Making pastels by hand

[Sharon Knettell]

Laura,

I applaud you. We had a technical course in art school where they taught us how to make egg tempera and oil paint. That was the end of homemade art supplies for me.

I have to say that the pastel sets were quite an investment. I could never make all the pastels sufficient to do one of my paintings as they are so large. The last one I finished '"Alicia Blue" is 53"x 68". She is posted in the professional unveilings section.

Doesn't Kitty Wallis have more information for you? I remember calling them and they seemed to be quite forthcoming.

I did talk to the president of Great American. I like his pastels very much as they do not crumble like Senneliers and they have quite an extensive range of colors. He told me something very interesting vis-a-vis Senneliers. He told me that they had not changed their technology since they started, which had to be about 125? years ago. He started investigating new methods to come up with his product. He said he got started because he was a laid off computer engineer and took a course on color. That got him started. So the information is out there somewhere.

I wish I could be more help.

[Laura B. Shelley]

I have some serious reservations about Senneliers, so I'd certainly agree with him. Schmincke is probably my favorite among the most easily available brands (that is, the ones my local art store carries in open stock). I don't think I've ever had one crumble on me or turn out to be hard and scratchy.

I've never yet gotten my paws on Great Americans. Yours is certainly not the first strong endorsement I've heard for that brand. I admit I was a little taken aback by their color names. I usually expect something like "Deep Umber Tint 3" instead of "Burnt Reynolds"! But it sounds like I should watch for sales on those so I can try them out.

I've seen your posts about the technical hurdles in working so large in pastel. Now that's an area I'm not too courageous with--my largest pastel so far is only 18x24! I'm going to make some oversize sticks like the giant Senneliers. Do you ever use those?

I've talked to Kitty Wallis several times via PM, and she is incredibly helpful and generous with her time. I have a sample kit of her white pastel base she kindly sent me that I have to test and review; the pre-mixed white has some problems with setting up in the jar, and the kit should get around that. In her work she wants very clean, high-chroma, ungreyed colors, and the pigments in her line are all chosen with that goal in mind. The Wallis doughs are the best way I've found for a home pastel maker to deal with pthalos and quinacridones, which are a bear and a half to mix by hand due to how finely powdered they are and their staining potential.

Man, I'm raring to go mix some colors now. What I really enjoy doing, and have done several times now, is to make a dozen or so custom sticks for each commission as a way of building up my collection, and I've got five new commissions lined up. I hope my new pigments get here soon.

[Sharon Knettell]

Laura,

I only bought the large Sennelier in a black. Other than that none. If you want big pastels, Dakota Art Pastels (www.dakotapastels.com) sells the medium and maybe large Unison pastels. Those are wonderful.

The Great American pastels are somewhat like Schminkes, but have a larger and more coherent color line. Their skin-tone pastels are the ones I seem to end up using the most. Their Midnight has the darkest most velvety deep blue of any of the other manufacturers.

Dakota also has handmade charts of all the pastel lines. They are invaluable if you are looking for a particular color or trying to file a scruffy looking orphan. I put them in a loose-leaf binder.

Let us know of your progress in this endeavor. It would be really interesting.