WHAT MATERIALS TO START WITH DRY PASTEL?
Are you starting with dry pastel?
But you’re totally lost because you don’t know which materials to choose…
What to buy?
Which brands?
Here is the equipment I recommend for beginners and amateurs, as well as for the realization of my online courses…”
LOTS OF DRY PASTEL PENCILS
Objectively, if you’re looking to do realism, you need a lot of shades. With just one set of dry pastel pencils, you will struggle to achieve the subtleties of color you want! Working with a “limited palette” would rather be an exercise for a more experienced artist… Especially since, when you’re a beginner, you might tend to oversaturate the paper. So, if in addition, you need to use several pencils instead of one, you’re not making it any easier for yourself!
Initially, even without buying absolutely all the dry pastel pencils, I still advise having 2 or 3 sets from different brands among: Derwent, Stabilo Carbothello, Faber-Castell, Koh-I-Noor.
I advise beginners not to specialize in only one technique and subject (for many reasons)… So, if you already have some technical background and wish to specialize, don’t buy the sets, but only buy the shades that interest you. If, for example, you only do animal art, it would be wise to have a wide range of shades in grays, browns, beiges, chestnuts, reds, blacks, whites… But conversely, it’s not very useful to have all the ranges of violets, pinks, greens, reds…
DON’T MISTAKE THE PENCILS!
When you’re unfamiliar, a dry pastel pencil can be very hard to distinguish from a colored pencil… However, they are strictly incompatible and can be the source of significant technical problems that demotivate some beginners! I’ve written an article:
TIP :
If you like to put away and neatly organize your pencils in their boxes, choose the complete set with all the available shades from that brand! If you buy additional pencils later, they will already have their place in the box. But if you buy a smaller set, where will you put the pencils that you’ll purchase later to complete the range?
DRY PASTEL STICKS
They are not essential, especially when working on details, but can be useful for filling in larger areas on big dry pastel paintings. This allows for quicker work and less wear on pencils. However, they are indispensable for working on abstract backgrounds and looser techniques…
SPECIAL DRY PASTEL PAPER
I use special technical paper for pastels from the PASTELMAT brand. It is really very good. It’s quite expensive, but it’s of very high quality…
It’s important to note that there are slight differences in texture when applying pastel depending on the color of the paper. I often use “dark gray” Pastelmat, which in terms of value and color, is the most neutral and understated. I recommend beginners start with dark gray: it’s a fairly neutral color, easier to manage at the beginning. Especially since the pastel paper colors chosen by beginners are rarely sensible in relation to the subject.
Tip
Calculate the price of the sheets per square centimeter!
In general, sheets in a pad are more expensive per square centimeter. With larger sheets of pastel paper, you can cut them to the size you want. You will have offcuts, KEEP THEM!! They are very useful for making color swatches and testing colors without wasting a usable full sheet…
ERASER
With the dry pastel technique, we don’t use a regular eraser, but a “kneaded” eraser. It really resembles modeling clay (at least, the quality ones do) and can be used in various ways depending on the desired effect.
When the eraser is saturated (becomes very dark), or the texture has become hard, or it contains foreign objects that shouldn’t be there, it’s time to change it!! Otherwise, if you erase a bit vigorously, the foreign object might scratch or gouge your paper, and that won’t be recoverable… And it won’t put you in a good mood, I guarantee it!
GLASSINE PAPER
Essential: Glassine paper has the characteristic of not gripping pigments, so it will be very useful for:
• Placing under your hand while working on a dry pastel painting.
• Protecting the finished artwork until it’s framed.
You can buy large sheets and cut them to size as needed.
BLENDING STUMPS
Blending stumps are used for… blending! (Surprising, right?! It wasn’t obvious to guess…) That is, to blend colors together, soften certain details, blend an underlayer, create a gradient background…
To start, you can get a set of paper blending stumps for details and a few Panpastel sponges for larger areas.
I’ve written a detailed article on blending stumps: what they’re used for, the different types…:
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BLENDING STUMPS FOR PASTEL
CUTTER
A dry pastel pencil SHOULD NEVER BE SHARPENED WITH A PENCIL SHARPENER!!! Never, ever forget that, bad idea, go to the corner!!
The reasons:
- You will ruin your pencil sharpener at lightning speed (or even faster).
- You will ruin your dry pastel pencils just as quickly, since you will only be using the tip, thus only the pigments in the middle of the lead… Not economical.
- It might be okay for children, but it’s not a practice for pastel artists.
- Dry pastel is abrasive, and cutter blades will quickly become dull. But it’s better to change a blade used along its entire length (they are made for that), than to buy a new crank sharpener every week.
By sharpening with a cutter, you can shape various types of points according to what you need, and thus work more subtly without wasting your pencils.
I prefer the cutter over a scalpel or X-acto knife, as the cutter is wider, more rigid, and better suited for cutting into the hard woods of some pencils…
SANDPAPER
Available in hardware stores, there are various “grits” of sandpaper. You can have 2 or 3 different grit finenesses, but if you’re unsure what to buy, I recommend P120.
Sandpaper is useful for:
- Sharpening your pencils and sticks, dry pastels, and giving them the desired shape.
- Sharpening blending stumps.
- Smoothing the grain of canvases after applying gesso.
VISUAL SUPPORT
Ideally, you need a high-quality tablet or smartphone. I emphasize HIGH QUALITY!!
Simply because lower-end models have very poor contrast and reduced, less accurate color ranges compared to original visuals…
I advise against having the reference image on your computer: your eyes have to travel a greater distance than with a tablet or smartphone placed especially next to your paper… If you don’t quite understand, let me exaggerate the situation: imagine your reference is in the next room, by the time you come back, your eye will have already forgotten the shade or the shape of the detail… To make it easier to spot the differences between the photo and your painting, the two subjects need to be fairly close to each other.
For larger subjects, when you work on an easel, a computer can be used right next to the canvas… But I assume that the majority of beginners or amateurs work on a table.
KITCHEN PAPER OR CLOTH
You’ll need paper towels or a cloth (which should be washed frequently) to wipe the pencil lead after sharpening. Since you won’t change the sandpaper with every color change, when switching from a vastly different shade, you’ll have unwanted pigments on your lead. So, a quick swipe to clean your lead is necessary…
AND FIXATIVE?
It’s a NO! Really, don’t insist…
Like many artists, I don’t use fixative (except in specific cases). Fixative for dry pastel will alter your colors (besides being harmful)! So, except for some very specific cases that don’t concern my style and my way of working, no fixative!! It’s just about learning to balance between not enough pastel and too much pastel on the paper.
Fixative or not, a pastel painting must be framed under glass, so in the end, there’s no need to use it. And for storage, it’s not the fixative that protects, but the glassine paper.
AND YOU ?
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Share your experiences with dry pastel materials…
Do you have trouble understanding how to use certain tools?
Are you having problems choosing your equipment?
Comment below…
Do you want to improve, be proud of yourself, and sell your paintings better?
JI can help and advise you through my online video courses! From beginners to advanced, techniques in dry pastel, acrylic painting, and oil painting! Join the circle of ambitious artists!
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