Pastel Tips and Techniques

 

Pastels can be used in a variety of ways and each of the pastel techniques outlined here can be used individually, or combined with another. 

 

With pastel there is no right or wrong way – it simply comes down to what you enjoy doing with your pastels. Remember that each of these techniques should be tried with hard, semi-soft and soft pastels, because each one gives a slightly different result.

 

The same counts for different pastel brands.

 

 

Technique 1: Drawing with the end of a pastel

 

The simplest way to use a pastel is to draw with the end, as you would with a pencil or pen. The line you draw has great expression and conveys a sense of the gesture you made. The thickness of the line can easily be altered by varying the pressure applied to the pastel – the more pressure, the more pastel will be left on the sheet. The gentler you press (or if you use the edge) the thinner the lines you draw.

 

Tip! Use your entire arm to move when you draw. This encourages broader, looser drawing.

 

 

Technique 2: Drawing with the edge of a pastel

 

For the artist who wants to work quickly and create large blocks of colour, the side of a pastel stick is perfect. For optimal results, break a stick in half and then use it. Don’t feel bad about breaking your pastel – remember that even the smallest fragment of pastel is still usable! If you alter the pressure, it will create different degrees of texture. When the side of the pastel has worn down, the two resulting sharp edges can also be used to create a fine line

 

Tip! This technique works best with semi-soft or soft pastels.

 

 

Technique 3: Hatching and cross-hatching

 

This technique will be familiar to anyone with any drawing experience. Hatching, a set of parallel lines (preferably fine lines) drawn closely together, is best suited to pencils or hard pastel sticks. Cross-hatching is a step further – the drawing of a second set of lines at an angle, most often at right angles to the first set. This method is particularly useful in pastel painting for the initial blocking in of a painting as it allows to experiment with colour and tone in a loose, flexible way.

 

Tip! This method can be used to create a sense of form and shape by varying the direction of the cross-hatching.

 

 

 

Technique 4: Blending pastels

 

Pastels are never mixed before they are put together on paper, unlike most other mediums. There are two ways to create colour and tone variations. The first is optical blending, which is achieved by having colours in close proximity, and the second is blending, which refers to the pastel being mixed on the paper. There is a wide range to choose from regarding tools to use for blending. The most traditional is the finger, with the option to wear a surgical glove to protect the skin. Other available options are using the side of the hand, paper tools, putty rubbers, cloths and cotton wool.

 

 

Tip! If you’re using your hand or finger, remember to clean it regularly to avoid interference from colours previously mixed.

 

 

Technique 5: Scumbling pastels

 

Possibly the best method to achieve a different type of vibrancy with your pastel colours, is by scumbling. After a layer of pastel has been applied and fixed, drag a soft pastel lightly on its side across the top. It creates a broken covering of the new colour over the top. The result? A visually stimulating, textural and careful choice of colours will produce amazing results!

 

 

Tip! The best pastels to use for this method are the softest pastels.

 

 

Technique 6: Feathering with pastels

 

Feathering is a fine-tuned form of hatching using short strokes to achieve a result much like scumbling – it adds a vibrancy to your painting. Feathering also works for optical mixing of colours where colours are mixed with the eye, rather than being blended on paper.

 

Tip! If you want to give the appearance of iridescence of fabric, feathers and scales or create atmospheric effects with light, this the method to use.

 

 

Technique 7: Dusting with pastels

 

As an alternative to scumbling, try dusting. Hold a pastel over an existing block of colour and scrape the stick’s surface to create dust. Once you are satisfied with the arrangement of dust on your canvas, press the dust into the surface using a palette knife.

 

Tip! This is much easier done with the painting held horizontally, because the dust will fall exactly where you aim for it to and not affect the rest of your picture.

 

 

Written by: Marleen Theunissen

Creative writer at ATKA SA

PNA | Book Review: Inferno - Dan Brown

 

If you’re a Dan Brown fan, you probably could not wait to get your hands on his latest novel, Inferno. 

 

The greatest thing about those high expectations is that they are not disappointed. Dan Brown once again expertly draws his readers into a fast-paced, breath—holding thriller with his famed character, Robert Langdon – a Harvard university professor in art history and symbology.

 

 

Professor Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Italy with no memory of how he got there and to find that someone wants him dead. Dr Brooks, the doctor who saved his life joins him on a journey through hell – Dante’s hell, and together they follow the messages left hidden in age old history.

 

What first seemed as a threat to Langdon’s life turns out to be a threat for humanity and it is up to Langdon and Brooks to unravel the mysteries whilst avoiding being caught by their mysterious, but aggressive followers. 

 

Dan Brown creates a perfectly balanced storyline with realistic environmental politics and secrets in the art history of the middle ages where the Black Plague killed a third of the earth’s population. Waged in a war that has no fair compromise, the World Health Organization dispatched professor Langdon for his expertise in art history and the meaning of symbols and their use.

 

Jumping right into his well-known fast-paced storyline, Dan Brown ensures that you will not be able to put this one down until it’s finished. 

 

Although the twist near the end provides for good entertainment, the story seems to lose a bit of steam afterwards. However, the usual Dan Brown specialties are included – visual descriptions of famous buildings, excellently relevant history in artists and their creations and the ability to keep surprising his readers – every time. 

 

Without saying much more to spoil the story for you, I would recommend you get going right now to get this one. My rating is a well-deserved 9/10.

 

Written by: Marleen Theunissen 

Creative Writer for ATKA SA

PNA | Book Review: The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes

At first this suspense thriller/horror might seem confusing and incoherent – that is until you realise that the main character, Harper Curtis, makes use of time travel.

 

He finds a House in the Depression-era Chicago that allows him to travel between 1931 and 1993 – something seemingly borrowed from a typical Stephen King novel. 

Over 60 decades, Harper visits his “shining girls”, first as little girls and then again years later, to kill them. All these girls possess an inner glow, a shine that Harper has to put out. 

 

Beukes makes good use of visual descriptions to decorate the murder scenes and the discovery of the victims. Her purpose here was to emphasize the violence found in these scenes daily, although it might shock the avid horror reader.

 

 

The time jumps are a bit sloppy, leaving the reader often lost and having to page back to check previous dates and their happenings. However, Beukes’s narration manages to compel the reader to keep reading and it is essentially Kirby - the girl who was supposed to die at Harper’s hand, but survived – that becomes the enchantment to this novel. Her survival after Harper’s attack fuelled her to find him and it is this shining girl that turns the hunt around.

 

Interesting to note, the rights to this book has been bought by Leonardo DiCaprio’s company Appian Way and it is set to be televised as a series. 

Beukes was very happy about this and noted that she declined a movie offer in favour of the series. 

 

 

She feels that the shining girls are the most important characters in the story and that a television series will allow sufficient submerging into the lives of these special girls – which would possibly allow the readers/viewers the chance to view the girls from the murderer’s view and possibly being able to associate with him.

 

Beukes, originally from Cape Town, spent two years in Chicago and researched the city with the help of two local researchers, which allowed the realistic setting for its time. 

 

All-in-all, The Shining Girls fulfills its purpose – to entertain, stimulate the imagination, raise the blood pressure ever so slightly and leave the reader wanting more to be said.