Do you work with pastels?

Question

I just started painting with pastels and I'm having trouble with the dust. I use canned air, but after a while the dust still ends up toning down my picture. Is there any better ways to cope with dust? I was thinking of a hand-vac, but i'm not sure whether it would be strong enough to pick all of it off the painting.

Answer 1

Try working on an easel with your surface perfectly 90 degrees to the floor. The dust will fall straight down when you tap lightly on the support, and this won't blur the work. (You'll also achieve better perspective).

Rembrandt, Schminke and Sennellier are very soft pastels, try using a harder pastel, like Holbein, for the underpainting and leave the softer sticks for the very top layer.

Also, if you use a sanded paper (yes, like sandpaper) it will hold on to the pastel and you'll see much less dust. Yes, sanded papers eat your pastels faster, but the result is worth it.

Try not to use a fixative if you can, but if you must, only one or two light coats. This cuts down on the dust as well, but some painters say it discolours the pastels. Please don't use hairspray... Test it first.

Answer 2

that's part of the beauty of pastel drawings; most seem to have a slightly muted look to them. Layering colors on top of each other and rubbing the pigment into the paper helps saturate the area, but you're always going to have the dust. I generally leave it on the paper and put a thin coat of aerosol canned hairspray on the drawing when I'm done to keep the rich layering effect that the dust helps provide.
If you're really dissatisfied with the dust problem, try oil pastels. They're a lot like soft crayons, and I've found that you can use them in ways very similar to chalk pastels.

Answer 3

thats the way pastels are ....what you can do is wipe off or blow the dust off your work , another...try adding less pressure next time , another , use the dust !!! it's good to blend it into other colors makes different textures , it looks smoother when pastels are blended with their own dust , try brushing it off as well.

Answer 4

get "dust-free" pastels they work really well