1. Pigment
2. Chalk
3. Gum
The balance between the pigment, chalk and gum makes the pastel softer or harder.
If more pigment is added, the pastel gets softer. It gets harder when more chalk and gum are added to the pastel.
Therefore each hardness of pastel has its own qualities and applications.
Different kinds of Pastel:
There are different kinds of pastel, ranging from hard to soft.
Hard:
1. Toison d’or, of Koh-i-noor.
2. Rembrandt, of Talens.
3. Van Gogh pastelpencils, of Talens.
Middel hard:
4. Derwent pastelpencils
Soft:
5. Sennelier
6. Schmincke
7. PanPastel
The “marriage” of the colours:
The pastel is directly applied on the paper. The mixing of colours, “marriage”, is only done directly on the paper. This is done by placing the colours next to each other, and/or placing them on top of each other.
So you create a whole new, unique colour.
Beside this you can mix the colours also in other ways. For instance:
1. By rubbing over one or more layers of pastel with your fingers or a bigger part of your hand.
2. With a stump. This is a tight rolled piece of paper of which both ends have been tipped.
3. With a silicone brush.
4. With a sponge.
Limitations:
The number of layers of pastel you can put on to the paper, is limited and depends on the structure of the paper.
Paper:
Instead of paper you can also use other surfaces, as long as you take notice of a couple of qualities.
Such as: structure, colourfast, acidfree and based on cotton. (This article is based on working on paper.)
Pastel has to be able to bind with the structure of the paper.
Extra binding of pastel:
It’s possible to work with fixative to let the pastel bind extra to the paper.
Spray thin layers of fixative while you’re building up the painting. Spray at a distance from about 40 centimeters.
Make sure you do not start to spray directly on to your work, but start just beside it and keep moving gently criss-cross over the painting. Do not stay at one point.
Spraying at a shorter distance then 40 centimeters and/or staing at 1 spot, will cause stains that will be hard to remove!
Different kinds of pastelpaper:
You can buy several kinds of paper. Each with it’s own unique property of use, because of it’s structure from smooth to sanded or even looking like velours.
Smooth:
MI Teint
Sanded (like fine sandpaper):
Pastelmat, of Clairefontaine
Pastelcard, of Sennelier
Velours (like fabric / textile):
Velourspapier, of Hahnemühle
Pastelpaintings have a very long lifetime:
Every pastelpainting must be protected by framing it behind glass. No synthetic glass! That is static and the pastel will end up on this instead on the paper.
To protect it even more you can add a passe-partout between the glass and the painting. Make sure it has the same qualities as mentioned for the paper.
This way a pastelpainting can have a long lifetime, just as long as an oilpainting.
Treat them with the same care: avoid moist, extreme heat or direct sunlight.
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