5 Factors to Consider when Choosing Media: Pastels vs. Colored Pencils
I am a pencil artist who uses primarily colored pencils and soft pastels.
This is the third part of a 3 part blog series discussing the pros and cons of colored pencils and pastels. If you missed the first two you can check them out here:
Part 1- 8 Pros and 5 Cons of Colored Pencils & How to Work Around the Cons
Part 2- 10 Pros & 5 Cons of Pastels & How to Work Around the Cons
For this last portion, I will tackle considerations I make when deciding if I want to use colored pencils, pastels, or both for an art piece. I just created a short tutorial that talks you through how to use colored pencils and pastels to create a snow cardinal piece. If you’re interested in that click here: Free Snow Cardinal Tutorial
Factor 1- Style of Final Piece
“Rocky” was done in pastels and “Green Eyes” was done in colored pencils.
Even though I am a realism artist when I use any medium, my colored pencil and pastel pieces look different, especially up close. This results in slightly different styles.
The pastel pieces are more vibrant and the pencil strokes are chunkier due to the soft nature of the pencils. In the above photos, compare the raccoon's white whiskers to the cat's black whiskers. The white ones are thicker, and you can see how I drew them with pastels over top of the existing layers.
The pastel pieces are also completely covered by the pastel, and you cannot see any paper showing through- unless I left it showing on purpose, like when I drew a mountain lion sitting on snow which I rendered on white pastelmat to indicate snow. If you compare “Rocky”’s background to the cat, you’ll see it’s smoother, even though I did use solvent on the cat’s background. You can still see some grain.
I can also get more detail in when drawing with colored pencils because I can sharpen them to a fine point.
So before I even start a piece I ask myself these questions regarding the style of the finished product:
Do I want to be more detailed? If so, I use colored pencils.
Do I want to have a completely smooth final product? If so, I might choose pastels.
Do I want to be more expressive? If so, I will choose pastels.
Do I want the colors to pop? If so, I will choose pastels.
Factor 2- Time
I knew I wanted to draw Gus in colored pencils, but I thought that it would take a very long time to make the walls and floor look smooth using them. So I decided to do the background in pastels. It took less time, and I was able to get smooth coverage. Then I was able to get more detail on Gus by using colored pencils.
Colored pencils take a very long time (for me anyway). I’m talking 40-60 (or more!) hours for an 8” x 10” piece.
If I have a deadline, I’d rather complete the piece in pastels, or at least do the background in pastels. A pastel piece will take me maybe half the time to complete.
That’s what I did for the Snow Cardinal piece. So check that out if you want to see how I handle using both media.
Also, I like to draw in pastels in between colored pencil drawings. It’s refreshing to complete a drawing in a little bit of a shorter time!
Factor 3- Background
“Jackson” was drawing completely using colored pencils.
I have used both colored pencils and pastels for backgrounds. This is what I have discovered:
If I’m going to create a background in colored pencils, as I did with “Jackson”, I will use Pastelmat. When I draw on Pastelmat and I use Polychromos, I can move the pigment of the colored pencil around with a dry paintbrush or a blending stump. This allows me to fill the grain of the paper very quickly. That will help the final product to be less grainy and it will save time. You can still tell that I used colored pencils for this background, but I am fine with that. You can’t see nearly the amount of grain from a normal viewing distance as you can in this scanned-in image.
Pastels are better suited for covering large areas quickly, making them more time-efficient as I said in #2. They also provide a smoother coverage. If you refer back to “Gus” above, note how you don’t see any grain of the paper in his background.
As I evolve as an artist, my preference is to draw pet portraits in colored pencil and then complete the background using pastels. The reason is that I can get more detail in the animal using colored pencils. And I can also get a nice, smooth background that doesn’t show a lot of detail behind the pet. I like this approach because I want the focus to be on the animal anyway. So that strategy is a win-win for me.
Factor 4- Size
“Palomino” done entirely in colored pencils.
If your drawing is small, you may find it hard to add detail in using pastels. This is a consideration I make when I’m deciding which medium to use.
When I am working on a larger scale, I prefer to use pastels.
I drew the Palomino above using colored pencils. The size was 9” x 12”, and it took me for.ev.er. So moving forward, anything larger than 8” x 10” will be done in pastels.
Conversely, when I’m drawing something smaller, 8” x 10” or smaller, I prefer to at least do the main subject with colored pencils. I can sharpen my colored pencils to a fine point to help me achieve the tiniest of details.
Factor 5- Traveling
People say you can travel with pastels, and I’m sure you can. However, for me, I’d rather not. They create a lot of dust that falls off the paper. Because of that, I need to sit at a desk with a drawing board that collects the dust. I would also be nervous about traveling with pastel pencils because they break easily.
If I have time to do artwork when I’m headed somewhere I like to bring a colored pencil piece. Or graphite, which is even better since you need less materials.
If I know I’ll be traveling, to the beach, for example, and I might have some downtime to draw I’ll start a piece using graphite or colored pencils. I started a drawing of Elvis a year and a half ago in graphite that I’ve only worked on when I travel. Obvioulsy I need to travel more or I’ll never finish it!
Conclusion
When I begin a new piece there are several considerations I think about before choosing whether to use colored pencils, pastels, or both. I visualize what my piece might look like using the three options, consider time constraints, how big my piece might be, and whether or not I need the drawing to be portable. These factors help me to choose the right medium for my artwork.
Do you have any other considerations that you use before starting a piece? Love to hear your thoughts.
