{"id":4655,"date":"2024-02-22T12:18:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T12:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/majakowalczykart.com\/?post_type=blog_post&p=4655"},"modified":"2024-02-22T15:49:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T15:49:13","slug":"wprowadzenie-do-pasteli-cz-2","status":"publish","type":"blog_post","link":"https:\/\/majakowalczykart.com\/en\/blog-post\/wprowadzenie-do-pasteli-cz-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to pastels part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACCESSORIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous article discussed the types of pastels. As a reminder, these are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– pastels in stick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– pastels in pencil<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– panpastels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– oil pastels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– fabric pastels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 – water pastels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, in this article I will talk about the most necessary things that will make our work with this medium easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TEMPERING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several methods by which you can sharpen pastels. As for the types of pastels, the topic is mainly about pastels in pencil, although you can also gently sharpen pastels in stick. Of course, only those that are the hardest are suitable for sharpening, and I wrote about their composition in a previous article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To temper most pastels in pencil we can use the same sharpeners as for ordinary pencils. In my experience, it doesn't really matter here whether they will be ordinary sharpeners from the market or corporate ones (I use both). The important thing is that they should be well-sharpened, and it is not necessarily necessary to buy new sharpening tools, as sometimes it is enough to simply buy and replace the blades themselves in the sharpener. Certainly, sharp utensils will make our work much easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caran D'ache pastels have a slightly larger diameter, so you need to use sharpeners with a slightly larger opening for them. They are also quite difficult to temper, due to their brittle and slightly thicker nib. A very sharp pencil sharpener will certainly be useful for them, which will lightly shear the wood, without any great pressure on the core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the pastels temper quite well, so in principle you can choose any form of sharpening that is convenient for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastels can also be planed. For this purpose, can be used specially dedicated to crayons and pastels, available in art stores, planing knives, which allow precise sharpening. Of course, you can use other sharp tools for this purpose, for example: knives with replaceable inserts. I, however, prefer those dedicated to this medium, as working with them is more comfortable. It is good to maintain the proper sharpness of these knives by e.g.: sharpening them systematically with a sharpener, so that there is no pressure with too dull a blade on the pastel cartridge and thus no breakage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another useful material, is a freely available sandpaper, for example: with a gradation of about 180, which allows for final sharpening of pastels, when we need a very sharp tip for detailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also buy pastel sharpeners at art stores, e.g.: Faber Castell, which have abrasive strips attached to a wooden handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use sandpaper only when I make some very small pieces. It is important to remember that the pastel nib is very brittle, so its abrasiveness, and therefore wear and tear, is quite high. So, where I can afford a thicker line, I simply maneuver the pastel in such a way as to draw the sharpest side at any given time and not waste the nib on sharpening the tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crank sharpeners or more advanced electric sharpeners can also be helpful, but they are quite expensive. Depending on the company, they have a clamp so that we can attach them to the table. You can sharpen crayons of different diameters in them. Some also have a special mechanism that blocks the planing when the nib is already sharp enough, although with brittle pastels this is not always beneficial. Some sharpeners also have replaceable blades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ERASER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We use a breadboard eraser to rub off pastels. It is a rubber-rubber that can be molded like plasticine. It gets its name from real bread, which (only the white part without the crust) was originally used to remove pencil marks. This eraser differs from the ordinary one in that it has no hardeners therefore it remains malleable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using this eraser causes the dust from the pastels to stick to the rubber, to be picked up from the surface of the paper, so that the work is not smudged as it would be if you used a regular hard eraser. The bread eraser also does not damage the structure of the paper and does not leave marks on the paper, even though it is usually gray or colored. It works great when you want to clean the paper, for example: when you make a portrait without a background, the area around the drawing can be wiped with such an eraser from any pollen and dirt or dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We can give different shapes to the eraser, so it is even possible to spot collect pastel dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is characterized by a fairly long usefulness, and the cost of the eraser starts from a few zlotys, so it is worth buying it not only for pastels, but also for other media, for example: pencil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We clean it in a simple way, stretching it several times so that the dust collected on top of the rubber band mixes with its structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is usually sold in the form of a foil-protected square. In addition, some companies sell it in plastic square boxes, known as cases, which makes it easier to store later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VISHERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vishers are usually made of soft, fairly tightly rolled felted paper . They are used for blurring and shading pastels. You can use them to make soft transitions between pastels. They are shaped like a natempered pencil on both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can clean and sharpen them by rubbing them on sandpaper, just as we do when tempering pastels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SPONGES AND APPLICATORS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sponges are used similarly to whiskers for blending and blending pastels. They can be purchased in sets, for example: by PanPastel. They differ in size, shape, color and texture. A very cool idea are applicators, on which small, quite flexible sponges are applied, their shape was created to imitate a brush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the practical side, the wear and tear of such sponges is quite considerable, due to the roughness of the paper. It is also important to remember that when we apply darker colors, we must already use a new sponge for light colors, otherwise we will dirty the work, the colors will look dirty, or we will not get the intended effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can wipe the excess dust in a paper towel and thus clean such a sponge, or if the structure of the sponges is not damaged, they can be washed in soapy water, dried and reused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When working with larger sponges, we can use thin gloves so as not to get our hands dirty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you do not want to invest in special sponges for pastels, you can also use makeup sponges, although I do not particularly like this form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave the options of fingers, tissues, paper or cotton balls as a last resort \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DRAWINGS PROTECTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the market there is quite a large selection of available fixatives for pastels, but it is important to remember that such protections blemish the dust of pastels and darken their color, so this solution will not always suit us. To reduce the above effects of using these media, you can apply them between the applied layers of pastels. You can also use a cheaper version of fixative - hairspray. Personally, when working on pastelmate, I do not use these media. It is not necessary, but then the work must be stored properly. I store all of my works in frames with passe-partout, while they can also be stored in a folder, for example: lined with slippery paper from the pastelmat or slippery baking paper. You just have to attach this paper against the back of the work and make sure it doesn't rub against the card, because then you'll spread the pastel and ruin your drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BOARDS AND EASELS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastels are best worked vertically. It is quite a fragile medium, so the excess pollen that is created when drawing has to disperse somewhere. Drawing on a table it will certainly be all around \ud83d\ude0a. To avoid this dirt, I recommend a table board or easel. The blackboard is so much better because we do not have to use as a back, a backing such as: hard cardboard. Boards usually have a base on which all the pastel waste settles, so it prevents the table from getting dirty. Boards and easels come in different sizes, have an adjustable angle, and can be folded up when finished and stowed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ADDITIONAL ACCESSORIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To support our work with pastels, wet wipes for wiping hands or thin cotton, or latex or vinyl gloves will come in handy, especially when working with paperless stick pastels, e.g.: Sennelier pastels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, it can be useful to use paper tape that has a slight adhesive to stick the card to the board or cardboard. Personally, for some time now, I do not use tape directly on the paper but stick the photo cones on the board and insert the card into them, which eliminates the glue marks of the tape on the paper. In addition, I strengthen the adhesion of the cones with paper tape. This trick comes in handy with heavyweight papers ie: pastelmat 360g. Thinner sheets of paper will be less stable, and may need to be directly glued with tape to the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will also find it useful to have a slippery paper as a base for our hand when we work for a long time and want to rest our hand on it. Using such a paper, pastel dust will not have anything to stick to and we will not destroy the work. For this we can use pastelmat block paper, which separates the sheets of paper, or slippery baking paper. It is important to remember, nevertheless, not to rub this paper against the drawing, so as not to rub it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the next article I will describe the types of pastel papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TUTORIAL was published on the 5th issue of QUARTalnik, a magazine for artists. The magazine can be purchased in hard copy on Amazon or downloaded in a free online version at the link below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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