as I haven't used too much pastel on the support. I then usually just give it a quick thump on the back to dislodge any loose pastel. ( As I said I'm no expert :) ) I store my pastels between tissue paper in a drawer until I'm ready to get them framed. I don't like pastel papers unless it's for quick drawings with pastel pencils, I prefer the thicker card like colour fix, fisher 400, and I'm just trying Mi -Teintes Touch which is even thicker ( broke a pair of scissors trying to cut it!!) The reason I prefer the card is you can put down a base layer of pastel and then "fix" it by using a soft brush and water. Once it's dry you can then work over it as the under painting is now permanent. Try doing that with pastel paper LOL. Another tip I've found useful for certain effects is to use a scalpel to scrape a little pastel dust on to the painting and then use a palette knife to press it down into the support. Hope this is some help Robert.
Posted
It is indeed, many thanks. Yes, the surface I've been using - very old 90gsm Ingres paper - isn't ideal (although you'd never know its age, which must be in the region of 30 years); I remember using a velour paper - I only had one sheet, which came with a magazine - years ago; that was fun, but I used mostly hard pastel on it. So much still to do and learn - there's a marvellous painter on the Gallery just now, who paints wolverines, in Gouache. I haven't used Gouache for years, but just looking at these paintings makes me want to try them again.. Then there's casein paints.... well, I've just got to live to 100, that's all....
Posted
Far too expensive to bin. I should add that I have not bought my pastels - one set was given to me, the other was won in a competition. Had that not been the case I probably wouldn't have started with them, although I have used hard pastel - conté crayon, specifically, which I like in the firmer grades, not the softer.
Posted
Oh, Erebus believes you (got any clue as to who he is? You know him well......) it's just that he doesn't like anything resembling chalks, with all the dust and mess. They're a good sketching medium though, if nothing else; and as for nothing else - there are pictures painted in pastel which have lasted without blemish, crazing, cracking or fault for hundreds of years. It would be a pity to see them consigned to history as an outdated medium - even if I probably would avoid them if I had breathing problems.
Posted
I'm with you Dorothy in a love for pastels. While I enjoy using most mediums there is an ease to using pastels I really like. I too use a mix of sticks and pencils and have never found an issue with fading (though I do advise folk to avoid putting my works on a wall that gets direct sunlight - just in case). I do spray but only very, VERY lightly after a disaster years ago with overzealous application which killed the image stone dead.
Have you tried mounting behind acrylic glass at all? Its not my preference but I can see clear advantages to posting framed works with plastic glass but tbh so far I've avoided it like the plague in case static made the pastel 'jump' even where lightly fixed - it would be interesting to know of anyone's experiences.
Posted
Thanks for your help Dorothy, from what you have said I think acrylic glass definitely bears some investigation then. It would certainly reduce the worries I have every time I ship framed works (my current packing would rival that seen on science programmes where they construct packaging around raw eggs and throw them off a tall building).
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