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Lovely Dancer

4

types of pastels

Before we get going let me speak briefly about the different kinds of pastels we will be using.

Soft pastels are very crumbly, soft and are highly pigmented. I love to use Sennelier’s and have the Portrait Set. I recently splurged on a set of Henri Roché’s which were used by Degas himself! Spendy but gorgeous. Other brands include Schmincke and Unison among many

Here are some examples of these pastels…

hard pastels

Hard pastels are much firmer sticks of color that typically have a sharp edge or point so you can do finer lines and details. These are far less expensive that the soft pastels and are wonderful to use to build up your painting. They have much less dust as well, compared to the soft pastels. My favorite brand is Prismacolor’s Nu-Pastel.

pastel pencils

Pastels Pencils….are well just as it says. A pastel like formulation in a pencil form. These tend to be the least pigmented amoug all the types discussed here but are very hand for detail and fine line work. Also wonderful for adding those very Degas’ like strokes of directional color. I love the Carbothello Pencils myself.

fixative

Spraying Pastel work with fixative is highly controversial and most modern pastel artists avoid it, however, we know that Degas used his fixative in layers between layers of pastel.

After doing these exercises, I find it helpful indeed to spray the first couple of layers and then add more pastel on top. It fixes those bottom layers and adds more tooth to the paper so you can continue adding more color. It is also handy when you want certain parts of the painting to darken. This is especially helpful when you want to add lighter color on top. I did not do a final spray on my pieces though because you will note that the fixative takes away from the “bloom” of the color - meaning it tends to dull the luminosity of the pastel. Ultimately to preserve your pastel artworks you must frame under glass.

I used the Sennelier pastel fixative.

Alright let’s move on to our exciting Ballerina projects shall we?

Let's continue to backstage...