On Pastels

     The only pastels that I’ve ever known were of the oil variety. I’ve played with them as a kid but I never knew that they could be used to create detailed masterpieces that could rival oil paints (more on that later). I also didn’t know that there were many kinds of pastels to choose from:

• Soft Pastels: These pastels come in sticks and are quite dusty and brittle. However, as opposed to other pastels, pieces created with soft pastels look more delicate and have a certain “glow” and vibrancy to them as the pigments just sit on the paper. They also feel “velvety” as you drag the stick across the paper surface.
• Hard Pastels: These also come in stick form but are much harder (as the name implies). They are mostly used for detail work and for drawing.
• Oil Pastels: This type of pastel contains an oil binder and, surprisingly, you could actually use turpentine to blend or spread the color around on the paper (You need to have the right kind of paper though. Canson’s Ingres paper is recommended if you intend to wet your oil pastels with turpentine).
• Pencil Pastels: Pastels in a pencil! Keep your hands clean with these babies. They are excellent for detailed work. Plus, they are sturdy and won’t snap thanks to their wooden casing.      
• Water Soluble Pastels: They act like oil pastels when used for drawing but brushing them over with water gives them a translucent watercolor effect. 

     Knowing this, I was torn as to what pastels to buy. I didn’t want to buy professional grade pastels just yet (Holbein and Sennelier are the brands that the pros swear by). I want to experiment with the medium with student grade pastels first.

     Recommended student grade pastels are Van Gogh and Sakura Cray Pas Expressionist set but unfortunately, they didn’t have those in National Bookstore or Sketcbooks in Greenbelt 3. The art shop Deovir has Van Gogh oil pastels but it’s all the way in SM North. So I settled for what I could find in National Bookstore instead.

    For the paper, I bought Canson’s Ingres Paper in Cream, 40 sheets. I can’t wait to go home and get started (yes, I went shopping before I went to work)! In the meantime, check out some art work created by using soft pastels:

  Soft pastels on Canson paper by Marek Osuch

…and oil pastels:

 Oil pastels on paper by Cali Rezo