The Different Types of Pastels
Soft pastels are by far the most popular and commonly used, and indeed they're what people usually mean when they refer simply to 'pastels'.
However, the pastel family is larger than just soft and includes other different types of pastels.
Read on to find out more about the mom, dad, and kids of this art medium family! First of all, what's a soft pastel? This is a pastel that is generally made from just two ingredients: pigment and a binder.
Some even discard the binder and are simply 100% pigment.
This makes them powdery, but also vibrantly colorful and easy to blend with each other to create different colors on the surface.
Hard pastels are just like soft pastels except they are made with a higher proportion of binder to pigment.
This means that they hold an edge or a point better; allowing the artist to draw fine details and lines and do sketching work.
Pastel pencils are hard pastels in a pencil format.
Their characteristics are identical to hard pastels except for their 'packaging', so as for hard pastels, they're best used for sketching and for adding fine details to an artwork.
The pencil format makes them easy to control, which suits their main uses well.
They're also clean to work with as you aren't touching the pigment directly like you are with soft and hard pastels.
Most (if not all) artists who use soft pastels will also use either hard pastels or pastel pencils.
This gives them the ability to switch to something better suited to the task when they want to add fine lines and details to their artwork, or when they're sketching out their design prior to laying in the big areas of color.
It's not an 'either-or' thing.
But the next two types of pastels offer something unique, and so are actually alternative mediums to soft pastels rather than something that complements them.
Oil pastels are essentially soft pastels with a different type of binder.
While soft pastels are made with a gum binder, oil pastels use an oil-and-wax binder, and this changes their characteristics, making them soft and greasy rather than soft and powdery.
They don't blend as easily as soft pastels, but they can be built up on the surface in a kind of impasto style and moved around with a razor blade or craft knife.
They reward a loose, passionate style without too much regard for precision.
They're very messy to work with and require turpentine to remove.
Water-soluble pastels are a relatively recent addition to the pastel family, and they provide a very interesting alternative.
When dry they're identical to ordinary soft pastels, but after laying them down on your surface as you would with soft pastels, you can then use a wet paint brush to finish the artwork using watercolor techniques.
Particularly if you have experience with watercolors, this is a great way to blend the best things about two different mediums and create some really beautiful effects.
However, the pastel family is larger than just soft and includes other different types of pastels.
Read on to find out more about the mom, dad, and kids of this art medium family! First of all, what's a soft pastel? This is a pastel that is generally made from just two ingredients: pigment and a binder.
Some even discard the binder and are simply 100% pigment.
This makes them powdery, but also vibrantly colorful and easy to blend with each other to create different colors on the surface.
Hard pastels are just like soft pastels except they are made with a higher proportion of binder to pigment.
This means that they hold an edge or a point better; allowing the artist to draw fine details and lines and do sketching work.
Pastel pencils are hard pastels in a pencil format.
Their characteristics are identical to hard pastels except for their 'packaging', so as for hard pastels, they're best used for sketching and for adding fine details to an artwork.
The pencil format makes them easy to control, which suits their main uses well.
They're also clean to work with as you aren't touching the pigment directly like you are with soft and hard pastels.
Most (if not all) artists who use soft pastels will also use either hard pastels or pastel pencils.
This gives them the ability to switch to something better suited to the task when they want to add fine lines and details to their artwork, or when they're sketching out their design prior to laying in the big areas of color.
It's not an 'either-or' thing.
But the next two types of pastels offer something unique, and so are actually alternative mediums to soft pastels rather than something that complements them.
Oil pastels are essentially soft pastels with a different type of binder.
While soft pastels are made with a gum binder, oil pastels use an oil-and-wax binder, and this changes their characteristics, making them soft and greasy rather than soft and powdery.
They don't blend as easily as soft pastels, but they can be built up on the surface in a kind of impasto style and moved around with a razor blade or craft knife.
They reward a loose, passionate style without too much regard for precision.
They're very messy to work with and require turpentine to remove.
Water-soluble pastels are a relatively recent addition to the pastel family, and they provide a very interesting alternative.
When dry they're identical to ordinary soft pastels, but after laying them down on your surface as you would with soft pastels, you can then use a wet paint brush to finish the artwork using watercolor techniques.
Particularly if you have experience with watercolors, this is a great way to blend the best things about two different mediums and create some really beautiful effects.
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