Types of pastels.
Pastel is one of the purest artists tools, which is a small pigment that is compressed into a homogeneous mass using a small amount of glue. It does not require thinners, does not need to be dried and, when applied to the substrate, perfectly conveys its color.
The word "pastel" comes from the word “pasta”, which means “the mass from which pastel bars are made”.
Pastel colors, in fact, are compressed pigments that contain a small amount of resinous substance — tragacanth or gum arabic. The concentration of the pigment in pastels is much higher than in other colors, which explains the exceptional purity of the painting color.
There are three kinds of pastels. Those are soft, solid and pencil-like pastels. The type depends on the percentage of bonding agent and powder pigment. Solid pastel looks like a small bar with a square cross-section. Soft pastel has a smaller amount of adhesive substance and it’s less pressed. That’s why it cannot be sharpened the way solid pastel can, but it has an amazing variability in terms of shades. Therefore, solid pastel is often used to perform graphics.
Soft pastel is crumbly. It can be easily put on paper. Soft pastel colors usually have the form of cylindrical oblong rods of various shades. Bars of soft pastels are offered either individually or as a set, in which the paints are grouped by the color spectrum.
There are also so-called pastel pencils, which are rods of solid pastel in a wooden frame. They strongly resemble ordinary pencils and they can also be sharpened and used. PanPastel Colors - professional artists' quality soft pastels in a pan. Ultra soft, highly pigmented, low dust, lightfast. Paint straight from the pan.
Pastels come from variety of manufacturers and also can be handmade, we will touch on different brands in our next article.
