Pastel practice:
Operating procedure Automatic translate

Table of contents

Operating procedure

Like any work, pastel painting is built on the principle from simple to complex, that is, from slight saturation to pure color, and from preliminary touches to stains. At the initial stage of work, solid pastel, shading and cleaning are usually used. Using pastel pencils, a preliminary drawing is performed and details are drawn by them at the finish.

Private collection. Ramon Sanvisens (1917-1987). Umbrella. The work, which is distinguished by its original richness of colors, was made using soft pastel on coarse-grained paper (the corrugated surface is felt even under a layer of pigment) there was no preliminary drawing and test strokes, almost no shading.

Private collection. Joan Carty. Figure and still life. The opposite pole in the work, this picture is painted meticulously, using a large number of techniques that create an exquisite atmosphere that distinguishes all the works of this artist.

Workshop

To work, the artist does not need a lot of space. Pastelists, as a rule, work on paintings of small or medium format (less than 70 centimeters in width and length), and all the necessary tools and materials successfully fit into several small drawers. For the period of work, the board is placed on a table or a special easel designed for working with paper. The workshop should contain a number of hard folders of various sizes, which will be required when storing the work (attention: both paintings and blank paper should not be stored in folded form).

Another useful device is a folding stand for folders, its purpose is to show the work to customers and their storage in unclaimed periods. It is very convenient for maintaining work in order; and besides, the paintings look great when demonstrated on it, losing the view that opens when the work on the table is decomposed.

Well, the last device in our review is a special easel for working on paper. Using buttons or adhesive tape, you can fasten the sheet to it. Its design is designed specifically for working with pastels, as evidenced by a small ledge in the lower part, which prevents the pastels from pouring onto the floor.

Work storage

The first and most important rule, all work must be stored strictly in expanded form. The second thing to remember is that any work should be covered with a sheet of smooth tracing paper. Tracing paper will protect the surface from contamination, mechanical mixing of applied paints, pigment erasure, prevent the appearance of random spots, and when folded into a stack, it will not allow contiguous folders or sheets of paper to get dirty.