Pastels continued...

Good evening all,

I think it's important sometimes, to cover the very basics first when it comes to talking about techniques. I was once taken to dinner by a fellow Artist and after discussing the techniques of painting fur in oils throughout the meal, he asked me to demonstrate my techniques at his easel. I agreed, but when I sat down at his easel and looked at his collection of brushes I realized to my horror, that I wouldn't be able to demonstrate anything with such a worn out horribly maintained collection of brushes as he had. The problem with his fur technique it seemed to me, started with his brushes and I advised him above all else, to get the right tools for the job!

The same could be said of pastels. I seldom have use for blunt rounded pastels. My techniques require a lot of sharpening and in a particular way. I have included a photo to demonstarate how I sharpen my pastel pencils not to a single point, but to a knife edge which is perfect for fine lines. I do the same with all my pastels, I'm not always using them for fine lines, but the chisel shape also helps lay down a controlled amount of pastel when you scrape it along the surface like a knife over butter. Without these clean sharp basics to work with, I'd feel like someone trying to mend a swiss watch with a spanner.