Soft Pastels Course
Soft pastels are similar to oil pastels in a lot of properties such as ease of use and accessibility but differ in composition. Pastels are not binded by oil but are powdered pigments binded by gum, resin or clay. The soft pastels are also called chalk and are lowly saturated. The history of soft pastels starts from the Renaissance. The medium is believed to have originated in Northern Italy and was preferred by famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
In the beginning, the pastel colors were found in a few colors like white, black or red but now it is available in more than 1000 shades. Soft pastels are easy to use and give your art an aesthetic feature. Soft pastels are called so because they contain more pigment and less binder, making them a soft material. They are easy to smudge or blend. Soft pastels do not provide as much painterly effect as oil pastels.
They can be used like any other color, rubbing against a paper surface (preferably rough and toothy) to create art. Since soft pastels are too smooth and have a silky texture, it does not stay on soft surfaces. Pastel painting lasts a long time and does not crack or turn yellow over time if kept correctly, with proper care.
Kits used to create a Soft pastel painting are:
- Soft Pastel sticks: Rembrandt, Prismacolor NuPastel, and Sennelier Soft Pastels are some of the popular soft pastel brands.
- Paper- A paper with a rough and toothy surface.
- Blending tool- blending stumps, cloth or even your fingers.
- Fixatives- You have to be very careful with these as they can be toxic.
- Stationeries such as pencils, sharpeners, and erasers.
Hazard warning: Pastels could be powdery and their particles do not settle on a surface. This could be hazardous to health, hence it is important to sit in an open area or wear a face mask while working with pastels in our drawing classes.
Some of the popular techniques are:
Most of the Soft Pastel drawing techniques are similar to Oil Pastel techniques.
- Scumbling: After applying a layer of soft pastel on the paper, use an art fixative to fix the layer and paint with soft pastels again over it after drying. This will create a different type of texture on your Soft Pastel art piece.
- Blending: You can get as creative as you can get and use easily available items like cotton swabs or cotton balls apart from regular stumps or torchons to blend in your colors. Using your fingers, or even your hands can also bring out great results. Be careful not to mix in the colors and clean up your hands before starting to blend in another color.
- Layering: You can add different colors on top of each other and create layers. You can experiment by layering dark colors over light or light over the dark ones and see how it turns out to be.
- Dusting: You can shave the sides of the pastel using a scalpel to create various textures. It could be combined with other techniques as well.
- Dragging: Using the different edges of the pastels could give different effects on the drawing. You can use the end of the pastel or the pointed edge to give details like thick or thin lines and later blend it for a better, more detailed piece of art.