How to Paint Soft Pastel Portraits

Pastel Sticks

Soft pastels are sticks of pigment mixed with a binder. They resemble chalk more than paint so the lines you draw are both easy to blend and easy to smudge. Details are easier to draw in hard pastels but soft pastels contain a higher percent of pigment and are brighter. Soft pastels should be drawn on, or supported by, a rough surface like watercolor paper. Any portrait you create with soft pastels must be fixed with hairspray or mounted under glass.

Things You'll Need

• Camera
• Easel, table easel or drawing board.
• Rough pastel support like canvas board or rough paper.
• Set of at least 12 pastels.
• Old clothes
• Drop cloth
• Tissues
• White eraser
• Makeup brush
• Q-Tips
• Old newspaper
• Hairspray

Instructions

1. Imagine the portrait you want to paint. It is common for portraitists in all mediums to work out details of composition and lighting by talking a series of photographs first. Since pastels are an impossible medium to rework you should have a clear idea of what you are trying to accomplish before you begin.

2. Prepare a place to work. Select a well-lighted place. Put a drop cloth on your floor. Set up an easel or alternative way to hold your portrait. Change into old clothes. Assemble the things you will need. Seat your subject.

3. Begin to sketch. Apply the darkest colors first. Avoid pigment build-up by gently tapping the back of your unfinished pastel over a sheet of newspaper. Do not worry about details. Rough out the large shapes of your portrait.

4. Blend and layer pastel as you work. Layering is the technique of putting a second color right over a first one. Blending is the technique of drawing lines of different color right next to each other then blending the two lines with a tissue, a Q-tip, a makeup brush or you finger. Layered colors are brighter. Blended colors are softer.

5. Add lighter colors to allow details to emerge. Erase excessively dark areas and mistakes with a white eraser. Do not overwork pastels. Suggest details by drawing with a tissue, a Q-tip or a rolled up piece of paper called a stump.

6. Evaluate your portrait and decide whether to discard it or preserve it.

7. Preserve your work when you are satisfied with it. Most artists spray their pastels with multiple thin layers of a fixative like hairspray.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not blow the dust from your pastel. Wipe your fingers frequently.

References

• Woolwich, Madlyn-Ann C.: The Art of Pastel Portraiture
• Pastel Portraits: Step by Step Pastel Portrait
• The Art Show: Pastel Techniques, Lessons, Tutorials, and Resources