Pastel Painting Lessons & Techniques

"How to Make Pastels "

By Emma Ralph

Making pastels is something many artists do. This is mostly a cost consideration, as art materials are expensive, but it's also a way to control more of the process. Just as photographers like to develop their own film (well, those still using film) instead of giving it to someone else, so too artists like to make their own pastels rather than buying them ready-made.

So how do you do it? First of all you'll need to make a gum binder. This is what holds together the pigment in a usable stick. A simple formula for binder is to add 1 tablespoon of Gum Tragacanth (this is the gum of choice) to 15 ounces of distilled water. Mix this in a bowl, and then put it in the fridge for two days to allow it to set into a gel (don't leave it out or you'll quickly find yourself culturing mold). This is your binder solution.

Now you need to mix together your chosen pigment with water and some of your binder solution. Note that different pigments require different amounts of binder solution in order to produce pastel sticks of uniform hardness. Obviously you don't want your pastels to be too hard or too soft. Experimentation will quickly tell you how the different pigments react, or ask a fellow pastel artist with experience in making pastels.

Once you have your paste (you're looking for a rubbery consistency), simply shape it into sticks and set them aside for a day or two to dry.

In order to make different tints (i.e. lighter values) of your chosen color, simply keep most of the paste you make (i.e. don't shape it into sticks) and mix it with an equal quantity of a mixture of Zinc White, water and binder. Now you have a one-step-lighter paste, which again you can save most of, mix with more Zinc White to make a paste two steps lighter than your original paste. You can keep doing this until you think you have something that's as pale as you would want (perhaps five steps lighter than your original color).

You can do the above with black as well, to produce shades (i.e. darker values) of a color. However, note that adding black or white to a color has the unfortunate side-effect of also slightly changing the hue. Adding black to red, yellows and oranges causes them to move towards green/blue, and adding white to them causes a move towards blue.

In making tints, one way around this problem is to also add a little of an adjacent color in the opposite direction on the color wheel to the color shift induced by the white. This would mean for example adding a little orange when making a tint of red by adding white.

In making shades, a way around the problem is to add the complementary color (i.e. the color that is opposite on the color wheel, examples are blue/orange, green/red, and yellow/purple) rather than black.

When you begin making pastels it really is a process of discovery. You can follow the general rule of thumb, but be aware of some wonderful surprises that may happen!

Emma Ralph is an experienced pastel artist. To discover how to make pastels visit http://www.paintingwithpastels.com

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