The Art Of Pastel Portraiture

There is no more enjoyable activity for a portrait artist than the art of pastel portraiture. An artist who uses pastels enjoys both worlds - the world of dry media and the world of wet media. Let me explain why I said “wet" media, yes, a pasteI is most certainly a dry , hard substance, but a skilled pastel artist can make a pastel give the effect of oil paint, which as we know, is a “wet” media or medium. I myself can do this, it’s all about feeling the power of pastel.

Pastels give the artist the ability to produce wonderful effects, and it has one quality only a very few other mediums have: it can be touched, and worked with, just like the finger-painting of a child. But paint cannot be applied without a brush to any effect, one has to relie on his or her ability to handle a brush. Colors can be created and mixed like with using paint but again, success in this area depends on the artist’s skills. And remember you are working with a dry substance, but a dry sustance that has a unique quality and does what colored pencil can’t: mix like paint. In the art of pastel portraiture artists often use this unique quality to their advantage when attempting to exactly reproduce the subjects flesh tones, etc. and other parts of a portrait that stand out prominently. This blending of color is hard to accomplish using other dry mediums. Pastel does have special qualities.



The only way to experience the uniqueness of pastels and gain an understanding of why certain artist perfer them, is to start using this fine. The art of pastel portraiture will give an artist a new found respect for the magic of pastels. Pastels allow one to have both worlds of art: the dry one, along with the wet one. Get involved in the art of pastel portraiture today and enter a new world of color and portraiture.