Playing with Pastels

Judith, ,

This morning I played with soft pastels for the first time in years. I’ve long had a love/hate relationship with soft pastels — not to be confused with oil pastels, a totally different medium. Soft pastels are almost chalk-like and pastel artists can create dazzling, magnificent works that seem to almost glisten and glimmer in the light.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting one of those very talented pastel artists from our local area. Her name is Patsy Albers, and she’s been the president of our Fine Arts club for many years. I’ve been amazed by her artwork, and she’s worked with me here and there, giving me ideas and tips and steering me toward online instructors. This is all the “love” part of my relationship.

The “hate” part is a different story. I hate the horrible mess I make with soft pastels and the disappointing works I produce. I don’t fully understand the techniques involved, how we’re supposed to cover the surface with these glistening bits of dust and then blend the colors, yet somehow NOT lose that glisten and glimmer.

There are lots of techniques to learn — and practice — and maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I say this because despite my interest in soft pastels and my appreciation for the beautiful works that can be created, this medium will never truly be a favorite. I enjoy playing with soft pastels, I wish I were better at using them, but I’d rather devote my art time to oils, oil pastels, and graphite.

If you’re interested in learning soft pastel techniques, you’ll find no better teacher than Susan Jenkins from Monet Cafe. She offers free weekly lessons on her YouTube channel.

My pastel project today — the seascape with rocks shown above — was not from one of her lessons but part of the “Secrets to Drawing” course I’ve been reviewing at The Virtual Instructor. We’ve covered the basics of drawing, and have now been going through various media, learning a bit about each.

What I learned today is that I do have fun playing with soft pastels, but that’s as far as it goes. I can’t get the same rich glowing colors I see other artists achieve. Maybe I’d have better results with more expensive pastels, but there again, it’s not a favorite medium so I’m not really interested in investing a lot of money in supplies. I’m content to play around with inexpensive brands — although that can go too far. I recall once buying an inexpensive set of soft pastels that were so bad they were unusable. I immediately returned them.

All in all, I will say that today’s “pastel play” turned out maybe better than I’d expected. Compared to other pastel paintings I’ve done, I see possibilities, enough to think that this represents a starting point, that I could get better. I could learn to use soft pastels.

But that’s not really what I want to do, at least not right now. Some things in art are meant to simply be fun, intended as creative little exercises, designed to be enjoyable breaks from our usual routine. I guess that’s the purpose soft pastels serve for me. I’ll never be serious about them, but sometimes they are fun to play with.

So, what are your favorite media? Least favorite? Do you work primarily in one or two media, or do you enjoy dabbling with a bit of everything?

14 Comments

  1. I primarily draw with various ink pens and color with watercolour brush markers. But I do dabble in all forms as well, branching out in paper art. I have never used oils and I can’t say I have a least favorite anything except for maybe just painting in general. I used to work in acrylics.

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    1. Thanks. It turned out better than I’d expected, and considering that it’s soft pastel, I was fairly pleased with it. I like playing with the soft pastels but it’s just not a medium I really want to explore too much. I have so much more fun with oil pastels!

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  5. That looks super! I admire your persistence!
    Tbh I turned my back on soft pastels as a standalone medium years ago. Waaaay too messy (pastel dust everywhere!) and I couldn’t make colors saturated enough to suit my eye. But I do occasioanlly mix the powder – I grind the sticks down – into acrylic paint. It makes very cool bumpy textures and colors streaks. Least fav? Oil paint. Gives me headaches. Most favorite? Whatever I’m using at the moment..😂

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    1. Thanks. Like I said in the post, I have a love/hate relationship with soft pastels. I love seeing what talented artists can do, but I hate the mess I make when I try using them! I never can get the same rich, shimmery colors, and when I try to blend, I just blend away most of the pastels. I’m really going to focus now on graphite, oil pastel, and oil paints — and I only use the water-mixable oils now. Have you tried them? No toxic chemicals to deal with, plus easy clean-up.

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      1. Hi! Yes, I tried water soluble oils a long time ago. They were interesting (& simpler to deal with than regular oils) but the drying time was problematic. Ended up wth acrylics. They also make it easy to add texture, etc., & I like the various acrylic mediums. 😁

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