I fell asleep before I could comment last night! You are a true artist. You don rubber gloves to use pastels. so smart. Your nickname should be lullaby voice. 🤗🤗😇😇 I watched again this morning first thing, so I could actually watch you art. (as a verb) LOL Love you!
Thank you Linda! Partially smart and partially dirt-a-phobic. 😂 It's strange, I can dig holes, work with wood, and work with concrete, but when it comes to art I become an eccentric nut who can't have his hands dirty. I'm glad you enjoyed this and like my tone. Some people yell at me for yelling too much. 😂 Have a great week! 🙂
You should do a commemorative pastel piece of Peanut the Squirrel! 😢😢 I know, 1st world problems but truly I’d love to see a non-ai piece of him. Poor lil nugget. I bet someone would buy it! Oh, and man those Marie’s pastels are vibrant!
@ i literally bawled watching the owners announce his theft and passing. Im not a tree higher type, but I adore animals and he was a pet, not a threat. Anywho, I tend to have lung sensitivity, so I’d have to wear a mask for that!
I know, it was sad because he was someone's pet. That would be a nightmare for me. Yes, I would be very careful anyway but with any respiratory issues, it's better to just pass on pastels.
@ Agree, if someone can blazing in and took my cat or my parrot and did that, truly, I’d never get over it. I have a dust collector device for when I efile my nails too. After covid in ‘21, my lungs have never been the same.
Okay, make me stop and think this morning...LOL. To me, it is between a drawing and a painting. I have been watching a pastel artist who mixes his pastels like he would paint. Instead of using a standard paint pallet, he uses paper as a pallet. It is truly unique to watch and see the details and realism he gets. He uses pan-pastels instead of sticks. I have the Lightwish watercolor. I do believe I need the soft pastels as well..LOL, I actually watched an artist use his hands to paint with pastels. How he did not get mud and made every color pop is beyond me. Okay, I think I am rambling now. 🙂
Finger painting with pastels is what it's all about. 😂 I did enjoy the pastel pencils more because there is a little less mess but either way you get the dust build up. You can also save your dust for use as a pan pastel later. I think it's also between drawing and painting. It just depends on the artist you ask at the time. 👍🏻
That jump scare at the beginning 😂 I am not prepared for surgery! Then I read the title of the video and it all made sense and now I have to go get a mask and gloves so I can use pastels too
Between drawing or painting, I switch between the two enough I just call it "arting". Which the teenager in me giggles at all the time. "I was arting earlier and I noticed this smell..."
I adore soft pastels of all varieties. They are fun, and easy to use. I enjoy getting messy, which is probably why as a kid my finger painting was mostly on me rather than the paper. 😂
I think I would call them drawings, but idk lol I have zero experience with pastels, but I got the neocolor2 from carandache and they will arrive next month all the way from Cleveland (💘), and I’m crazy for the graphitint blocks as well (I just can’t help it, gonna get them next year for sure). They are both water soluble tho, which is definitely my jam, can’t wait 🫶🫶
If your page is filled with pastel then it's a painting, if you use them to draw, then it's a drawing, that would be my thought process, I could be wrong! Thank you so much Pete, once again your videos are entertaining. I look forward to Monday's to watch your videos.
This is very interesting to me. I’ve had a set of pastel sticks by Prang for many many years. Maybe since college (50+ years ago). I hardly used them because they were so messy, but I’ve always hung on to them. Your video makes me want to try them again. Thanks Pete!
@ yes, that’s the other drawback. So maybe I’ll only use them when I have a desire to feel like a kid playing hopscotch 😂 And not care when the wind blows it away.
It doesn't matter what mood I'm in, seeing my hashtag in your description always makes me smile 😊 also I still can't see your channel name without whispering it 😂
I enjoyed working with pastels. I did a large piece of my cat, it turned out great…but OMGoodness very messy, and I always paint or draw with things laying down, makes it even messier. I finally learned to do pastels outdoors. I haven’t done any in a very long time. I can’t take the mess, even outdoors! I liked the drawings, paintings? Fun video. Too messy for me to go back to pastels. 😂
Glad you enjoyed this, Denise! I understand. I can't take the mess. Pastel pencils make a little less mess but unless you use sanded paper it's hard to put lighter colors on top of darker ones.
Pastels are great - both oils and soft. For the life of me I can't make this type of pastel paper work, so I only use sanded papers. Those are a dream for pastels. I don't use fingers - you'll have stumps by the time you're done. And I only use the rubber tools, too. Easy to clean, only need a few for size differences, and no color contamination.
Honestly, I always thought pastels were oil pastels. I've just discovered there are many different kinds recently so this video should be pretty informative for me. Do these pastels feel like chalk? I can't stand the feeling or sound of chalk on paper or on my skin so that will be out for me if that is the case. Don't know if it's my monitor but it seems there are far too many of the same colours in this set. I really liked the vibrancy of your abstract painting before you added the white pastel but it looks good anyway.
Thank you! Yes, very much like chalk. There were some similar colors I could've done without but many were different enough. The thing is pastels mix so easily you don't need that many. I agree, I enjoyed it before the white. It took away from the contrast. 👍🏻
I think the problem with adding the white at the end was that it made grey with the black. You could try adding a layer of workable fixative before you go on top again instead so the layers don’t mix together. I enjoyed watching this, though!
Thank you. I don't use fixative at all on pastels anymore. They all dull the color a little because they are water soluble. Next time, I'll just leave the white off. 👍🏻
@ that’s why I said the workable fixative rather than the final fixative ( I have the same problem) - it will dull a bit but then you can go on top with more layers.
Don’t use pastels very often for the same reason, small studio with other things around and they’re messy. But when I do, found a cool effect using them on gessoed canvas and then applying alcohol. Makes a lovely background for acrylic painting. No idea if it’s archival or not, I like the effect. Probably is, alcohol should just break down the binder.
I have tactile sensory issues with dry pastels and never know how to fix them - every fixative I have tried makes the pastel sink into the paper and loose vibrancy. I like using them in proper art studios where you can get dusty and messy but at home… eh. I love Marie’s though - their Chinese paints are amazing!
I never used Marie's paints and I have only used oil pastels a couple of times. I need to try the oil pastels again and see if I can get along with them. I found the same issue with pastel fixing so now I just tape a piece of glassine over the top and put it into an archival storage book.
@@IllustrationsByPete try Neopastels by Caran d’Ache or Mungyo (the artist grade ones, NOT the student ones, which are awful). They are easier to handle than Sennelier and VERY good
They are on my list. When I had some a very long time ago I had no idea how to use them and didn't like them but now that I know more I need to give them a real try. 👍🏻
Thank you! I used to but it dulls the colors a little. Now I tape glassine to the front so it doesn't smear on anything else and store it in an archival display book. Pastels are one of the easiest mediums to use and one of the hardest to preserve. 👍🏻
I recently used an old box of pastels I bought at goodwill years ago. I used an exacto knife to scratch some pigment powder onto wet watercolor paint. It can be blended or left speckled. I loved the effect and will be experimenting more, but it can still be smeared when dry so there's that. Anything more than this is just too messy for my set up. I'm only a hobby artist with no one asking for my artistic takes, so I paint with wet & draw with dry. My brain could probably find all sorts of ways to justify drawing vs painting that have to do with tools, function, or intention as opposed to medium. Is there a traditional explanation? How an artist describes their own work is probably all that matters.
Yikes! Pastels are not for me. Too messy. So I have a question on your desk setup. The two vertical trays on your desk that you use to organize your pens and markers… what are those called? I tried a few search terms on Amazon and couldn’t come up with something that had narrow shelves like that. The one on the left seems to be adjustable while the right one does not. I’m interested in both kinds. Happy Monday!
They are way too messy for indoor use in my opinion. I made both of those. One is a 2 slot shelf. The other is made from an old CD holder. I screwed the pieces into a box and then just cut up some foam board and glued little shelves into them. I couldn't find them either so I made my own.
I enjoy being creative. I was wrong, it wasn't a CD holder, it was a spare sheIf I had. Same material though. I should mention these in a video so I can explain what I did. 👍🏻
My first language is not English so when I first took art classes here I used to be confused by the painting/ drawing thing too as where I come from painting = wet media, and drawing = dry media. But here it’s more a case of what you do rather than what materials you use - so if what you do is about line and mark-making it can get called drawing even if you are using paint, and if it’s mostly about colour, values etc, then it can be called painting even if it’s with dry media
It's not just because of your English. It always confused me too. What I found is it just depends on the artist. One calls it one thing and another calls it something else. The examples you give make sense but artists usually do not. 😂
Okay, so pastel painting or pastel drawing? It really comes down to how the artist handles the pastels. If they’re mostly making lines and sticking to finer details, it’s more of a “drawing” approach. But if they’re going all out with blending, layering, and covering the surface, it feels more like “painting.” Think of pastel drawing as using pastels in a way that’s similar to sketching with pencils or charcoal. It’s usually lighter and more about outlines and finer details. You’ll see artists making lines, cross-hatching, and using gentler strokes instead of filling in big areas. The texture of the paper often shows through more, so the whole thing can feel airy and sketch-like. Hope this helps anyone who reads it! 🥰
This is a great explanation that makes logical sense. The problem is most artists do not make logical sense. 😂 I have found that for most situations it just depends on what the artist calls their work. But your answer does make perfect sense. Thank you! 🙂
@IllustrationsByPete Glad to be of help. 😊 My medium of choice is oil pastels, (can't stand the feeling of chalk pastels), and when I work with oil pastels and same rule applies. Therefore, I can actually feel my own approach as I'm using them. Never know what's gonna be until Im working... A drawing? A painting?..... 🤔 A weird cross in-between? Maybe! 😅
From my understanding, OIL pastel art is considered paintings and SOFT (chalk) pastel art is considered drawings because of the way the artwork looks once completed
That also makes sense. A lot of good suggestions from everyone on this subject. They all make sense, but it just seems to be what artist you talk to that has their own take on it. Thanks for adding this one, I don't think we've had this explanation yet. I'm good with all of it. 👍🏻
Personally, I call "painting" anything that involves a wet medium that needs to be allowed to dry and you apply using brushes... drawings are anything else. But that's just me. I love pastels but I prefer the oil versions than the dry ones because it seems like you are wasting so much with all that dust. I like the second drawing - very vibrant :).
Thanks bud! I need to really give the oil pastels a try. I've only used them a couple of times and I really had no idea what I was doing so I basically used it like a crayon and didn't blend anything. I was young. 🙂
I fell asleep before I could comment last night! You are a true artist. You don rubber gloves to use pastels. so smart. Your nickname should be lullaby voice. 🤗🤗😇😇 I watched again this morning first thing, so I could actually watch you art. (as a verb) LOL Love you!
Thank you Linda! Partially smart and partially dirt-a-phobic. 😂 It's strange, I can dig holes, work with wood, and work with concrete, but when it comes to art I become an eccentric nut who can't have his hands dirty. I'm glad you enjoyed this and like my tone. Some people yell at me for yelling too much. 😂 Have a great week! 🙂
You should do a commemorative pastel piece of Peanut the Squirrel! 😢😢 I know, 1st world problems but truly I’d love to see a non-ai piece of him. Poor lil nugget. I bet someone would buy it!
Oh, and man those Marie’s pastels are vibrant!
Poor little guy. I might do that. Yes, those were amazingly vibrant. They're great. 🙂
@ i literally bawled watching the owners announce his theft and passing. Im not a tree higher type, but I adore animals and he was a pet, not a threat. Anywho, I tend to have lung sensitivity, so I’d have to wear a mask for that!
I know, it was sad because he was someone's pet. That would be a nightmare for me.
Yes, I would be very careful anyway but with any respiratory issues, it's better to just pass on pastels.
@ Agree, if someone can blazing in and took my cat or my parrot and did that, truly, I’d never get over it.
I have a dust collector device for when I efile my nails too. After covid in ‘21, my lungs have never been the same.
@@sunnycharacter I don't think I would either.
Okay, make me stop and think this morning...LOL. To me, it is between a drawing and a painting. I have been watching a pastel artist who mixes his pastels like he would paint. Instead of using a standard paint pallet, he uses paper as a pallet. It is truly unique to watch and see the details and realism he gets. He uses pan-pastels instead of sticks. I have the Lightwish watercolor. I do believe I need the soft pastels as well..LOL, I actually watched an artist use his hands to paint with pastels. How he did not get mud and made every color pop is beyond me. Okay, I think I am rambling now. 🙂
Finger painting with pastels is what it's all about. 😂 I did enjoy the pastel pencils more because there is a little less mess but either way you get the dust build up. You can also save your dust for use as a pan pastel later. I think it's also between drawing and painting. It just depends on the artist you ask at the time. 👍🏻
That jump scare at the beginning 😂 I am not prepared for surgery! Then I read the title of the video and it all made sense and now I have to go get a mask and gloves so I can use pastels too
Between drawing or painting, I switch between the two enough I just call it "arting". Which the teenager in me giggles at all the time. "I was arting earlier and I noticed this smell..."
That's the best word for it. Covers every angle. 😂 Nice work!
the finger prints thing made me chuckle😂
I adore soft pastels of all varieties. They are fun, and easy to use. I enjoy getting messy, which is probably why as a kid my finger painting was mostly on me rather than the paper. 😂
I can see it. If you enjoy the mess then there isn't a better medium. 😂
I think I would call them drawings, but idk lol I have zero experience with pastels, but I got the neocolor2 from carandache and they will arrive next month all the way from Cleveland (💘), and I’m crazy for the graphitint blocks as well (I just can’t help it, gonna get them next year for sure). They are both water soluble tho, which is definitely my jam, can’t wait 🫶🫶
That's great! I hope you enjoy them. I have not tried the neo color but I love the graphitint pans. 👍🏻
If your page is filled with pastel then it's a painting, if you use them to draw, then it's a drawing, that would be my thought process, I could be wrong! Thank you so much Pete, once again your videos are entertaining. I look forward to Monday's to watch your videos.
Thank you! I can agree with your thinking but some artists are not logical. I think it really depends on which artist you ask. Artists are fickle. 😂
@@IllustrationsByPete I agree, some artists have too many rules, they take out all the fun of painting! 😊
I know. Bunch of donkeys! 🫏 😂
Your pastel animals are beautiful!
Thank you! There's a lot more control with pastel pencils so you can put in much more detail. 👍🏻
@ I agree!
This is very interesting to me. I’ve had a set of pastel sticks by Prang for many many years. Maybe since college (50+ years ago). I hardly used them because they were so messy, but I’ve always hung on to them. Your video makes me want to try them again. Thanks Pete!
Thank you! I would take them outside. 😂 They are way too messy or I'd use them more too. They're even harder to preserve after you're done.
@ yes, that’s the other drawback. So maybe I’ll only use them when I have a desire to feel like a kid playing hopscotch 😂 And not care when the wind blows it away.
Good plan 😂
Great pieces Pete ❤
Thank you! 🙂
It doesn't matter what mood I'm in, seeing my hashtag in your description always makes me smile 😊 also I still can't see your channel name without whispering it 😂
That's right! OG hashtagsmithing. I won't ever drop that. 👍🏻🙂
I enjoyed working with pastels. I did a large piece of my cat, it turned out great…but OMGoodness very messy, and I always paint or draw with things laying down, makes it even messier. I finally learned to do pastels outdoors. I haven’t done any in a very long time. I can’t take the mess, even outdoors! I liked the drawings, paintings? Fun video. Too messy for me to go back to pastels. 😂
Glad you enjoyed this, Denise! I understand. I can't take the mess. Pastel pencils make a little less mess but unless you use sanded paper it's hard to put lighter colors on top of darker ones.
Pastels are great - both oils and soft. For the life of me I can't make this type of pastel paper work, so I only use sanded papers. Those are a dream for pastels. I don't use fingers - you'll have stumps by the time you're done. And I only use the rubber tools, too. Easy to clean, only need a few for size differences, and no color contamination.
I have to use the gloves on sanded paper. Saves my fingers. I need to give oil pastels a real go and see if I can get along with them. 👍🏻
Honestly, I always thought pastels were oil pastels. I've just discovered there are many different kinds recently so this video should be pretty informative for me. Do these pastels feel like chalk? I can't stand the feeling or sound of chalk on paper or on my skin so that will be out for me if that is the case. Don't know if it's my monitor but it seems there are far too many of the same colours in this set. I really liked the vibrancy of your abstract painting before you added the white pastel but it looks good anyway.
Thank you! Yes, very much like chalk. There were some similar colors I could've done without but many were different enough. The thing is pastels mix so easily you don't need that many. I agree, I enjoyed it before the white. It took away from the contrast. 👍🏻
I think the problem with adding the white at the end was that it made grey with the black. You could try adding a layer of workable fixative before you go on top again instead so the layers don’t mix together. I enjoyed watching this, though!
Thank you. I don't use fixative at all on pastels anymore. They all dull the color a little because they are water soluble. Next time, I'll just leave the white off. 👍🏻
@ that’s why I said the workable fixative rather than the final fixative ( I have the same problem) - it will dull a bit but then you can go on top with more layers.
Don’t use pastels very often for the same reason, small studio with other things around and they’re messy. But when I do, found a cool effect using them on gessoed canvas and then applying alcohol. Makes a lovely background for acrylic painting. No idea if it’s archival or not, I like the effect. Probably is, alcohol should just break down the binder.
You can do something similar with water but it gets much duller. Alcohol might be the way to go. Thanks for sharing! 👍🏻
I have tactile sensory issues with dry pastels and never know how to fix them - every fixative I have tried makes the pastel sink into the paper and loose vibrancy. I like using them in proper art studios where you can get dusty and messy but at home… eh. I love Marie’s though - their Chinese paints are amazing!
on the other hand I have loooooved oil pastels my entire life
I never used Marie's paints and I have only used oil pastels a couple of times. I need to try the oil pastels again and see if I can get along with them. I found the same issue with pastel fixing so now I just tape a piece of glassine over the top and put it into an archival storage book.
@@IllustrationsByPete try Neopastels by Caran d’Ache or Mungyo (the artist grade ones, NOT the student ones, which are awful). They are easier to handle than Sennelier and VERY good
@ if you ever get Marie’s paints get the artist grade Chinese ones ( for Chinese painting on rice paper etc)
you should try out some oil pastels on the channel too!
They are on my list. When I had some a very long time ago I had no idea how to use them and didn't like them but now that I know more I need to give them a real try. 👍🏻
Love the artwork ! Do u spray with a fixative after so it doesn't smear?
Thank you! I used to but it dulls the colors a little. Now I tape glassine to the front so it doesn't smear on anything else and store it in an archival display book. Pastels are one of the easiest mediums to use and one of the hardest to preserve. 👍🏻
Painting? Drawing? I prefer Masterpiece.
Oh, that's too much pressure. 😂 👍🏻
@ 😉
I recently used an old box of pastels I bought at goodwill years ago. I used an exacto knife to scratch some pigment powder onto wet watercolor paint. It can be blended or left speckled. I loved the effect and will be experimenting more, but it can still be smeared when dry so there's that. Anything more than this is just too messy for my set up.
I'm only a hobby artist with no one asking for my artistic takes, so I paint with wet & draw with dry. My brain could probably find all sorts of ways to justify drawing vs painting that have to do with tools, function, or intention as opposed to medium. Is there a traditional explanation? How an artist describes their own work is probably all that matters.
It always comes down to how the artist sees it. I love that idea of scraping some pastels into the watercolor. Great idea! 👍🏻
i have always wanted to try pastels, BUT i have not wanted to see what kind of a mess i would have to clean up. lol
Go out into a field and try it, then burn all your clothes. 😂
Yikes! Pastels are not for me. Too messy. So I have a question on your desk setup. The two vertical trays on your desk that you use to organize your pens and markers… what are those called? I tried a few search terms on Amazon and couldn’t come up with something that had narrow shelves like that. The one on the left seems to be adjustable while the right one does not. I’m interested in both kinds. Happy Monday!
They are way too messy for indoor use in my opinion. I made both of those. One is a 2 slot shelf. The other is made from an old CD holder. I screwed the pieces into a box and then just cut up some foam board and glued little shelves into them. I couldn't find them either so I made my own.
@@IllustrationsByPete Ahhhh, no wonder I can’t find anything similar. Time for me to get all McGyver then! Thanks :)
I enjoy being creative. I was wrong, it wasn't a CD holder, it was a spare sheIf I had. Same material though. I should mention these in a video so I can explain what I did. 👍🏻
@@IllustrationsByPete I would LOVE that!
My first language is not English so when I first took art classes here I used to be confused by the painting/ drawing thing too as where I come from painting = wet media, and drawing = dry media. But here it’s more a case of what you do rather than what materials you use - so if what you do is about line and mark-making it can get called drawing even if you are using paint, and if it’s mostly about colour, values etc, then it can be called painting even if it’s with dry media
It's not just because of your English. It always confused me too. What I found is it just depends on the artist. One calls it one thing and another calls it something else. The examples you give make sense but artists usually do not. 😂
Okay, so pastel painting or pastel drawing?
It really comes down to how the artist handles the pastels. If they’re mostly making lines and sticking to finer details, it’s more of a “drawing” approach. But if they’re going all out with blending, layering, and covering the surface, it feels more like “painting.”
Think of pastel drawing as using pastels in a way that’s similar to sketching with pencils or charcoal. It’s usually lighter and more about outlines and finer details. You’ll see artists making lines, cross-hatching, and using gentler strokes instead of filling in big areas. The texture of the paper often shows through more, so the whole thing can feel airy and sketch-like.
Hope this helps anyone who reads it! 🥰
This is a great explanation that makes logical sense. The problem is most artists do not make logical sense. 😂 I have found that for most situations it just depends on what the artist calls their work. But your answer does make perfect sense. Thank you! 🙂
@IllustrationsByPete Glad to be of help. 😊 My medium of choice is oil pastels, (can't stand the feeling of chalk pastels), and when I work with oil pastels and same rule applies. Therefore, I can actually feel my own approach as I'm using them. Never know what's gonna be until Im working... A drawing? A painting?..... 🤔 A weird cross in-between? Maybe! 😅
I need to really give those a go and see if I can work with them. They seem fun 👍🏻
From my understanding, OIL pastel art is considered paintings and SOFT (chalk) pastel art is considered drawings because of the way the artwork looks once completed
That also makes sense. A lot of good suggestions from everyone on this subject. They all make sense, but it just seems to be what artist you talk to that has their own take on it. Thanks for adding this one, I don't think we've had this explanation yet. I'm good with all of it. 👍🏻
Personally, I call "painting" anything that involves a wet medium that needs to be allowed to dry and you apply using brushes... drawings are anything else. But that's just me.
I love pastels but I prefer the oil versions than the dry ones because it seems like you are wasting so much with all that dust.
I like the second drawing - very vibrant :).
Thanks bud! I need to really give the oil pastels a try. I've only used them a couple of times and I really had no idea what I was doing so I basically used it like a crayon and didn't blend anything. I was young. 🙂
For me, Dry media= drawing, Wet media =painting 🤷🏼♀️ that’s just me though lol
That's how a lot of people see it. 👍🏻