• Finished drawings made with soft pastels require protecting, either framing under glass or spraying with a fixative to prevent smudging; hairspray also works, although fixatives
  may affect the color or texture of the drawing.

• • Colored grounds: the use of a colored working surface to produce an effect such as a softening of the pastel hues, or a contrast • Dry wash: coverage of a large area using
  the broad side of the pastel stick.

• Pastel paintings made with pigments that change color or tone when exposed to light suffer comparable problems to gouache paintings using the same pigments.

• Techniques Pastel techniques can be challenging since the medium is mixed and blended directly on the working surface, and unlike paint, colors cannot be tested on a palette
  before applying to the surface.

• Pastel artists, who use the pigments without a strong painting binder, are especially susceptible to such poisoning.

• Hannemühle Pastellpapier Velour) suitable for use with soft pastels is a composite of synthetic fibers attached to acid-free backing[5][6] Protection of pastel paintings Pastels
  can be used to produce a permanent painting if the artist meets appropriate archival considerations.

• [14] Beginning in 1919 de Lemos published a series of articles on “painting” with pastels, which included such notable innovations as allowing the intensity of light on the
  subject to determine the distinct color of laid paper and the use of special optics for making “night sketches” in both urban and rural settings.

• The pigments used in pastels are similar to those used to produce some other colored visual arts media, such as oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation.

• A pastel (US: /pæˈstɛl/) is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered
  pigment and a binder.

• A 21st-century invention, pan pastels can be used for the entire painting or in combination with soft and hard sticks.

• A pastel is made by letting the sticks move over an abrasive ground, leaving color on the grain of the painting surface.

• It is easy to use too much SpectraFix and leave puddles of liquid that may dissolve passages of color; also it takes a little longer to dry than conventional spray fixatives
  between light layers.

• Hard pastels are traditionally used to create the preliminary sketching out of a composition.

• Commercial oil pastels In addition, pastels using a different approach to manufacture have been developed: • Oil pastels: These have a soft, buttery consistency and intense
  colors.

• • Hard pastels: These have a higher portion of binder and less pigment, producing a sharp drawing material that is useful for fine details.

• Dry pastel media can be subdivided as follows: • Soft pastels: This is the most widely used form of pastel.

• • Erasure: lifting of pigment from an area using a kneaded eraser or other tool • Feathering • Frottage • Impasto: pastel applied thickly enough to produce a discernible texture
  or relief • Pouncing • Resist techniques • Scraping out • Scumbling • Sfumato • Sgraffito • Stippling • Textured grounds: the use of coarse or smooth paper texture to create an effect, a technique also often used in watercolor painting • Wet
  brushing Health and safety hazards Pastels are a dry medium and produce a great deal of dust, which can cause respiratory irritation.

• They have the advantages of enabling easy blending and mixing of the hues, given their fluidity, as well as allowing a range of color tint effects depending upon the amount
  of water applied with a brush to the working surface.

• This allows the colors to be thinned out to an even, semi-transparent consistency using a water wash. Water-soluble pastels are made in a restricted range of hues in strong
  colors.

• The Pastel Society within the UK (the oldest pastel society) states the following are acceptable media for its exhibitions: “Pastels, including Oil pastel, Charcoal, Pencil,
  Conté, Sanguine, or any dry media”.

• [3] However, the colors are less brilliant and are available in a restricted range in contrast to soft pastels.

• For these reasons, some pastelists avoid the use of a fixative except in cases where the pastel has been overworked so much that the surface will no longer hold any more pastel.

• [citation needed] Most brands produce gradations of a color, the original pigment of which tends to be dark, from pure pigment to near-white by mixing in differing quantities
  of chalk.

• Pastel paintings, being made with a medium that has the highest pigment concentration of all, reflect light without darkening refraction, allowing for very saturated colors.

• Pastels have been favored by many modern artists because of the medium’s broad range of bright colors.

• Historically some works have been executed on supports which are now extremely fragile and the support rather than the pigment needs to be protected under glass and away from
  light.

• Experimentation with the pastel medium on a small scale in order to learn various techniques gives the user a better command over a larger composition.

• This mixing of pigments with chalks is the origin of the word “pastel” in reference to “pale color” as it is commonly used in cosmetic and fashion venues.

• The color effect of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process.

• The exact composition and characteristics of an individual pastel stick depend on the type of pastel and the type and amount of binder used.

• During the 18th century the medium became fashionable for portrait painting, sometimes in a mixed technique with gouache.

• [7] Pastels have some techniques in common with painting, such as blending, masking, building up layers of color, adding accents and highlighting, and shading.

• [1] Pastels have been used by artists since the Renaissance, and gained considerable popularity in the 18th century, when a number of notable artists made pastel their primary
  medium.

• Pastel used as a verb means to produce an artwork with pastels; as an adjective it means pale in color.

 

Works Cited

[‘1. Mayer, Ralph. The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques. Viking Adult; 5th revised and updated edition, 1991. ISBN 0-670-83701-6
2. ^ Marie-Lydie Joffre. “Should I ‘fix’ my Pastels and, if so, how?” 10 August 2013. http://www.marielydiejoffre.com/english/resource/faq_pastel_framing.html#fixation
3. ^
Jump up to:a b Martin, Judy (1992). The Encyclopedia of Pastel Techniques. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press. p. 8. ISBN 1-56138-087-3.
4. ^ Martin, Judy (1992). The Encyclopedia of Pastel Techniques. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running
Press. p. 9. ISBN 1-56138-087-3.
5. ^ Mortensen, Andreas (8 December 2006). Concise Encyclopedia of Composite Materials. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-052462-7.
6. ^ Creevy, Bill (1 August 1999). The Pastel Book. New York; Great Britain: Watson-Guptill.
p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8230-3905-0.
7. ^ Martin, Judy (1992). The Encyclopedia of Pastel Techniques. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 1-56138-087-3.
8. ^ “Dry Pastel” Archived 14 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Society
of Canadian Artists. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Monnier, Geneviève, “Pastel”, Oxford Art Online
10. ^ Monnier, Geneviève, “Maurice-Quentin de La Tour”, Oxford Art Online
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c Werner, A., & Degas, E. (1977).
Degas pastels. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 15. ISBN 082301276X
12. ^ “Nineteenth-Century American Drawings”. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
13. ^ Smithgall, Elsa; et al.
(2016). William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 204. ISBN 9780300206265.
14. ^ Edwards, Robert W. (2015). Pedro de Lemos, Lasting Impressions: Works on Paper. Worcester, Mass.: Davis Publications Inc. pp. 64–65,
pls. 3b, 5a, 7a–11b. ISBN 9781615284054.
15. ^ School Arts Magazine (Worcester, Mass.): 18.7, 1919, pp. 353–356; 19.10, 1920, pp. 596–600; 25.2, 1925, p. 77.
2. Pilgrim, Dianne H. “The Revival of Pastels in Nineteenth-Century America: The Society
of Painters in Pastel”. American Art Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Nov. 1978), pp. 43–62. doi:10.2307/1594084.
3. Jeffares, Neil. Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800. London: Unicorn Press, 2006. ISBN 0-906290-86-4.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aeon/54377391/’]