Sometimes you learn from your mistakes. What have I learned from this particular mistake? That, maybe, just maybe pastels are not my medium.. or if I wanted it to be then I'd need a whole lot more paractice with them. I watch people on Youtube drawing with pastels with ease and precision, but for whatever reason my pastels seem to be acting completely differently. They are blotchy, they do not blend as easily as shown, the lift off where you want to place them down and all in all, just makes a whole lot of mess.
And the constant white showing through! Damn!
Maybe I should have left it at this stage, but for whatever reason I did not like the background being just one flat colour like that.
So I continued to torture it. Trying to add gradient to the background only to end up with an uneaven mess.
And still, with so many layering attempts, the colour would not remain even, where you need more of it, you can't apply it, because it lifts even more of it off.. the struggle is real..
By this point I was already too frustrated with this piece and though there was nothing more to lose, so I needlessly went in with scratched outlines, that honeslty only made it worse readability wise.. but this is the point where I have to give up and admit a failure -
It did not work out. I have to face the music. And it's fine, because the frustration with the end result is only a fuel to motivate me to once make something I myself can feel proud of and honestly admit that I like it. But this one ain't it. And that's ok.
Feel free to leave constructive criticism, should you have any pastel expereience and know exactly what I did wrong here, I'm more than willing to learn and grow..
~Josie~
Hi Josie,
it's not that pastels aren't your medium, it's the pastels. You bought cheap wax crayons claiming to be pastels, and that's why you're frustrated. So it's not you! I went through the same.
In my experience, there are only three brands of pastels worth buying:
Mungyo (from South Corea)
Caran d'Ache (from Switzerland)
Sennelier (from France)
The Senneliers are the creamiest and behave most like oil paint. Like oil paint, they have varying degrees of transparency, depending on pigment. So if it's opacity you're after, you're better off with the other two. They're also more matte. Unfortunately, neither brand is inexpensive, but they're absolutely worth it.
Caution: Caran d'Ache has two lines of pastels, Neocolor I and Neocolor II. The oil pastels I'm speaking of are Neocolor I. The Neocolor II are watersoluble wax crayons and just as hard as yours! The product naming is really unfortunate.
Lastly, there is a way to improve cheap oil pastels if you don't have the budget for the ones I mentioned here. I wrote a DYI article about it, here:
https://peakd.com/hive-193212/@wulff-media/sht-to-shinola-diy-oil-pastels-tutorial
Cheers - Folker
P.S. For best pigment coverage, i.e. no white showing through, use Pastelmat paper by Clairefontaine. Another expensive art supply but also worth it.
Thank you! ^^ Now this is the kind of feedback that I love - informational and encouraging!
In all fairness, I haven't invested in propper art supplies yet, so any art supplies that I have are mostly gifted. I will look into aquiring some high quality materials, now that I know I want to take my art journey seriously, so your recomendations come at a good time.
I guess I thought that I shouldn't waste money on high end stuff if I haven't put in the work to learn basics first, and for that you only need graphite pencil anyways.. the thing is, though that I love experimenting, so I end up 'too deep' for my own good, but I think that's good, that's part of the process of growing - doing what is exciting at the moment, because that's where the actual art lives.. in the expression, experimentation, flow.
The skills might be lagging, but I gather if I keep going and keep exploring they should inevitably improve over time. I have to admit, I am slightly affraid I might get stuck in that flat uncanny-valey phase, but knowing me I'd still try to grow, explore and push the boundaries of what I think is possible for me..
Once again thank you for your invaluable comment, it's immensely appreciated! ^^
Hope you're doing great and I'm looking forward to catching your next work on the chain.
~Josie~
Same here: I,too, thought the cheap stuff is good enough for learning and I get to proper supplies later. Worked my way through all kinds of art media to find out what I like, and any supplies I could get my hands on...
Although I did find the odd bargain in the lower price segment that was useable and enjoyable, on the whole I ended up with the well known brands. There is a reason professionals buy them, and many reasons why they are more pricey. Lesson learned.
Oh well, as long as it's fun...