Hi friends! I am excited to announce that I will be starting a pastel series here for FREE next month. To kick it off here is a video explaining the types of pastels and what they are used for so you can plan any purchases accordingly.
Video!
Soft pastels come indifferent firmness. The harder pastels should go on the first layers or a painting and work with softer ones as you build up layers.
- Hard/Firm pastels: NuPastel, Conte Crayon, Prang Pastello, Carvin
- Medium/regular pastels: These are softer than the hard pastels and good for most applications. Many name brand pastels fall in this category.
- Softest soft pastels: These are the top layer pastels best for finishing layers on pastels. Schminke and PanPastel are examples of this.
OIL Pastels:
- Traditional oil pastels are soft and creamy and can be blended with your fingers or paint thinner. These are water-resistant. These make a great under painting or sketching medium for oil paintings as well.
- Water-soluble pastels (like Crayola Portfolio or Prima) can be blended with your fingers or water.
Paper:
- You want a paper with some texture or “tooth” to it so it can hold the layers of pastels, I like Canson Mi Tintes or Strathmore art paper. You can even use watercolor paper but pastel paper it typically less expensive. BUT, do not let a lack of supplies stop you, you can use a brown paper grocery bag and still learn and enjoy the process:) Basically any rough paper will work fine:)
I will be using different pastels throughout this series so you can get a good idea of what is best for you. I suggest you use what you have or start off with one of the student grade supplies I mentioned so you can see if you like the medium before spending a ton of money on supplies, for instance it is better to realize that you can’t stand the feeling of chalk on your fingers after spending $15 on a set of pastels rather than realizing it after dropping $150 on artist pastels. You would be better investing in PanPastels in that case but you don’t know until you try:)
I plan on kicking off the pastel series in a little over a week. I will be traveling this week to film a class in Denver (wish me luck) and I plan to blog from the road if I can manage it on my phone. You can follow me on Instagram if you want some behind the scenes sneak peeks too. I am trying to think of something small and artsy I can bring to do on the plane so if you have any ideas leave them in the comments. I have not flown in 15 years so I am a bit nervous. Have a happy Easter and til next time happy crafting!
