What is Pastel?

Pastels are dry painting medium. They are produced by mixing pure powdered pigments with binders. They are usually formed to into square stick or round stick. There are more than 1600 hues available today. Some pigments are natural resources and some others are synthetic. These pigments are the same pigments used in other art mediums such as acrylic color, oil color and watercolor.

Types of pastels

There are 3 common pastels, soft pastels, hard pastels and oil pastels.

Soft Pastels

Soft pastels are soft and usually long square sticks. They have more pigments than binders.

Hard Pastels

Hard pastels are hard and usually short square sticks. They have more binders than pigments.

Oil Pastels

Oil sticks are usually round sticks. They are very different from soft or hard pastels. They are made by mixing beeswax, pigments and binders. They tend to have a creamy consistency. They can not be combined with soft or hard pastels.