Pastels are a strong and also colourful way of painting.
The medium itself is dry and because of its powdery surface the light reflects well.
So, with pastels, they give out very intense colouring, more so than any other medium.
One advantage with these is, that you do not have to wait for the paint to dry, because this is a dry medium.
As for artists, this can be quite trying, having to be patient.
This being so, you can go directly with your pastels and colour your surface straightaway.
Therefore it will be longer lasting than oil paint, simply because it has no varnish or oil contained in it to yellow and crack over the years.
Degas used this form of medium quite significantly for his artworks, which demonstrated how vibrant the colours can appear with the movement of colour and light showing throughout his work.
Personally I loved his pictures of racehorses and ballet dancers.
Amazingly enough, pastels used in the 18th Century, are still lovely, bright and fresh today.
You can frame pastels under glass as long as there is a mount mat between the surface and the glass, as you do not want the glass to come into contact with your picture.
In actual fact, strangely enough, the pigments in pastel paints are just the same as the ones used in oil and watercolours.
The main difference is how they are produced.
For example, watercolours are made by mixing gum with pigment and pastels have chalk and water mixed with the pigment so that it forms a paste.
Oil paints consist of finely mixed pigment with oil.
When pastels are manufactured, after the colour has been checked and sometimes more pigments added, the paste has to be pounded to remove the air in it.
Then it can be shaped into long, round, strips which then can be cut into short lengths for pastels.
They are then dried and each one labelled and put in boxes, carefully, to avoid them getting damaged.
I think that most companies also apply a binding agent to keep the powder together in these short sticks.
Obviously the amount of binding agent in the mix will ultimately affect the finished products strength and the mark that the pastel will make.
At one time, it may not be so now, Rowney used to be one of the companies that did not include a binding agent when making pastels.
This is probably why their pastels had a softness about them and very good durability.
As for the colouring itself, the strength of the pastels colouring is decided by how much chalk is mixed with the pastel.
A small amount of chalk will yield a dark tint, whilst much chalk will produce a pale tint.
So ,you will find there will be ranges of colour with every tint.
Pastels too, are graded from light tints to dark shades.
To appreciate pastels at their best, just look at the works of Degas and how inspirational his paintings were and still are to the present day.
The medium itself is dry and because of its powdery surface the light reflects well.
So, with pastels, they give out very intense colouring, more so than any other medium.
One advantage with these is, that you do not have to wait for the paint to dry, because this is a dry medium.
As for artists, this can be quite trying, having to be patient.
This being so, you can go directly with your pastels and colour your surface straightaway.
Therefore it will be longer lasting than oil paint, simply because it has no varnish or oil contained in it to yellow and crack over the years.
Degas used this form of medium quite significantly for his artworks, which demonstrated how vibrant the colours can appear with the movement of colour and light showing throughout his work.
Personally I loved his pictures of racehorses and ballet dancers.
Amazingly enough, pastels used in the 18th Century, are still lovely, bright and fresh today.
You can frame pastels under glass as long as there is a mount mat between the surface and the glass, as you do not want the glass to come into contact with your picture.
In actual fact, strangely enough, the pigments in pastel paints are just the same as the ones used in oil and watercolours.
The main difference is how they are produced.
For example, watercolours are made by mixing gum with pigment and pastels have chalk and water mixed with the pigment so that it forms a paste.
Oil paints consist of finely mixed pigment with oil.
When pastels are manufactured, after the colour has been checked and sometimes more pigments added, the paste has to be pounded to remove the air in it.
Then it can be shaped into long, round, strips which then can be cut into short lengths for pastels.
They are then dried and each one labelled and put in boxes, carefully, to avoid them getting damaged.
I think that most companies also apply a binding agent to keep the powder together in these short sticks.
Obviously the amount of binding agent in the mix will ultimately affect the finished products strength and the mark that the pastel will make.
At one time, it may not be so now, Rowney used to be one of the companies that did not include a binding agent when making pastels.
This is probably why their pastels had a softness about them and very good durability.
As for the colouring itself, the strength of the pastels colouring is decided by how much chalk is mixed with the pastel.
A small amount of chalk will yield a dark tint, whilst much chalk will produce a pale tint.
So ,you will find there will be ranges of colour with every tint.
Pastels too, are graded from light tints to dark shades.
To appreciate pastels at their best, just look at the works of Degas and how inspirational his paintings were and still are to the present day.
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