Chalk and Butter
If you have had the usefulness fortune to see Diane Leifheit's show (described in my post "Stop 'Meadow Front'"), you have a sense of how luxuriously expressive a expedient pastel can be.
But what is pastel? The word simply means paste - in this case, a paste of pigment and binder. However, you may disown: binder is the defining element of a medium. So, the binder which forms the paste determines what pattern of pastel you have - and not all pastels use the same binder!
Diane is a master of what we call "soft pastel". In this case, pigment dust has been mixed with chalk (or clay) and a thickening agent.
Most people have also heard of "oil pastel". Can you reckon the difference? Here, the binder is a mixture of oil and oil-soluble wax.
Picture a support of butter and stick of chalk side by side. What would happen if you tried to grease a pan with chalk? (-shiver!-) It's easier to imagine drawing a picture with butter ... but I wouldn't support it!
Likewise, oil pastel and soft pastel have very different working qualities.
Soft pastel offers the purest, clearest color, as the crystalline arrange of the pigment powder is not dulled by any extraneous coating lay. It requires a "toothy ground" (that is, a highly textured covering), and it creates a great deal of dust. The color is so concentrated that a illiberal goes a long way, and it layers, smears, and blends on the settle very easily. It is also water soluble.
In contrast, the color produced by oil pastel is deeper but less zealous, because the grains of pigment are coated in the oily binder. (Contrive of dry vs. buttered toast. The crumb is more visible without the butter.) This is not to say that oil pastel (or buttered darling!) is dull - far from it. Just different.
Oil pastel does not require a toothy deposit - its sticky binder holds it onto a smooth surface nothing but fine. It is oil soluble, and can be combined with oil paint...
Read more...
New Holiday Set
We've created our newest Time off Set for 2008. We love the soft and elegant pastel tones with just a put one's hand on of the holidays. It's bright and cheerful yet it's timeless and will make a magnificent setting for your holiday portraits - perfect for Gift Giving and Celebration Cards. Think about soft pastels and ivory for your clothing. Keep your outfits uncomplicated and timeless to match our lovely scene. If you're thinking about fair portraits call today to make your appointment as November is booking profligate.
Source: Storytellers Photography
Soft Pastels Workshop with Vivien Walters
I went on this eminent Pastels Workshop yesterday, tutored by a very talented Artist, Vivien Walters, who does the most staggering pastels of animals, and has recently added this pheasant to her tutorials.
I came harshly with this lovely pastel that I had spent all day working on, learning all the time about how to use pastels, which was a first for me, blending pl insignia, layering, building up the shape (he does have attitude doesn't he) applying strokes etc.etc. I can take place one's faith for all of that appearing on the picture, due of course to a very good tutor, but I cannot take any confidence in for the composition! Let me explain .........
Vivien has developed a technique where she draws and paints an primordial picture from a photograph (taken by her husband I think!) then photographs it, puts it onto her computer, deletes all the loyalties and prints out a 'drawing' onto whatever type of paper her students will be using. She provides us with a printout of the firsthand photograph for the true colour, and a copy of her original painting for feeling, as we work.
We then start to add colour, building up gradually, under adept tuition..
...
Read more...
I hate sick days (art/life ramble)
No statue yet, I haven't done any daily art yet for today. The sun is shining and it is beautiful. I am up and ignite at 1:30pm and it would be the perfect day to take Cheetahs Fire Dancing upstairs to the bigger scanner to pore over it whole, then cut the boards to ship it and pack it and order the postage and phone the Put Awful to come pick it up.
Unfortunately, I'm coming off of a several day fibro flare and today's guts is only enough to put me in a good mood sitting at the computer. With any luck I can do an ACEO or ATC... I have been masterly to get one of those done even on bad days. I feel so ashamed.
Trish, I'm sorry. You'll have to hang about till I have a physical-strong day good enough to do the physical proceeding of packing your art before I can send it. I wish I could just pack it up just now today. I have time, the weather's perfect and I have what I need to do it except me, my own potency and health.
I don't want to ask for help and get someone else in the house to do it because a) they are busy, and b) I'm the one with practice packing fragile pastel paintings for shipping. I may have to break up the procedure into stages if I get semi-good days, but I will post that in the works if I have to do it that way.
Scanning it upstairs is a task, necessary because Kitten's scanner has a on the loose enough bed for 9" x 12" art and my photo of the full piece is inadequate. Cold the glassine and backing boards is a task. Depending on how approving of a good day, that could combine with taping and making up the package or not. Ordering the postage and printing it out is a bad-day duty that could be done immediately on getting the box packed up, same with phoning the Post Lousy to pick it up. So it breaks into three doable subgoals.
The best I can do morality now is to blog and keep you and anyone who's waiting for anything (like nine swap card recipients) updated on my move up and what's really going on. I hope to get this done...
Read more...
Pastels Directory
Pastel - Wikipedia
Hyperlinked overview of the art mid-point.
Alphacolor Soft Pastels - Dick Blick Art Supplies
Bountiful in pigment, with a velvety texture. Square sticks in malleable trays. Sets--Basic Color (up to 144), Charcoal, Corpse-like, Fluorescents, Earth Tone, Hi-Fi Gray,
FAQ on soft pastel - techniques and materials
FAQ on soft pastel, pastel substantial, pastel pencil, pastel sticks ... What are the differences between oil pastels and soft pastels? ...
Soft Pastel Light - TheFind.com
Find products and parallel prices at TheFind.com. Shop online for thousands of weighty items like the Soft Pastel Light.
Soft Pastels from Daniel Smith Art Materials
Rembrandt Soft Pastels are aimed at the very aged standards of the professional ... These soft half-stick pastels, made with the same kaolin clay binder as the full ...
MUNGYO SOFT PASTELS 64 COLORS! ~ PASTEL SET ~ NEW 
: $19.99 
