Use Pastels To Enhance Your Command Of Colors By Karl Sultana

By Karl Sultana

Because of its ease of handling, pastel is an excellent medium for a beginning painter to learn about color or become more familiar with the various pigments derived from diverse sources and how effectively they blend, contrast, or complement one another.

Plan Colors in Advance

A good color reminder is to prepare a custom color chart after you’ve planned your pastel drawing and chosen your colors, but before you begin work. Using the pastel colors you’ve chosen (leaving aside black or very dark colors), apply a one-inch horizontal strip of color across a piece of paper (the same type of paper you plan to use for your work). Leave an inch of clean space between each stripe and write the name/number of each color at the far end.

Then, turn your paper 90 degrees and using the same pastels in the same order apply another one-inch strip of color. You may have to clean each pastel after it passes through each of the cross stripes. Take your time so you end up with each color passing over every other color with pure color between. Don’t worry if the colors smear just a bit as you’re going to be smearing some of them anyway.

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