PASTEL DRAWING
I've
titled this section 'Pastel Drawing' but with pastels, even more so
than colored pencils, the result looks more like painting than drawing
in many ways. There are two basic types of pastel - oil pastel
and chalk pastel. Oil pastels are smoother, more vivid, and
creamier in consistency.
I like oil pastels. They're often
fairly cheap - I've used the Pentel pastels and they come in boxes of
50 for about $8. That's very reasonable.
So oil pastels
are cheap, vibrant, soft... but chalk pastels have one really big
advantage. They're denser - and can be made into cores for
pencils.
Pastel pencils allow for meticulous detailing that isn't
possible with oil pastels, and my pastel pencil works have been very
nearly as detailed as my colored pencil stuff, in my experience.
Unfortunately, pastel pencils are expensive; a pastel pencil is
nearly ten times as costly as an oil pastel stick.
A word of
warning: pastels can smear. I personally advise that you start
your art at the top of the paper and work down - because if you start
at the bottom you run the risk of smudging it with your hand by
accident when moving upwards. Maybe that's just me, though - my
form (in terms of drawing and painting) has never been too
conventional. I tend to get my fingers pretty darn close to the
tip of the brush, pencil, etc - because I think it gives me a bit more
accuracy in guiding the application of the materials onto the surface.
This has the side effect of raising the odds of smudging.
If this is an issue for you too, then start at the top and maybe
also consider left or right-handedness as well. While drawing,
look at where your arm is pointing relative to the pastel. Start
with the corner in the opposite direction, and work your way down from
there.
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