Pastels: a brief introduction

By Glyn Overton

Pastels bridge the gap between drawing and painting whilst giving an extraordinary freedom with colour and mark making opportunities. They often open up for students a much greater understanding of mixing colour and the relationships between them as the colour is laid directly onto the page and unless blended too much they don’t tend to go muddy unless that is your intention. They sometimes give the impression that they are difficult to use but that couldn’t be further from the truth. You can overlay light over dark, blend colours to mix on the page, create exciting marks by using a variety of inventive techniques and generally have much more fun than with other painting techniques.
They come in a variety of forms, hard pastels, soft pastels, pastel pencils, oil pastels and water soluble pastels. 

Soft pastels
Pastels are made from ground pigment and a blender which holds the particles together, the soft pastels having a higher intensity of pigment to inner giving very intense colour and because of this they can be inclined to crumble. The range and intensity of colours, however, will give your work a very painterly outcome. Examples of these are made by Unison, Schminke, Daler Rowney and the better makes will give you stronger colour and a creamier texture. ​

Hard pastels
These are made with more blender and less pigment making them useful for defining detail. They can be used to complete a whole picture though it will be a slightly slower process. I often recommend the “Inscribe 64” box to people starting pastels as this box gives not only the bright colours but also some beautiful subtle colours which give your work a much more natural impression whilst in the early stages of learning to mix pastels. 
They can be used to give linear qualities by using the strong straight edge and fine detail with the corners. 
Conte pastels also fall into this category and were my introduction to pastels as a teenager. They also come in a range of natural colours so you can imitate some of the Renaissance drawings in chalk.

This cabbage was done using Conte Pastels, which are harder than pastel pencils.

Pastel pencils
Several firms make these, the easiest to get hold of are probably Derwent, Conte and Stabilo. I use the Stabilo ones as I find they work well over soft pastels to give outlines and definition to fine areas. You can just draw with them on their own and I often use them for quick life drawings and sketches outdoors as they are easy to take with you. They come in a huge range of colours and a box is always a good suggestion for Christmas and birthdays! 
The honeysuckle (below) was completed at Lacock Art Group meetings over three evenings and is entirely done with pastel pencils. They are extremely useful where there is a lot of detail as in the Shambles picture in York (below), and worked well for the wet pavements.

Honeysuckle - in pastel pencils

The Shambles, York - created with pastel pencils

Oil pastels
I often refer to drawing with these as like drawing with lipstick as they have quite a sticky, greasy consistency. They can produce some beautiful strong, pattern based images on their own or can be diluted with white spirit or turpentine to give softer results, demonstrated in the pictures below of the pumpkins and the churchyard.

,Water soluble pastels
These also have a waxy consistency, like oil pastels, but if you brush over the drawing with water they can give an even, transparent wash. By varying the amount of water, a damp brush can soften the drawing whilst resting some of the linear quality and once dry you can return to the work and add more drawing if required. These are examples of oil pastel resist with water colour pastels diluted with water. 

Techniques
Pointillism
It is quite fun to build up an image just using dots, mostly to create an optical mix of the colour. This is an example taken from a very small photo 5cm square, which I enlarged to 25cm square in one of my many efforts to stop working in so much detail.

Dashes and dots
Beginning to think about using appropriate marks to achieve textural effects, whether to create fur and feathers, rust and decaying surfaces, or stone and moss on buildings. The marks you make suggest the feel of the subject matter, as shown in these three examples.

Portraits
A variety of different pastels and techniques can be used when creating portraits. Soft pastels make blending easier and can be used in conjunction with pastel pencils for greater detail. Pastel pencils on their own are useful for quick sketches and life drawing. Either soft pastels or oil pastels can give a much stronger and bolder approach. These are some examples of differing techniques.

Methods of working
Pastels are much more like oil painting and acrylics than watercolour. I tend to start by thinking about what is in the background, like the sky and distance and then gradually coming forward in the picture, finishing with the foreground and main detail. This also applies to the use of colour, keeping softer and bluer hues in the background and building intensity and brightness as you move in the foreground. Light colours can be worked over dark much as in acrylics and areas not working can be removed either using a soft putty rubber or rubbing with a soft cloth. It is quite easy to build up an area again. 
​I block in the background colours first and then work through the layers, as shown here.

First block in the background

Then build up layers

Adding more detail at each layer

Mark making skills
Very much like all mediums, mark making skills are paramount. How can I make fur look different from a rough stone wall, or still water with reflections, or a bramble hedgerow? The answer can usually be found in the sort of marks you are making. Learn to play with the pastels. You don’t have to draw as though you were writing with a pencil. They can be rolled or used with the long side to block in large areas, twisted, heavy marks, soft marks, delicate pushed lines for twigs, smudged to create gradation and reflections, imprinted to leave the surface colour of the paper, and softened using a paler colour over the top. Just play and see what can be discovered. Here are some examples of mark making to help inspire you.

I hope you have found this introduction to pastels informative and wish you success and enjoyment as you explore their use in your art.

Glyn is a member of Lacock Art Group - you can see her personal gallery here - and runs art workshops in Wiltshire (including at the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough) and in Oxfordshire.