Chalk-Based
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Excerpts from ART HARDWARE: The Definitive Guide to Artists’ Materials, by Steven Saitzyk © 1987
In the sixteenth century, the Italians developed the pastel. It had a narrow range of colors consisting of some earth colors, white, and black. It was not until the introduction of a broad range of synthetic mineral pigments in the nineteenth century that the color range broadened to the hundreds of colors and shades that we are familiar with today. Pastello, which means "little paste" in Italian, was shortened by the French to "pastel." Today, pastel is the common name for chalk-based drawing materials; the chalk is mixed with pigment and a binder to a paste and then shaped and dried into sticks. Modern pastels may contain chalk, or such chalklike materials as kaolin (white clay) or lithopone (half barium sulfate and half zinc sulfide) as the white filler. The filler is mixed with a pigment and a binder such as gum tragacanth or methyl cellulose. (The binder for oil pastels is primarily wax and is discussed later under that heading.) PastelsPastels can be used either as a drawing or a painting material, depending on the technique used. It is therefore common to find works called pastel paintings, as well as pastel drawings. Pastels lend themselves to blending with the fingers or with stomps. They may also give a more painterly appearance when wetted with a mist of water (however, this technique cannot be used on glue-sized canvas) or with turpentine. A more or less painterly appearance can be effected by the type of ground used (paper or canvas), its surface finish (laid or irregular), and color. The main advantage of pastels is that the appearance does not change with age, as do oil paintings, which yellow in time. The main disadvantage is that the surface is easily damaged and is difficult to protect. The use of fixatives and final protective sprays will provide limited protection, but these tend to darken the overall appearance of pastels. It is important to take note of the health hazards that are involved in using pastels. Although most manufacturers have stopped using some of the most hazardous pigments, such as lead and lead compounds, professional artists' pastels should not be considered safe. Precautions should be taken to prevent inhalation and accidental ingestion of dusts. Soft PastelsSoft Pastels are soft because they are low in chalk or chalk substitute and are primarily pigment with very little binder. Chalk has a cementing quality that is used to best advantage in the manufacture of hard pastels. Most manufacturers of artists' soft pastels use a substitute for white chalk, such as kaolin, lithopone, or titanium dioxide, as the base. This facilitates easy blending and results in stronger colors. Every manufacturer of pastels begins with a set of colors that it considers to be pure and then creates additional colors, or tints, by adding a specific percentage of white (kaolin, lithopone, or titanium dioxide) or black (carbon). Manufacturers each have their own recipes for creating the colors and tints they offer, as well as their own symbols for indicating which are the basic colors and their tints. Talens Company, for example, the manufacturer of Rembrandt Pastels, adds decimal points to its color reference numbers to signify the percentage of white or black. Of its one hundred and sixty-three colors, thirty-eight are pure colors, indicated by a three-digit number followed by a decimal point and the number 5. The number 205.5, for example, indicates the pure color lemon yellow. Thirty-six of the colors are mixed with a percentage of black and they are indicated by a three-digit number followed by a decimal point and the number 3. (For example, 205.3 is lemon yellow mixed with black.) The remaining eighty-nine colors are pure colors mixed with white, indicated in the same way by following the color number and decimal with either a 7, 8, or 9. The higher the number, the more white. (For example, 205.9 is the palest tint of lemon yellow.) Soft pastels cannot be blended on the palette, like paint, to create additional colors or tints. Virtuosity of color in pastel drawings is restricted by the available colors and the ability to blend then on the working surface. Since pastels are an opaque medium, they are difficult to blend and it is hard to get intermediate shades. Therefore, if you think you will need a particular color or tint, it is best to acquire it before proceeding. I recommend that you purchase the largest set of pastels that you can find and afford, and continue to build your color range whenever practical. The greater your choices of pastels, the greater your freedom. To accommodate this freedom, some manufacturers make up to six hundred colors. Chalk PastelsChalk Pastels are harder than soft pastels because of the higher percentage of chalk. They are also less expensive because they contain less pigment. Not all of the commonly available chalk pastels are of artists' quality, they give no assurance of lightfastness; they are therefore not recommended. The color range is often quite limited, ranging from thirty-six to forty-eight colors. Hard PastelsHard Pastels are harder than soft pastels and the average chalk pastel. At this time, however, there is only one effectively marketed hard pastel-Nupastel made by Eberhardt Faber Company. Although Nupastel is technically a chalk pastel, it is far denser than the average chalk pastel. Its primary advantage is that it is better for drawing thin lines and for holding details. Hard pastels can be sharpened to some degree, while soft pastels cannot. They are also less dusty and adhere better to the working surface, but this characteristic makes them harder to blend. Nupastel offers an acceptable range of seventy-two colors. This pastel is commonly used as artists' pastel, although the company's literature makes no claims of lightfastness. Pastel PencilsPastel Pencils are chalk pastels with a wood covering. They are also known as colored charcoal pencils because their consistency resembles that of charcoal pencils. The advantages of the pencil form of pastel is that it can be sharpened for more detailed drawing and it is less messy to work with. Pastel pencils were originally developed for the graphic artist and illustrator. As with chalk pastels, claims to lightfastness are rarely found. The available range is between fortyeight and seventy-two colors, depending on the manufacturer. Conte CrayonsConte Crayons are named after their developer, Nicolas-Jacques Conte, who invented the modern pencil. They were originally a mixture of graphite and clay formed into hard drawing sticks. The process Conte used was similar to that used for his pencils. Today, Conte crayons are made with an alumina chalk (aluminum oxide) base. Because they are readily available in differing degrees of hardness, a range of effects can be consistently produced with these crayons. The white crayons are pure alumina chalk; the blacks and grays are carbon and alumina chalk. The reddish-browns, or sanguines, are ferric oxide (rust) and alumina chalk. Several shades of sanguine are widely available and the black and white are available in different degrees of hardness. Come crayons have the consistency of graphite sticks and the appearance of hard pastels. Excerpts from ART HARDWARE: The Definitive Guide to Artists’ Materials, by Steven Saitzyk © 1987
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Natural chalk is composed of
tiny, prehistoric, salt-water organisms with a high calcium content, which
formed a sediment that turned rocklike. Its appearance ranges from white to gray
and, occasionally, red, or sanguine, when it is naturally impregnated with
ferric oxide (rust). Chalk-based drawing materials have been in use almost as
long as carbon-based materials. Although chalk itself is abundant, the number of
deposits of rock chalk is not, and it is this scarcity that prevented its
widespread use. Until the fifteenth century, red and white chalks were used
primarily for quick sketching. When an effective method was devised to pulverize
chalk, wash out the sand, and combine the chalk powder with pigments in a usable
form, chalk-based drawing materials were taken more seriously.