Pastels and Charcoals, ContinuedPastelsPastels are pigment, chalk, and a binder in stick or pencil (wood encased)form. The binder is usually gum tragacanth. Pastel sticks apply broadswatches of color while pastel pencils draw thin, precise lines. You may usepastels as a opaque or semi-opaque medium. Pastels combine easily withother media such as pencil, crayon, and paints to form mixed media images.Degree ofsoftnessPastels come in soft, hard, or semi-soft sticks and in pencils. The softer thepastel, the more dust produced by heavy strokes. Hard pastels work betteron smooth-surfaced paper than softer pastels that require a paper with sometooth.Drawing withPastels are a drawing medium capable of producing painterly images. Whenpastelsdrawing with pastels, you should have stumps or tortillons, a stiff brush, andsoft, hard, and kneaded erasers nearby. The paper you select must havetooth. Hold pastels as you would pencils. Drawings generally proceed fromdark to light. Shading and color gradations are made by crosshatching oroverstroking pastel strokes until you produce the desired effect. Whendrawing with oil pastels, use a brush lightly moistened with turpentine forblending.Pastel finishingAt the completion of the drawing, spray over the entire image with fixative.If the drawing loses all highlights, the fixative was too strong and you willhave to redraw the highlights.Storing pastelsWhen storing pastels, separate the drawings with a sheet of acetate. Avoidsurface pressure and lateral movement. Although sprayed with a fixative, thesurface of a pastel drawing may still rub off and smear.Oil chalkOil chalk has the appearance of pastels but, it contains oil. Do not use oilchalk with pastels. The oil binder may leech into the pastel paper leaving ahalo of darker paper around the pigment. Use oil chalk with oil-basedpigments and impasto. You can also use oil chalk to detail or delineate.Turpentine brushed onto oil chalk will eliminate or blend strokes.Continued on next page1-46
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