Can someone help me with pastels?

[wilsocn]

Hey

I have been drawing for a while and I recently took an interest in painting and pastels, however, this is proving to be much more difficult than it looks. :dead:

I bought a set of oil pastels and searched google for some tutorials on using them. I found a couple of good ones and I tried to reproduce the work in those tutorials.[Here is one of the tutorials btw...] (http://www.picturedraw.co.uk/Portrait%20Tutorial%20in%20Pastel.htm)

Anyway, it seems that no matter what I try I cant get the pastels to transfer to my paper like I want. If I barely apply any pressure then I dont get much color on the paper and it seems like any pressure at all applies a fairly liberal amount and covers what I am working on.

Is there a certain technique to be learned to apply the pastels thin and even over the paper? I guess my gripe is that the pastel color is applied way too thick or not hardly at all.

Any advice is greatly appreciated because I am a complete newbie to pastels. Anything other than drawing really. :bashful:

[charcoalArtist]

Are you using the right paper? the grain/tooth on the paper should hold the pastel..

[Elwell]

I bought a set of oil pastels and searched google for some tutorials on using them. I found a couple of good ones and I tried to reproduce the work in those tutorials.[Here is one of the tutorials btw...] (http://www.picturedraw.co.uk/Portrait%20Tutorial%20in%20Pastel.htm)
There's your problem. Oil pastels are an evil scam. There's not one person in 1000 who can do decent work with them, and even that is usually non-reprentational.

What you want are the dry, chalky kind that are made with just pigment and a little binder to hold them together, no oil. Be warned that good pastels, like good paint, are expensive, and unlike paint you really need a large selection of colors even to get started.

[wilsocn]

charcoalArtist - I am just using my old mead sketchpad to practice with the pastels. Guess that is my first wrong move. :p


Elwell - Thanks for the tip. I would really like to learn to use the pastels so I guess I will have to make another trip out to hobby lobby this weekend and look for a better set. I have been doing some reading and it seems that soft pastels are the way to go? My set only cost me 4 dollars for a package of 24. :dur:


Anyway, thanks much for the help, guys. :painting:

[egerie]

^ What Elwell said. And that tutorial looks like it's been made with dry pastels. Get a few sticks of soft, medium and hard chalks to try them out. I *love* dry pastels and absolutely hate oil pastels. The only way I found them to be workable was to use mineral oil (CAUTION ! VERY NOCIVE!). Basically it softens the stick almost to the point of melting it. Personally, I'd ditch the oil pastels or give them to some kids and switch to dry pastels.

I've only seen one or two good work with that medium while in college. Took forever to do tho. The only advantage it has over dry, is that it sticks to (the ringht kind of) paper for longer. It doesn't smudge so easely.