Although I trust him implicitly, I am always extremely nervous when handing my Soft Pastels & Charcoal Drawings to my printer to be scanned because of the potential to smudge them.
Without wishing to sound like a big blousy drama queen, the smallest of smudges could ‘kill’ the facial expression on one of my portraits or animals, or ruin the lines of one of my dancers. It is possible to seal Soft Pastel artwork but, from my experience, I am positive that sealing them spoils them and dulls them slightly, the same goes for my work with Charcoal.
I think their vulnerability is what helps to give them life and ‘the edge’ too in a crazy kind of artist way!
My poor printer, he must be terrified of ‘committing murder’ to one of my pieces!
Only once have I experimented with sealing a pastel drawing and I most definitely preferred the ‘before’ version. I had ordered some black ‘velour’ paper from an online art supplier as I was itching to try something new…..I had innocently assumed the pastel paper was simply called ‘velour’ and would have a soft, velvety texture…..imagine my surprise when it turned up and the stuff was ACTUAL velour with a paper backing!!!! I didn’t know whether to draw on it or make a pair of trousers!
Anyhow, not to be beaten by the unexpected, plus the fact that it had been a costly purchase, I got stuck in and surprisingly I actually thoroughly enjoyed the feel and texture of hair I could create on the velour with my soft pastels…..Murphy the cheeky chimp was slowly but surely born and as I created his glassy little eyes I was so glad I hadn’t turned him into that pair of trews and I suspect he was probably also pretty grateful!
Murphy, bless his little pastel cotton socks, drove my printer completely round the bend as he was an absolute nightmare to scan apparently! The pastel dust was escaping all over the glass of the scanner and my printer was not enamoured with my cheeky chappy Murphy……..I suspect he had other names for him over the next couple of days, but thankfully he persevered and did a cracking job!
When I then took poor innocent unsuspecting Murphy to my framers, another fun episode began….allegedly! The framers also found a variety of names for him, none of them amicable, and they told me the only solution was to take him home, seal the pesky little blighter and then they would try to frame him again for me.
I brought the troublesome little fella home and sprayed him cautiously from a distance…..it certainly helped to stop his pastel dusty dandruff from escaping so dramatically but I just never felt his colours were as fresh and vibrant after that …….so apologies to my printer and framers, but I shan’t be making life TOO easy for them in the future!
Pastel dust is like fairy dust and it really does ‘get about a bit’ when working with it. A lot of artists wear masks as that dust can get right up your nose if you’re in close proximity to it too often……a bit like some people I suppose?!
The first time I used soft pastels a couple of years ago was for a portrait of my Grandson. I owned a small second hand set I had recently bought on eBay for a few pounds and was dying to try them out, so when my daughter asked me to create a portrait for her, I didn’t hesitate to make a start.
It was an instant love affair! That little blue eyed Fireman will always be so precious, the portrait AND the real, lively little version!
I have since purchased more and more pastels and admit to being slightly addicted to the beautiful array of rainbows in my hands.
I have worked on quite a variety of pastel papers, but time and again I come back to using Pastelmat®️, it ‘grabs’ the pastels without making too much dust and I can really layer the colours on. It is pretty unforgiving as far as removing the initial outlines goes, but once a piece is underway that’s no longer a concern and I can ‘play’ and build up the work at my pleasure.
Talking of playing, I had a huge amount of fun creating my latest Soft Pastel Drawing of this frightfully inquisitive (aka downright nosey) Moo Cow and for once had absolutely NO trouble thinking of a title………
‘ I heard that!’
The original Moo Cow sold in one of my local galleries and has happily ‘moooooooved’ into a new home but if you’re a fan of a nosey moo, art prints and prints on canvas in a wide range of sizes are available to purchase here . . .
Interestingly, I was chatting to a fellow artist last week and she told me she had tried pastels once but had absolutely hated them instantly. She couldn’t bear the feeling of them in her hands and said that all she could make was a big, powdery mess! She is a watercolour artist who works very neatly so I was fascinated to hear her opinion……personally I can’t get enough of them and my collection has grown alarmingly over the years.
Confession……
My name is Migglet and I am a Soft Pastel Addict but I promise not to snort them…….is it ok to do a few lines with them though?! 🤣
I would love to hear if you LOVE or LOATHE pastels? Do YOU seal your Soft Pastel and / or Charcoal artwork? If so, what product do you use and does it dull your finished work?
Please DO share your experiences here with me? Artists of any level and experience are forever learning and sharing their experiences and any tips can be so helpful!
Everyone’s art journey is very different. I started with pastels, when I took up art for the second time around about 15yrs ago, did some quite nice studies of birds and people, but never quite took to them – although I could eat all those delicious looking colours, endless selections and variations, an artwork in themselves. I then moved onto pencils, gorgeous, soft, creamy, pencils, you could build them up, layer upon layer to produce fruits and flowers so real you could pluck them from the page. Karisma were the best ever, but sadly they suddenly went out of production, so time to move on. So I progressed to water soluble oil pastels. Now these were definitely the deepest, richest shades possible, I would slap on a vague background of watercolour, then find shapes, real or imagined, to draw and build on, often wandering into the realms of abstract. Lots of Life Drawing around this time, I found my true ability, drawing, mark making, much better at that than any sort of painting, I used anything and everything to ‘draw’ ( I’ve done far more ‘lines’ over the years than even the Migglet !) using pencils, pens, charcoal, graphite, inks, fingers, rags dipped in paint. Dribbles, drips, splats and splashes. Blotches, smudges, torn edges, rolls of wallpaper, cans of spray paint. Didn’t ever get quite as far as stripping off and rolling round the floor, but was often tempted. And some of those drawings got transferred to my pc where I found I could add effects, distort, resize, multiply – so many variations, so very exciting. Yep ! Playing with Photoshop was the new ‘me’. Do lots of digital art now, either from conventional artwork, photos or created purely on my desktop. Means I have to keep buying ever bigger and better computers, at enormous expense, but it keeps me out of mischief and away from – well – off on my own. And I live in a shed.
Thank you Kate for giving us a brief insight to your art journey, so interesting and makes me want to find out more! How maddening to have found some delicious pencils, only to find they went out of production, I hadn’t heard of them but there are some other pencils I have heard people talking about, wracking my brain to remember their name, polychromatic I think? Have you tried those? I wonder how they compare with Karisma’s? Sooooo many fabulous artists’ materials to try! I haven’t tried oil pastels…..yet!…….would love to see your creative process using them (also loved the fact you have done more lines than the Migglet! We art addicts are scattered and splattered all over the world and not afraid to talk publicly about the addiction! Such a beautiful drug with joyously colourful imaginative results!) and YES! to using your fingers, hands etc! I cannot help but use my fingers when working with acrylics on canvas! As for stripping off and rolling about the floor…..we’ve had such a scorching summer I’m surprised you didn’t just go for it! Your use of the PC and Photoshop does fascinate me, you must have so much patience as it is a complex programme and can’t be easy to get to grips with? It would probably drive me nuts!
Yes, I knew you lived in a shed 🤣 I have serious shed envy! 😍
Wow! You crazy artists! What am I missing? I pootle along very unadventurously having progressed from watercolour flowers and birds to pastels which is my latest love. Not yet into lines and squiggles or rolling around on the floor but maybe that will come. I was fascinated by your blog though Migglet. I too can never breathe easily until my work is safely framed and under glass. I have to hold my breath if anyone picks it up or when it is uncovered and did have one bad experience when the precious white dot in the eye of a puppy disappeared and it had to be removed from the frame, the dog had to be doctored and then reframed again. I have never tried sealing my pastel paintings. I heard you can use hair spray but as my spray comes out in spirts and splodges I never risked it. Your blog is fun and I do hope others join in. We can all learn from it. Thanks. Mitzi.
Mitzi, welcome to our world! No rules, just drawing and painting for pure pleasure! I am so glad you love soft pastels, aren’t they something else?! You say you used to paint watercolour birds and flowers, have you ever tried using your soft pastels on TOP of those paintings? Would be interested to hear if you have? If the watercolour paper you used was textured, you might be pleasantly surprised with the effects you can add and create? Just a thought! Do let me know?! So glad you enjoyed the blog!…..and who knows, maybe someone experienced with rolling around on the floor will eventually be brave, join in and enlighten us?!
That must have been a truly heart stopping moment for you with your puppy’s eye, I genuinely feel for you, would have been so stressful!……but when the puppy had to be…ummmm….doctored….that seems a bit severe?! 😱🤣
Yes, I have also heard some people use hairspray to seal soft pastel work but as you say I am sure that would be very risky and how it would stand up to the test of time is anyone’s guess too!
Thank you so much for commenting, our experiences are so varied and we all keep on learning! X
I think my next move is to try pastels on water colour background. It appeals as I love both mediums. Will let you know. Have you done much yourself.
Not much no, was hoping you would go for it and let me know how you get on! I loved using my soft pastels on top of one of my Burlesque dancer paintings, thoroughly enjoyed playing with the effect they created for her feathery fans.
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