Lessons and Materials

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Materials:

There are many great brands, but here's what I recommend starting with:

• Stabilo Carbothello Pastel Pencils (set of 60) 
• Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper (You will definitely need this paper to make layered, quality pastel art)
  • Pastelmat comes with sheets of clear acid free paper to protect your work until you find a glass frame. However, you can buy a whole roll here: Glassine Paper

Here is a document I send my clients about how to take care of the art: Pastel Care

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However, over the years I have collected all these in addition:

Pastel Pencils:

• Faber-Castel Pitt Pastels (set of 60) - Easier to keep sharp, better for details
• Caran D'ache Pastel Pencils (set of 40) - Pricey, better for vibrancy and blending

 Chalk Pastel Sticks (these are NOT oil pastels):

• Faber-Castell Soft Pastel Sticks (set of 24) - good to start with, less fragile
• Rembrandt Half Sticks (set of 90) - great
• Unison Soft Pastel Sticks (set of 36) - high end, hand rolled, very fragile

Blending Tools:

• Color Shapers - has a plastic tip, can soften texture
• Paper Blending Stumps 
• Sofft Palette knife - sponge on a palette knife for base layer

Wood Burning:

• Razertip Wood Burning Kit
• I use live basswood rounds for wood, look in local shops

Art Storage and Miscellaneous: 

• Pencil Storage Drawers
• Plein Air Box
• Eraser (yes, it erases pastels quite nicely)
• Swordfish Pencil Sharpener (crank handle)
• Tracing Paper (mostly erasable!)
• Art Desk

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What NOT to buy:

• Fixative - even if it says chalk pastel okay on it I promise you it will dull all your lighter colors, nothing will be white anymore. I don't know any pastel artist that uses a fixative, even if a framer wants to spray it, don't let them! If you use pastelmat the tooth of the paper will hold the pastel, and when you frame in glass with a mat so it doesn't slide along the glass, it will be perfectly preserved. 

 

 

Happy creating!