Pastel crayons for drawing: how to choose and how to use

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Pastel crayons are very beautiful but finicky drawing tools. To use them, you need to specially equip the workplace, as well as purchase special paper. But the result will not disappoint!

What is pastel

Pastel means pasta in Italian. It is now common to define pastels as drawing materials, drawing techniques, or even works made with pastel crayons or pencils. This type of material is produced in the form of pencils or crayons. They don't have frames. Materials are sold in the form of bars with a square or round section. The composition of pastel crayons for drawing includes:

• dye;
• mineral filler (special clay or chalk);
• binder (gum arabic, mineral oil, wax, etc.).

All ingredients are finely ground and pressed into bars.

There are many shades of soft colored crayons, more than 1600 colors. They can be used both in painting and graphics.

Pastel is produced in three varieties:dry, waxy and oily.

Dry pastel

Dry material can be hard or soft. It depends on the concentration of the binder in it. The smaller it is, the softer it is. The softest types contain no binder at all and consist solely of pigment.

Soft pastels are velvety to the touch and can crumble very easily. At the same time, her colors are very bright, due to the high concentration of pigment. Such material fits well on paper, with broad strokes. Soft pastels are easy to blend and blend. Soft pastel crayons for drawing crumble quickly, and the drawing on paper is smeared. In addition, it is difficult to control the direction and width of the stroke. And because of the high pigment content, the hands get dirty from the crayons. Therefore, to work with a soft type of material, practice and increased accuracy are needed.

Hard pastels are less picky to work with. It is most often sold in the form of dry pastel crayons and pencils. Due to the high concentration of the binder, the strokes are clearer and thinner. The colors are less vibrant. Plus, with less pigment, these pastel crayons leave your hands clean.

Oil pastels

This type of pastel is obtained by adding linseed oil to the composition. Oil pastel crayons are very soft and have a rich color. At the same time, they are much more elastic and resilient than wax ones.

Working with this material allows you to create bright, textured images with deep colors. But with herusing it will not be able to blend the image or add soft overflows to it.

Wax pastel

Wax pastel crayons are made by mixing pigment and high quality wax. They allow you to create bright strokes of rich colors.

Thanks to the wax included in the composition, images made with these pastel crayons do not get dirty or erased. Therefore, work with such material is done to finish.

Which pastel to choose

To determine which set of pastel crayons to choose, you must decide what result you want to achieve in the end.

If you want to create a bright image with soft strokes, it is better to choose a soft pastel. In addition, it allows, by rubbing the crayon into the paper, to mix colors and create a bright and harmonious plot as a result. Drawing with oil crayons does not require any additional tools or special tools.

The trace of dry pastel crayons can be easily blown away, so you need to draw very carefully. The colors of such a material are more airy and transparent, so the picture in the end is transparent and light. To work with crayons, you need to stock up on cotton swabs or discs with which you can shade the pattern. Professionals can use a fixative pencil. It will help to avoid overwriting the drawn fragment. But it is no longer possible to delete the pinned image.

Those who like to draw small details or just prefer to draw with pencils are best suitedpastel pencils. They help to clearly highlight all the small features of the picture, which is difficult to achieve with crayons. In addition, they can be combined with paints and crayons to create an interesting and unusual pattern. An important advantage of pencils is that they do not get your hands dirty. A large palette of colors allows you to show your imagination to the fullest.

Operating rules

When working with dry colored pastels, it is important to remember that it crumbles easily, forming a large amount of colored fine dust. Therefore, when working with it, you must follow some simple rules:

1. Don't keep drinks or food near your workspace to avoid dust from pastel pencils or crayons.
2. No need to blow off small pastel crumbs. Otherwise, they will cause stains in various places in the house.
3. Gloves must be worn when working with pastel crayons. The pigment contained in them quickly eats into the skin, and you can wash it off by washing your hands several times. Gloves are not required when handling pencils.
4. After painting, wipe all surfaces with a damp cloth and sweep the floor. Or before work, you can spread newspapers or paper on the floor, and then carefully fold them and throw them away.
5. After drawing, the pastel needs to be cleaned before being put away in the box.
6. When working with the material, stock up on wet wipes and keep them on hand in case of need.
7. Make sure the area is well ventilated when working with fixing varnish or fixer.

Storage of pastels

Pastel is very picky about storage conditions. This material does not like to be exposed to direct sunlight. It also deteriorates when exposed to high temperatures.

It is best to store the material at a temperature of +18 … +20 ° C degrees at a humidity of fifty to fifty-five percent. To prevent excess moisture from getting on the material, professionals recommend pouring a little rice into the pastel box.

To make a pastel drawing last longer, it is fixed with a special varnish - spray or fixer. Some use simple hairspray for this. But such tools contribute to the loss of velvety and softness of the picture and distort it a little. Therefore, it is best to store pastel works in a frame under glass. In this case, the pattern should not come into contact with the glass. Therefore, the frame should be chosen thicker so that there is little space between the glass and the work.

Paper selection

Plain paper is not suitable for working with pastels. Since the material crumbles a lot, it is necessary to choose rough paper for drawing. There are several popular options for such paper:

1. Pastel. Best for beginner artists. It can be bought individually or as a set. She has a lot of flowers, so you can let your imagination run wild.
2. Watercolor. Also suitable for beginners. It reminds me a bit of pastel texture. The price is acceptable, so it’s not a pity to spoil it in the process of mastering pastelappliances.
3. Velvet. Suitable for professionals, as it is difficult to erase images on it, and not all pencils are suitable for this paper. In addition, the color is difficult to shade. But the work on such paper is soft and delicate.
4. Velor. Feels like velvet, but still more whimsical. Since the pile on it is short, it lends itself even worse to shading. But if the sketch is dense, it seems that the drawing was created with paint.
5. Sandpaper. Drawing on this type of paper is like drawing on pavement with chalk. Shading the picture will not work, but the drawings will turn out to be unusual and picturesque. Thick crayons should be used for drawing, so sheets should be chosen in large format.
6. Handmade. Such paper is made from herbs and other ingredients, and then dyed by hand. It is very fragile, so the drawings on it can not be strongly rubbed. The images are of very high quality. At the same time, paper is very expensive, it is difficult to find it in stores. Therefore, it is best to order it from the master and wait until it is done.
7. Cardboard and kraft paper. Due to the rough surface, the pastel lays down well. It is best suited for sketching.

Advantages and disadvantages

The benefits of pastel mainly come from its composition. Due to the fact that it is easily erased, you can repeatedly resume work on a drawing, removing and reapplying layer after layer, as well as overlapping old layers.

These are alsoher shortcomings. The pastel is very sensitive even to small damages, crumbles and wears off very quickly. Therefore, to use it, you need to select a special paper. Also, if using pastel pencils, they should be selected for their softness and oiliness so that layers can be easily layered on top of each other.

Pastel drawing is an art that takes time and patience. But the results are worth it.