Our Spring Art Product Review features a medium ideal for the season – Chalk Pastels! This fun, bright, and colorful “paint” is ideal for painting portraits, landscapes, still life, and more! The medium has been around since the 16th century and was particularly popular in the early 18th century. Knowing how to use chalk pastels can be tricky, though, because they are such a different product from something we might normally pick up in the studio, like paints or pencils.

Poppy Pods, Chalk Pastel, our student Melise G.

So, what exactly are chalk pastels? Are they chalk? Or pastels?! Well, grab a comfy chair, sit back, and while we reveal the story. Info courtesy of cratejoy.com, metmuseum.org, and Linda Wehrli.

Chalk pastels are also known as “soft pastels” because the material is, well, soft. Made by combining a high concentration of dry pigments with binders and setting the formula into sticks, chalk pastels’ color can flake off onto your hands and, if you’re not careful, you can easily erase or smudge your work. Sometimes charcoal can look similar to chalk pastels, but it’s easy to tell the difference because charcoal is burnt wood, not pigment.

Chalk pastels may be manipulated in many ways. A painterly effect can be achieved by carefully spreading the powder with a finger or a stump (a soft tool such as a tight coil of paper, leather, or a sponge), or by using a brush.

When mixed with water, pastel forms an opaque paint-like substance that may be applied by brush to produce accents and highlights. Artists can further vary the texture by employing a combination of soft and hard pastels in their artwork.

As a powder, pastel does not form a solid layer. Excessive blending and mixing can diminish its brilliance. The richest chromatic effects are achieved by applying marks with individual sticks of color. This accounts for the ample ready-made hues and tints common to boxes of pastel. For many artists, this manner of applying color as separate strokes rather than as mixtures provides opportunities to create striking tonal relationships. Edgar Degas, for example, placed strokes of complementary and contrasting hues side by side and interwove them to produce tapestries of color.

Edgar Degas – “Two Women”

Odilon Redon animated the surfaces of his compositions by employing a great diversity of strokes, while Maurice Quentin de La Tour, on the other hand, alternated passages of color and fixative to physically stabilize the underlying layers while allowing evidence of them to remain visible.

Not all chalk pastels are made the same, though. The type of dry pigment and binders used in the creation of chalk pastels can alter the quality of the pastels, so when you’re buying them, it helps to look up which brands are of the highest quality. Founder/Instructor, Linda Wehrli recommends Koss Pastels or Royal & Langnickel to her students for our Chalk Pastel 102 Course.

No matter what route you go with chalk pastels, always be sure to seal your projects once they’re complete. Because this medium is chalk, over time it can be dusted off of the page, smudge, and lose its color. You don’t need to run to the art supply store for a fancy fixative, though. Artists simply use hairspray because it’s inexpensive and works well. Regardless of which fixative you use, always hold the can at least a foot away from your painting and spray perpendicular, not straight down, to achieve a light protective coat. If you spray directly downward, the fixative liquid will wet the paper too much and may compress the powder, darken the colors, and diminish the amount of reflected light.

Once sealed, you may frame and display your art! Be sure to cut a mat to keep the pastel from rubbing against the glass of the frame. If you’re not ready to hang it on the wall, consider storing your artwork in an acid-free art portfolio.

Many different artists use chalk pastels because of their versatility, so don’t think you’re joining the “kid club” if you want to give them a try!

Ready to learn how to use this colorful medium? Pastimes for a Lifetime’s Chalk Pastel 102 Course is ideal after completing the Intro to Drawing with Graphite Course or an equivalent drawing course.

Call for a free consultation or enroll in Drawing Classes with Linda today! Both in-studio instruction or on Zoom.

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