Dear Jesse,
I think it depends, in part, on the medium you start with...I still find the dry media much more malleable and forgiving, although, as I gain more experience with oil, I am finding it quite amenable to change, too. (and watercolor, what a beautiful and stressful medium!) A lot depends on your individual temperament, too. I use latex gloves with my pastels, keeps the fingers from drying out.
One of the most interesting uses of pastel I have ever seen is in Bill Hosner's work. He uses a sable brush and acetone to melt the pastel onto the page in a liquid form, and paints wet. He gets a fantastically beautiful surface quality.See some of Bill's beautiful work at
www.williamhosnerfineart.com.
After going to the art spectrum site, I see that the surface should take any kind of liquid underpainting, so I'll try it when I get a chance.
The Wallis Sanded pastel paper still remains one of my favorites. If you have never seen it, it's a heavy archival paper that seems more a synthetic than a paper, even though it has a rag base. The tooth never fills up, it can take any type of liquid underpainting without buckling. One of the big advantages is that you can buy it by the roll (about 46" wide). As any pastel painter knows, it's nearly impossible to get commercially prepared papers in large sizes.You can increasingly find Wallis by the sheet at some art supply stores, or call Kitty Wallis at 800-760-7879 or
[email protected]. Kitty, BTW, is a wonderful pastel painter.
So this is a very long-winded way of saying,don't give up on the pastel..it's a cat that be skinned many ways.
Thanks Chris