Pastel tutorial..

salamun a'laik and hi to all..

As for today.. i'm gonna share with you a basic thing about portrait painting... firstly, you can referred to my older post about grid sketching... that's the first basic that everyone can use to start drawing... i'm sure, most of you would like to know more about pastel.. i'm using soft pastel almost all of my paintings.. first of all, let me introduce you about pastel..

Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation.

The color effect of pastels is closer the natural dry pigments than that of any other process. Soft pastels are like sticks or blocks of soft chalk containing pigments. They can be difficult to work with because they crumble easily and can smudge. but if you can handle it well, you'll be able to produce a great works with pastel.. try it out..

You can also buy pastels in pencil form. These are less messy and great for detail work.

Blending is the key to your pastel colour versatility. You can make almost any color you need by two types of blending layering and smudging, as you can see here:

When you lay down a colour and lay another colour on top you get a rich, vivid color blend. When you put two colors next to one another and blend them together by smudging them with your finger, you get a softer look.

The feel of your work is also determined by the type of canvas you use. One of the most popular types of canvas is pastel paper. Pastel paper is a kind of rough paper surface. It has more grit. No matter what you choose, the important factor is how much roughness the canvas has. The rougher the canvas, the more pigment it grabs.
Smooth surface paper is not suitable to use because it will not grabs the pigments of the pastel very well.. it will become muddy and the colour will looks pale.

When start your painting, start working with light colors first, then work your way to dark. Also, work from harder to lighter to avoid too much pigment build-up. watch this video and see how it comes up..

Dont worry if you make a mistake on your painting like put the wrong colour on the surface.. this is because soft pastel is easy to fix.. you will need an art gum eraser..

you can get it easily at art supplier and stationery shop. just dab it on the surface and it will grab the colour out.. Other way, you just put any pastel colour on the surface and double the layer untill the colour is washed over .. you will see the different.

From there, all you need is practice to become a great pastelist. After you've done with your painting, dont forget to use your fixative and just spray it on the surface..

Spray fixatives prevent smearing and loss of particles when applied over various drawing and painting mediums. The final application helps preserve and protect the artwork.

Test the spray fixative with a separate throwaway drawing before applying to your good works. This helps you get a feel for method and application.

well... i hope this tutorial will help you out.. dont forget to try it on.. Of course it will be difficult at first, but try it slowly.. the key is here is be patience.. and you'll get the great result from it.

here's a little tips..

To keep your artwork well.., it is the best way to frame it out.. but for pastel.., its not proper way to stick the painting surface too close to the glass... mounting board framing is the better way to protect your artwork.


Working with pastels is dusty work.. so, create the habit of cleaning the pastel each time before putting them back in the box.

that's all for this entry.. hope this might help you out..

This video show you how to make a details on your painting.. it need a lot of patiently..