Painting and Pastel Tips
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Working with Oil-based Paints
When painting with oil-based paints, you always want to start with the background and work your way forward. To get your foreground colors to pop, apply wet paint only to previous layers of wet paint. Another technique is to thin your paint as you work because thin pain sticks to thick paint. As you move forward to your foreground colors, use paint thinner to thin out your paint.
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Working with Watercolor Paints
To prevent your colors from bleeding into each other and making your painting look messy, use a hair dryer to dry each color. Another idea is to heat the paper prior to each layer of paint applied.
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Working with Pastels
Pastels come in dry, oil, or water-soluble. Dry pastels are subdivided into hard, soft, or pencil. Hard pastels are useful when you want to create detailed lines in your drawings and paintings. Use soft pastels if you want to cover large areas or if you want to create bold strokes or other unique textures. Pastel pencils allow for fine line details.
Pastels need to be protected and affixed to the paper or canvas so the artwork isn’t lost. An aerosol varnish that stabilizes the pastel particles to the paper or canvas is available at most art supply stores. Many artists use hairspray as an art fixative. Some say it leads to color deterioration over a long period of time but others say they have been using it for years without noticing any problems. If you are in a remote location far from any art store, aerosol hairspray will work as a fixative for your art.
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Pastel Safety Issues::
- Soft pastel dust is not good for your lungs, so never blow the dust. Tap your picture over a newspaper to get rid of the dust or take your work outside.
- Pastel color can be absorbed through your skin, so try wearing disposable gloves. It's also easier to clean your gloves in between color, so it keeps your work clean.
- If you use pastels daily, an air filter in your working space is better for your lungs.
- Always spray fixatives in a well-ventilated area, preferably outside.
Basic Pastel Techniques:
- Hatching - parallel strokes close to one another
- Cross Hatching - one set of hatch lines is applied over another, usually in the opposite direction
- Mixing - colors are actually mixed together, by rubbing with your fingers or using tools like blending stumps
- Optical - colors are not actually mixed together but instead lines are drawn closely together as in hatching
