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Anybody Paint with Pastels?
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Message
Posted
See Shaun Byatt's work - I think on occasion he uses some sort of thinners with pastels. You might need to go through his gallery to find the relevant pictures: Shaun Byatt
Posted
I know you can paint alcohol on top of pastels for under painting eg for sea/ water and then work dry pastel on top when it is dry, but don’t know if this would give the effect you’re looking for. I think the pastel artist Les Darlow uses inks and watercolours alongside his pastels for landscapes. He has a website you could look at.
Posted
I paint in pastels and whilst I don’t often use liquid with them, it is a perfectly acceptable technique. Many pastel artists create an underpainting using watercolour, gouache, inks , alcohol etc. I have used alcohol with pastels to create an underpainting occasionally. Alcohol, cheap Vodka is good, has the advantage of drying quickly but similar effects can often be achieved with water. If you are thinking of using liquid with Pastels I would urge you to experiment a bit with your chosen materials , some pastel papers will not take liquid, Sennelier le Carte for example, and the surface will disintegrate. Some pastels respond better than others, so again experiment. Using alcohol with soft pastels can create some really interesting paintery surfaces to form the base of a more considered painting.
Edited
by Alan Morris
Posted
Pastel sticks, square or round were originally made to be used as a dry medium, which is why I call it pastel drawing, as opposed to pastel painting which I know is the more common term used.
Of course you can experiment and use any liquid, water, inks and so on, but the author of this thread is trying to create an effect something akin to oil painting…
My suggestion… experiment in your studio, that’s the fun of art - or, take up oil painting, it’s the best medium available to us artists.
Posted
I don't use pastel much - not fond of the dust in my rather small space. But I remember a demo by Arnold Lowry, in which he used water on a rigger brush to give the effect of grasses or reeds - saying "It is allowed!". His pastels are remarkable works, too.
As far as using them to create a look similar to oils, though - I think Sylvia's "smeary mess" warning might be right, as is Alan M's that not all pastel papers will take water. I'd really like to see his use of alcohol with pastel, though - I've only ever used them dry, it hadn't even occurred to me to use alcohol: all I know about vodka is that it's very good as a spot cleaner on your suits... I've no idea if it would be of help as an answer to the question. Using water might get you a bit nearer to watercolour than to oil, I would have thought, but it's a good question and there's only one way to find out, which as Alan B says is experiment: the Pastel section of the Forum doesn't get many contributions (and this question isn't in that section of course) so maybe we don't have many pastellists - we did have contributions from Jackie Simmonds quite a while ago, if she's out there looking in?
Posted
Robert, you requested to see my use of alcohol with pastel. This painting (also in my gallery) has an extensive use of alcohol throughout. The sea, sky and the base colour in the grass/flower area have all been achieved using alcohol. There are other examples in my gallery where the use of alcohol is less obvious.
Edited
by Alan Morris
Posted
I've got to try that..... wonderful painting, Alan M, and I wouldn't have called the use of alcohol obvious, because I wouldn't have known how you'd done it.
Norette - I did once paint an oil while slightly piddled: thought it rather good - until I took a look the next day. Sea and rocks it was meant to be... looked like green Chartreuse with walnuts floating in it - nonetheless, I showed it, in a little gallery I worked in at the time: until one of our regulars came in and and "what on earth is that meant to be? Who did that?" Of course, I disclaimed all knowledge of it, and snuck away with it before the gallery owner saw it.
You live, and - sometimes - you learn.
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