A Simple Recipe For Artists Pastels

Pastel painting has become quite popular with some artists

. Pet portraits artist, for instance, have exploited their potential in producing highly realistic pictures. To use the best quality pastels can however, can prove expensive. So, if you're looking for a pastel that performs well and comes in the exact colours you need, why not make them?

To make your own, you only require a few items all of which can be easily found at good art stores: high quality artists pigments, leaf gelatine and or gum arabic and distilled water. The whole thing is quite easy to do and lets you keep control of the final product. Gum arabic is the traditional binder, but can produce quite hard pastels, leaf gelatine is more easily come by and is useful for a soft pastel. You could, of course, use both to create a pastel with the prefect texture for your painting style. Ultimately, you want to aim to use as little binder as possible, so that the colours can be as pure as possible. This is something that you'll need to practice, before you'll find that right balance.

To make a range of tints for a particular colour, place a quantity of your chosen pigment onto a large sheet of tissue paper. Add approximately the same amount of zinc white into the colour, and mix by rolling the powders together in the tissue paper. This will be your darkest tint so adjust the colour by adding more white or original colour until you get the tint you prefer.

Divide the mixture, so that you have a small pile sufficient for one pastel and remainder. Place the smaller pile onto a piece of ground glass or marble and reserve the rest. Create a gap in the centre of the pile into which you pour small amounts of distilled water. Mix together the pigment and the water, using a palette knife, until you have a thick paste. The precise amount of water required to achieve this will vary from colour to colour, as they all absorb liquid at different rates. Practice will teach you have much you will ultimately need.

Mix into this paste a solution of leaf gelatine to act as a binder, again you need keep this to a minimum but still have sufficient to bind the pastel. You will probably need to do this a few time before getting this balancing act right, but it's worth it!

Collect the paste on the palette knife and place it on a piece of absorbent paper (newsprint will do) and form the mixture into a rough pastel. Using a piece of card, finish shaping your pastel by rolling it between the card and the paper. Once your happy with the shape, leave it to dry for around 24 hours.

You can now make the next tint in the range. From the reserved pigment, add an equal quantity of zinc white to lighten the colour to it's next tint. Now you can simply repeat the process to make the pastel and repeat for further tints.

As colours all behave slightly differently, I have not given precise quantities. However, the more you do the more accustomed you'll become to each colours requirements.

by: Rob Tyrrell

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