Pastels

Abstract

Pastels are sticks of pigment made by mixing found pigment with chalk and a binding medium,such as gum Arabic.Dry drawing medium executed with the fragile,like finger-size sticks.They very in hardness depending on the proportion of the binding medium to the chalk.They are made by a wide range of colour values.Soft pastel-the most common from of pastel-contain just enough binding medium to hold the pigment in stick form.Once the colours are applied to paper,they appear fresh and bright.Because they do not change in colour value,then the final effect can be seen immediately.Pastels can be applied directly to any surface with sufficient tooth(texture).Pastels remain that on the surface of the paper and thus can be easily obliterated unless protected by glass or a fixative spray of glue size or gum solution.



When a pastel is drawn over a textured surface,the pigment crumbles and lodges in the fibres of the support.Pastel marks have a particular soft,matt quality and are suitable for techniques such as blending,scumbling,and feathering.The latter technique was principally used until the late 19th century.when the linear method came to be preferred.The blending is a technique of rubbing and fusing two or more colours on the support using fingers or various tools such as tortillons(paper stumps),
soft hair brushes,putty erasers,and soft bread.And the paper case for pastels have been made since the 18th century with widely varying textures.Then the scumbling is a technique of building up layers of pastels colours.The pastel originated in northern Italy in the 16th century and were used by Jacopo Bassano and Federico Barocci.


The side or blunted tip of a soft pastel is lightly drawn over an underpainted area so that patches of the colour beneath show through.Feathering is a technique of applying parallel strokes of colour with the point of a pastel,usually over an existing layer of pastel colour.A thin spray of fixative can be applied using a mouth diffuser or aerosol spray fixative-to a finished pastel painting,or in between layers of colour,to prevent smudging.



Equipent for making pastels

-Chalk
-Gum Arabic
-Ivory-black pigment
-Glass slab
-Cobalt-blue pigment
-Glass muller


Equipent used with pastels

-Putty eraser
-Aerosol spray fixative
-Soft hair brush
-Paper stumps
-Bread


Examples of textured papers and pastel boards

-Watercolour paper(Rough texture)
-Glass paper
-Ingres paper
-Flocked pastel board
-Canson paper
-Watercolour paper(Medium texture)