How To Begin Painting With Soft Pastels?

Soft Pastels is composed of pigment, water, and a smaller amount of artificial binder. The soft texture of these pastels can create smooth, smudgy lines and intense color. But Soft pastels are not chalks. They usually don’t contain chalk and are nothing like blackboard or pavement chalks, save for the shape and feel.

Choose right paper for Soft Pastels

Not all papers are equal. So what is the right kind of paper for soft pastels? Textured, rough-grained papers that allow pigments to stick well to their surface offer the optimal adhesion. Smooth papers are less suitable for this. Once you become slightly more familiar with handling pastels, you can also try using watercolour paper, canvas, pasteboard, or wood as a substrate.

How do you blend soft pastels?

Blending can be achieved by gently nudging one pastel stick into the other, often going back and forth. A softer blend can be done by lightly smearing the pastel with your hand or a very soft brush/tool. Note that the more the layers of pastel are smeared, the duller the outcome may appear.

Soft Pastel Techniques

Layering - Building your soft pastel creation with layers will give you unique effects. Add colours on top of others for beautiful blends. Trial and error with light shades on top of dark and vice versa, you will be surprised at how different the end results.

Blend Blend & Blend - Get your hands dirty and use your fingers, or even your whole hand if you are working with a large area. Be very careful to clean your hands after blending so you don’t accidentally mix the remnants of your blending on another part of the picture! Wearing plastic gloves can be helpful for quick clean up and is a good idea if you have very sensitive or dry skin.

Dragging - Experiment with dragging different edges of the pastel over the paper. Draw with the end of the pastel, like a pencil for lines. Lean heavily for a thicker and darker lines, lean gently for narrower detail with less depth.

Dusting - Using a scalpel gently shave the side of the pastel onto your creation for an interesting textured feel that can be enhanced by other techniques like blending, layering or scumbling.

Summing Up

Soft pastels for beginners are the perfect tool to experiment with different types of paper for a huge array of effects. The use of toned paper is common and will affect the colours you are putting down for a whole new world of colour possibilities. Because soft pastels are made from pigment, you will get different results on different surfaces. If you want to do lots of blending, a smoother surface will make it easier but an abstract piece on a heavily textured material has the potential to look 3D.

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