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ohsuzanna
Posts:191
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| 01/09/2007 2:10 PM |
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I am going to try to do a painting with soft pastels. I have never worked with pastels and want to try it. Is there a primer or a treatment that I should do before and after the painting that will protect it. Any tips are welcome and would be very helpful.
thank you.
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ohsuzanna
Posts:191
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| 01/09/2007 3:13 PM |
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Sorry! I have used pastels. But I had a hard time keeping the pastel on the paper. after the painting was done, it smuged and became messy. can anyone give me some help with this problem. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
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gene
Posts:1245
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| 01/09/2007 3:47 PM |
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| OhSuzanna! (Hmmmm.haven't I heard that one someplace before? What kind of paper are you using? You usually use some type of sanded paper, but not always. Pastel can be used on canvas, matboard, or evey watercolor paper. I have always used either Canson pastel paper (even though I really don't like that kind. Usually use Art Spectrum Colorfix, LaCarte pastel paper, Kitty Wallis pastel paper (although you can't do very much blending on that kind, or you end up with a bloody finger.........it's very sharp.) As for fixing it, most of the good pastelists I know or have studied don't fix their paintings at all. They say that the fixative darkens the colors. I don't use fixative either. But, you have to put a piece of glass over the top. Usually the piece is matted with a spacer in between the painting and the top mat in order to have the art not touch the glass. That's also used to allow any tiny bits of pastel that might fall from the painting to slip down on the inside of the mat and not end up on the mat itself. Sandy Jacoboice has developed a spray varnish to spray her florals, but I've never tried it myself. Why don't you look online for articles about protecting pastel paintings. They really do last forever. Degas and Mary Cassatt were two artists who used pastels way back when, and when you view the originals in museums, it is surprising to see how well the paint has stayed over the years. Pastel, being pure pigment, is really great flor that! Good luck. |
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ohsuzanna
Posts:191
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| 01/09/2007 5:37 PM |
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Dear gene,
Thank you so much for helping me to understand pastel painting. I did use a pastel paper, but I can't remember what kind it was. I should have Put the painting under matting and glass as you said. But I stored it between card board and tissue paper. That was my mistake. A lesson learned.
I have just purchased some canson pastel paper and I have some strathmore 60 lb. I will play with them and see what I like best. Then I will post the painting when it is finished. Once again, thank you so much for your help,
ohSuzanna
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Muckleskate
Posts:103
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| 02/15/2007 1:21 AM |
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| Using any type of fixative on pastels tend to dull the color, so they have to be carefully kept to stop them from smudging. The trick to keep them from smudging is to stop them from moving around. One way of storing them is by sandwiching them between sheets of a pad of tracing paper (it's slick). You can also use Glassine, but that's a lot more expensive. If the image is 8x10, use a 9x12 pad, etc. Once they are under the paper, put some masking tape on the sides of the pad to keep the pages from moving. I've done plein aire work and used this method to bring them back home and they've done fine after many long days of driving. (Learned this at a Maggie Price Pastel Workshop! She brings her paintings back from Europe this way.) |
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Sandy
Signatures Gallery
Brookings Harbor, OR
www.signaturesgallery.com |
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1Painter42
Posts:156
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| 02/17/2007 8:40 PM |
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| I've been using fixative on my pastels since I started using pastels several years ago. It is true that it will darken the color and increase the contrast a little bit, but I found that it's ok with my style, I like the effect. The darkness also increases with the amount of fixative I put on it. I use canson pastle paper or sometimes I use watercolor paper. I don't spray my pastel paintings until the end. I've read about some pastelists that spray in between layers of color, I don't do that because I like being able to lift off color sometimes as I'm painting and that's harder to do once it's sprayed. Even after the fix, it'll still smudge, just not as easily. To store my pastel painting prior to framing, I tape it down to a larger mat board or illustraton board, on the 4 corners, then tape some tracing paper over it (taped to the board), so it doesn't move, so the paper itself doesn't smudge it. I use removeable tape. Perhaps you should try a practice painting. Lay down some colors on the paper in several layers, spray it with fixative and see what it does, if you like it or not. If you like the effect, then use it. If not than don't. I don't think using or not using fixative is right or wrong, just depends on what you are looking for in the end. |
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Justine
www.remingtoncreations.com |
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heatherm
Posts:2120
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| 02/21/2007 6:33 PM |
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| I never spray my pastels as I like the colors to "glow". When finished I put them under a mat with a backer, take Saran Wrap or any plastic wrap and with removeable tape, tape the corners and the middle of top, bottom and sides, stretching the wrap so it doesn't touch the pastel. Have not had a pastel smudge unless my cat decides to walk over it before I have a chance to put it away vertically. This way I can choose which ones to frame for a show etc. If I overlap the plastic wrap I use regular scotch tape as it isn't touching the boards, I just make sure the wrap is taut and away from the pastel. |
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Heather
http://www.heatherartist.com |
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scochran
Posts:209
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| 03/09/2007 9:49 PM |
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| The debate to spray or not to spray" fixative'...I do some of both, although is will change the color. Try shaking the piece to get all the extra pigment off. My framer has a fit if I don't spray, sometime she just has to have one. I have also hung my work on a wire hanger with clothes pins to store.be sure and us real glass to frame with plexy glass will pull the pigment off the paper.Scochran |
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shana cochran |
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sboyko
Posts:55
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| 04/05/2007 4:50 PM |
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| I store my pastel paintings by taping them to FomeCore and then covering them with glasine paper, which I buy by the roll at the art supply store, then I store them vertically, perhaps tacked to a wall. If I am on location and have several paintings to deal, I take a drawing board, tape the first painting down with masking tape, tape glasine over that, put the next painting down, tape it, etc. The important thing is that the paintings be securely taped to the board so they won't move around and that glasine is between each layer. I use fixative very lightly, if at all, as I take the painting and give it a few whacks from the back when I'm done to loosen any stray dust. Kitty Wallis paper grabs the pastel strongly enough that I have not found fixative to be necessary. |
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