Soft Pastel

"To make a stick of pastel, a little clear binder holds the pure fine-ground mineral pigments together well enough for an artist to hold and apply to paper or board. Varying amounts of binder make sticks of different degrees of hardness, each with its own uses. These are dry pastels, also called soft pastels (and sometimes, erroneously, ‘chalk’ pastels even though they contain no chalk). Pigments mixed with an oil base and formed into sticks are ‘oil’ pastels and are an entirely different medium." (History of Pastels)

The history of pastels starts in the Renaissance. The medium is said to have originated in Northern Italy during the 16th century, and was used by Leonardo
da Vinci and Michelangelo, who used them for sketching. At that time, there were only black, white, and red.

Here are few examples from history:

Brands (student grade vs. premium)

Some popular brands are:

Richeson $$$$$

Prismacolor Nupastel $$$

Faber-Castell $$$

Koh-I-Nor $$

Derwent $

There really aren't student grade soft pastels because they produce dust and chemicals like Titanium Dioxide that can cause cancer and the packaging includes a warning label.

Age appropriateness and possible health or safety concerns:

Due to the health issues caused by dust and chemicals, dry chalk pastels should only be available to upper level advanced art students (11th -12th grades). When using dry chalk pastels, the support (paper) should be worked vertical on an easel, or tacked to a wall so the dust will fall down. For younger grades, chalk pastels can be used wet. Using brushes dripped in water can be applied to the chalk to moisten it so that it will stick to the brush and then can be applied to the support. During and at the end of the project, a fixative needs to be applied to keep the chalk from smearing. Fixatives sprays under pressure and the vapors are extremely flammable and may cause flash fires. Fixatives should only be used outside or in a spray booth with good ventilation.

Additional resources and materials:

Videos:
Chalk Pastel Techniques

The Basics of Dry Pastel - How to Use Dry Pastels

Pastel Tips for Drawing and Painting

Supplies:

Hard or soft pastels

Paper (support) Pastel papers,or Bristol, or brown Kraft paper

Workable Fixative

Kneaded eraser

Paper blending stump

Easel

Damp cloth

Strengths:
The colors are vibrant and saturated. The soft pastel is smooth and glides onto the support. It is a very sensual experience because artists use their fingers or hands to blend, or smear, or smudge, or soften the strokes. It is versatile that can be worked, dry or wet or a combination. Adding fixative during the process can darken the color and keeps the dust from spreading and then more chalk added. Layering for subtle variations, and a richness of depth of colors is a strength of pastels.

Weaknesses:

Aside from the dust, the cancer-causing chemicals, the need for fixatives that are extremely flammable, soft pastels are messy. When working with them, artists need to wash their hands often, protect their clothing, vacuum dust often, and have good ventilation.

My comfort level with teaching:

Given all the limitations and health issues, I don't feel at all comfortable teaching soft pastels in a K-12 environment. I think they are better suited to be taught in adult classes or in a university art setting, where risks can to assessed and mitigated. I do enjoy working with soft pastels and need more experience. Now that I have some, I will be using them for my personal art making.

My Personal Artwork: Exploring Soft Pastels:
This is the first soft pastel painting I've done in over 30 years and I wasn't very good to start. I liked it better before I added the background at the end and it got a lot darker and grainier after I added the fixative. I'll have to try again when I have time, now that I own some soft pastels.

I know this didn't turn out very well, so I tried it again with some different techniques--just more exploring. The fixative really darkens everything.
I'll have to try hairspray. Still not there.

Still exploring. I like this one the best so far. It was quick and not fussy.

References:

Chalk pastel techniques. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj2sEXs4XZY

Hafeli, M. (2015). Exploring Studio Materials: Teaching Creative Art Making to Children. Oxford University Press.

History of Pastels. (n.d.). Pastel Artists.CA. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from https://www.pastelartists.ca/history-of-pastels/

Palffy, G., Ed. (2017). Artist’s Drawing Techniques. Penguin Random House Publishing.

Pastel Tips for Drawing and Painting—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RIXspvzUlI

Sketching with Pastels / Using Prismacolor NuPastels. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVAOBaozK4Y

The Basics of Dry Pastel—How to use Dry Pastels. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni46Mx8nGZk

Here are some tests of techniques of
smearing, finer lines, blending, and wet
on different supports.