Pastel painting technique for beginners

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Have you heard of the magical pastel technique? For beginners and experienced artists, this is a real treat. You don't have to spend years studying. In just a few lessons, you can learn how to draw oil pastels for beginners step by step. The simplest techniques will help you create landscapes, still lifes and portraits. We offer a few secrets that will greatly speed up the learning of beginners in pastel drawing. After all, it is not only simple, but also extremely interesting.

The nuances of pastel drawing for beginners (dry, oil, wax)

Often a novice artist cannot determine for a long time what basis to use for work, oil or watercolor? There is another category of art materials, related to "soft". This is a simple and pleasant pastel to work with. It is presented in the form of ordinary crayons. Duringthere is very close contact of the hands with the paper.

Drawing with dry pastels for beginners, we will consider step by step a little later. But you must understand that the desired shade and texture can be achieved by strokes and shading. This allows the artist to feel their work. There is a magic in the technique of drawing with pastel to turn simplicity and primitiveness into a worthy drawing.

Soft pastel sticks need a rough, fuzzy base. It holds the paint powder. Previously, artists even used suede for painting. Today, special paper is produced in the form of rough cardboard or canvas pasted on cardboard. Pastel can not only draw, but also write. Some artists prepare the base themselves. The transfer of the form is made by lines, strokes, contours. Later, tinting is done with various tones.

Pastel is a compressed paint with chalk. It has a high color density and makes it possible to make velvety strokes, soft and loose edges. Pastel work is a cross between painting and drawing.

What is so attractive about pastel sticks? They make painting noble, clean and fresh. With their help, artists create a world that fascinates with the immediacy of creativity. Often shading is done with your fingertips. This brings the artist even closer to his painting.

Pastel paintings need good lighting. It serves as an excellent base for the manifestation of all shades, the game of layering. They are best viewed in daylight falling acrosstangent.

From the history of the material

As far back as the 15th century, people used pastels. The theoretical works of Leonardo da Vinci contain references to this material. The word "pastel" first spread in France. It has Latin roots meaning "paste".

The dark pigment is rubbed with chalk and a lighter shade is obtained. You've probably heard the word "pastel". The range of these tones can vary from translucent to extremely saturated. A pastel shade is one that is obtained by diluting some tone with white. It pairs well with related neighboring tones in the color palette. The pastel is quite natural and neutral.

Many Renaissance artists used this material. In the art of modern times, pastels were preferred by such masters as John Russell, Maurice de La Tour, Ingres, Jean Etienne Lyotard. The classic portrait genre could not do without the use of pastels. It was used in its pure form, and also combined with gouache. The famous James Whistler used this technique in atmospheric landscapes. Many artists of the 19th and 20th centuries used pastels. She was popular with the Impressionist artists from the Nabis group. Alfred Sisley, Pierre Bonnard, Jean Edouard Vuillard, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet worked with pastels.

In one of the lanes of Paris, La Maison du Pastel is still open, selling crayons that Degas once used. With them he wrote his famous series with ballerinas. Used them intheir works and Sisley.

Production technology belongs to Henri Roche. His work was continued by his heirs. Pastels are still made by hand, even the old tools have been preserved. The full range of colors includes 567 colors. One such crayon costs 12 - 17 euros.

Four types of pastels for drawing

Modern experts have developed four types of crayons:

1. Dry. They are most often used by beginners, they are easily shaded, erased with an eraser, overlapped with a different tone.
2. Oiled. Drawing requires certain skills. They are difficult to remove, strokes cannot be corrected.
3. Wax. They don't fade. They lay down very beautifully, in the form of a glossy layer. These crayons work well and are suitable for drawing on wax paper.
4. Watercolor.

Only one type of pastel is used in one drawing. Pastel drawing for beginners involves the use of dry crayons.

Careful handling of pastels

Delicate and fragile pastel needs careful handling. It is necessary to protect not only the work, but also the crayons themselves. Quick sketches and sketches are best done with dry crayons. They also make it possible to bring the work to a photographic look. Often pastel is used for drawing from nature. It is used by lovers of expression, supporters of painstaking drawing of details.

Pastel is convenient to draw in nature. Many take it for a walk in the park or on a trip. She's good for passing the gamelight, transferring the texture of clouds and the rhythm of the waves. This material allows you to do everything simply and quickly.

The only drawback of pastel pencils is that certain storage conditions must be met:

1. Be sure to use a fixative at the end of the work so that the drawing does not crumble.
2. Place pastel paintings under plastic or glass, keep out of direct sunlight.
3. Get a folder to store pictures. Transfer each drawing in it with sheets of tracing paper. You can purchase a special pastel album.

The artist needs to work with pastel very carefully, otherwise all its advantages will disappear. These crayons require precision, a special sense of color. The best pastel work is many layers of color that are clean but slightly translucent. It attracts with its velvety and depth.

Get a tablet or easel

To work with pastel sticks, you need a vertical paper position or at a slight slope. This makes it easier to evaluate the overall picture and more easily transfer the lines of still lifes or portraits to paper. For convenience, purchase an easel or tablet. These devices can be supported on the back of a chair or table.

Proper use of crayons

Quality pastel sticks are not cheap stuff. Rational use of one set will allow you to use them for a long time. If you are an aspiring artist, get 10 to 15 basic shades to start with. When choosing crayons in the store, ask to try them. quality stickscreate a velvety layer, without crumbs. The pastel should blend well.

Special corrugated paper

Besides pastel pencils, buy tinted corrugated paper. It maximizes all the possibilities of pressed sticks. On sale there are ready-made albums for such pencils with sheets of different shades. Most often they offer gray, light brown, terracotta sheets. They are transferred with a special tracing paper. Sometimes the color of the paper may match one of the depicted shades of the object.

Feathering works

You can stretch the pattern using flat brushes or pieces of a sponge. The initial stage of work involves shading with your fingertips. This will give you a better feel for the material. By shading, you can achieve soft and feathery effects.

Paper shadings are on sale. They come in different sizes and are made from soft, wound paper. You can also use microporous sponge applicators. They come in different forms. Soft brushes made from natural pony hair are also suitable for shading. Some use cotton buds, discs, makeup sponges. It is also important to purchase a pastel eraser.

Opening varnish

Pastel paintings require a mandatory opening with a special varnish. Do this with a spray bottle. It is quite possible to fix it with hairspray. Spray the product at a distance of 30 cm from the drawing. Art stores sell special spray cans forpinning.

Step by step work for beginners

Sometimes pastel works are classified as graphics, but they can also be paintings. Before you draw with pastels, learn to identify shades. It is very important here to smoothly transition from one tone to another, as well as to see the shadows.

It is better for a beginner artist to take a dry pastel. Start work with a preliminary drawing. Do this with light chalk, just a little bit darker than the paper. It can then be easily wiped off with a cloth. The famous artist Levitan used coal for this. Just don't use graphite pencils, they won't fit.

After the preliminary drawing, start applying the main tone with a pastel. It is more convenient to do this with a small piece of crayon, breaking it off from the main pencil. Then start working out the volume of objects. Do it with strokes, dots, lines, strokes. After that, feather.

At the end, use a special varnish spray to fix the pattern.

Book by Margaret Evans "Pastel Drawing Techniques for Beginners"

Step by step understanding the secrets of using pastel pencils is useful not only for beginners, but also for experienced artists. The work of Margaret Evans will help many to master this kind of material. After all, someone considers pastels to be frivolous, multi-colored crayons.

Margaret Evans is not only an artist, but also a teacher of painting in Denmark. In her book, she reveals all the subtleties of working with pastel sticks. Working with this materialdifficult, but very exciting. The author describes in detail all types of pastel, explains why they are needed, how to use them. From the book you can learn how to apply color layers correctly. To help novice artists, various explanations are given, step-by-step instructions with photos for work. Margaret offers several landscape painting workshops. They depict different parts of the world. The book consists of the following sections:

• Color selection.
• Subtleties of composition and perspective.
• Drawings from life.
• Sketches and use of photos.
• Image of potted plants.
• Painting a garden.
• Picture of bouquets.

Reliance in Evans's book is on pastel drawing of various flowers and bouquets.

Features of working with oil pastel pencils

Oiled crayons are different from dry crayons. They are somewhat reminiscent of wax sticks, because they include linseed oil. Beginning artists are advised to use dry pastels. But if you have purchased oil, then it is useful to know some points of its phased use.

Oil pastel has a brighter color, so many people want to buy it. Not only special paper is suitable for drawing with oil crayons, but also sandpaper, wood, metal, glass, hardboard, canvas fabric.

There are four main stages in working with oil pastels:

1. First, an underpainting is done, a free zone and a zone of local tones are highlighted.
2. To createdepth and brightness are layered.
3. Final strokes are slowly added.
4. The edges of the background, the depicted objects, the background are cleared.

Oil pastel does not crumble, but hardens over time.