How to Paint With Pan Pastels
- 1). Sketch out ideas for your pastel painting using pencil on paper. Make tonal studies in charcoal. Choose your subject matter and make a final compositional drawing for your picture. Use your drawings as reference material to guide your pastel painting. Draw the design onto the canvas-board or paper substrate. Experiment with different kinds of paper. Try toothy watercolor paper, drawing or print paper for different textures and effects. Paint on velour, vellum or canvas pads and panels.
- 2). Lay down large areas of color for your backgrounds, tonal under painting or to tint the surface of your paper or canvas. Keep the color thin so you can paint over it. Apply two or more colors with a painting tool onto the paper and mix them with one of the painting sponges. Clean the painting tool with a dry paper towel between colors. Mix the colors directly in the pans. Clean the pan after mixing with a swipe of your paper towels.
- 3). Build up depth and a sense of three-dimensionality in your painting by using graded dry washes of color. Add a lighter tint at one end of the wash grading it into a darker shade at the other end. Blend the tones together with soft touches of the painting sponges for an even transition. Establish the tonal structure of your picture with the first layers of muted color.
- 4). Experiment with applying thin layers of pastel one atop another for different effects. Drag the pastel color across the paper so it sticks to the toothy high points while letting the color underneath show through. Keep a consistent color scheme throughout your picture. Make all the patches of color relate to one another for an overall harmony. Use the flat sides and edges of the painting sponge bars to achieve various painterly effects.
- 5). Apply two colors to the opposite sides of the painting tools or sponges. Dab the painting tools into two or more pans of color and swirl them onto the paper. Use any kind of eraser to make lines or remove spots or patches of unwanted color. Emphasize the value differences and contrasts in your picture by modulating areas of dark and light. Use your smallest tools to add in the final accented highlights.
Source...