Supplies and Tools in Pastel Painting

Series Summary

Artists who use pastels for painting still life paintings know that one great benefit to painting with pastels is that lighter colors can be painted over darker colors. In fact an artist can change the viewer's perception of a scene or still life just by using color. An artist can create intense contrasts using complimentary colors which magnify the colors in the painting. If you would like to learn how to paint with pastels for free and online you have come to the right place. In this free series of pastel painting lessons, learn how to paint a pastel painting from start to finish, beginning with preparation of the painting surface and choosing the colors you will use. You will also learn how to sketch the figures of your painting and how to plan pleasing proportions. Watch this painting series and learn how the pros plan and start their paintings, as well as how to create a painting that is fun to paint and enjoyable to look at. Become an Expert Village painter today!

Video Transcript

"O.k., the materials that you'll need in order to do a pastel painting, of course are pastels themselves. The dry pigment form of pastels. They come in round squares, round forms or in squares. Square shaped forms. You can also get pastel pencils. These are not the same as colored pencils. These are pastels pencils for working fine. Other things that I like to use when I'm doing a pastel painting are charcoal for doing my initial sketches. And of course, something to draw on. A ground, we'll cover that in more detail, in a little bit. Fixative, there's a number of different kinds of brands of fixative, out there. Some tape to tape your ground or your surface to an easel. Which is very handy. A paint brush, some water. And this is optional but also very useful. Sand, I'll explain that in a minute. And if you have all those materials together. Oh! you'll probably also want either Jesso or some acrylic paint or water color paint. Now, I'll get into that too, in just a minute. If you've got all those materials in front of you, you are ready to start painting."