Drawing has long ceased to be an exclusively art form - today it is a daily hobby for tens of millions of inhabitants of the planet, as well as an excellent way of the creative development of children. Absolutely every child in the world tried to draw in one way or another, but those who got carried away and managed to find the means to give their hobby consistency and at least a slightly more complex form than drawing in the sand, managed to come up with many different ways to convey visual images ...
Nowadays, children, at least in developed countries, usually draw either with pencils and felt-tip pens, or with various types of liquid paints - gouache, watercolors, and so on. At the same time, more and more child development specialists point out that art pastels could become one of the most suitable materials for children's art.
What it is?
In fact, quite a few great artists of the past used this particular type of dye when creating their paintings, so the name is familiar to many, but not every person has a clear idea of what it is, unless he himself has a direct relationship to drawing. In this case, the adjective "pastel", meaning a very delicate, soft shade of any color, comes precisely from the word "pastel", since this means for drawing gives just such a result.
Actually, looks like a pastel in something similar to an ordinary chalk for drawing, and an inexperienced person is far from always able to determine the difference between them in appearance.
Unlike crayons, which always have approximately the same consistency, pastels can be both very hard and quite soft, which is used in various painting techniques to obtain a special effect.
This invention appeared around the 16th century. more precisely, from that moment we see pastels in the creations of many artists of that time. Then the factory production method did not yet exist, and each painter created the mass himself, mixing any dyes with water and chalk to make the finished shade softer. After the mass had dried, it was cut into pieces, making a kind of "crayons" with which, of course, it was a little easier to draw precise details than with a brush.
True, due to the general dryness of the material, it does not adhere well to ordinary paper, so it was necessary to draw on rough surfaces, but still this did not prevent the active use of pastel by such eminent masters as Renoir, Vrubel or Serov. At the same time, you can find exclusively pastel paintings, but very often such a dye on the canvas is combined with liquid types of paints.
Today, pastels are made by hand only by real people of art for their own use, but for the masses it is made at special enterprises on an industrial scale. For this, one or more dyes are taken, necessary to obtain an accurate shade, and some kind of resin base that will hold the dye in a given form - for example, gum arabic.
Generally. dyes can be completely different, but still For a classic pastel recipe, chalk is almost indispensable as an emollient. All the necessary ingredients in the right proportions are mixed and thoroughly ground together until they reach the state where it is no longer possible to separate them from each other.
The finished mass is laid out in special templates and forms, cut and then pressed under high pressure. After that, the already formed blocks are sent to the oven, where they are dried in a very gentle mode - at a temperature of 60-80 degrees. The exact temperature and drying time depend on the proportions of the starting materials and the desired hardness of the final result, since you cannot rely on chance here in any case. The fact is that too dry pastels will crumble in your hands and will not hold on to the future picture at all, but unfinished ones can deteriorate and become moldy, which also does not contribute to the successful creation of images.
The last step is packaging. Pastel is a rather fragile material, moreover, it is very sensitive to excessive moisture, therefore, it is usually packed in packages of thick and dense cardboard, and the spaces between individual sticks are additionally filled with foam rubber or any other soft filler.
Pastels usually come to the consumer in the form of a set - for a child, a standard one is enough, containing about 6-12 pieces, but professionals can count on an incredible number of shades (up to 268 pieces).
Less often, pastels are also supplied in the form of a scattering, but such a product is more interesting for those who have long and stubbornly engaged in artistic craft. For a kid, this option is useful only if he has already managed to show tremendous success in this matter.
Pros and cons
If we talk about children's creativity, then a specially designed pastel has undoubtedly much more advantages than disadvantages. Let's highlight the most basic among the advantages:
- Softness... Compared to most pencils and crayons, children's pastels require much less effort to make a mark. If for older children this is not so important, for the smallest it is an important factor that allows them to start learning to draw earlier.
- Ability to draw on paper... These are just the first centuries-old examples of pastels that required a rough surface in order to paint, but today's soft pastels, containing a fairly large amount of moisture, cling pretty well to almost any horizontal surface.
- Overlapping layers. Lying down on the paper, the pastel is not absorbed into it, but covers the surface with a thin layer of its constituents - a dye with chalk and a binder. This means that in case of any mistake, there is no need to remove the incorrect image from the surface of the paper.
It is enough just to re-"recolor" this area until the new image overlaps the old one. At the same time, a slight shading with one color on top of another will allow you to leave a certain transparency effect, creating new shades.
- Simplicity of artistic methods... Pastel is also good because it does not require any additional devices. To paint with liquid paints, you need to dilute them correctly, learn how to hold a brush, mix shades and so on, and you just need to hold pastel chalk in your hands. Unlike the same pencil, it does not need to be sharpened - it draws from all sides. At the same time, which will especially delight the little ones, a layer of pastel on the surface of the paper is perfectly smeared with a finger, which allows you to create even brighter, albeit not always meaningful images.
- Brightness and singularity... After all, pencils and felt-tip pens are a terrible commonplace, and only a very small percentage of people master the watercolor technique at a relatively decent level. Pastels are a great opportunity to bring something new into your own creative life.
However, there are also certain drawbacks, because if the pastel turned out to be completely devoid of disadvantages, it would seem strange why children still draw usually with something else, and not with this amazing tool. In the first place, the deplorable fact that pastel drawings are highly susceptible to environmental influences. Due to the dry nature of the dye, the canvas with the image cannot be bent, even just shaken, because the painting covering its surface with a thin layer will simply crumble, and even if this does not happen entirely, the original idea will still be hopelessly destroyed.
Besides, high humidity is also dangerous for pastel paintings, after all, not only a bar of pastel can get moldy, but also a whole pastel drawing. Consequently, keeping pastel creations at home can be quite problematic, and if a child has definitely achieved success in drawing, then his drawings clearly want to be saved for a longer period.
Pastel is also ignored by many parents due to the fact that in some cases it costs much more than the same pencils. A high-quality set of a relatively modest configuration (12 colors) can cost the family budget up to half a thousand rubles, and not every parent is ready to spend such sums so that the kid gets only the first concept of drawing, albeit in the most comfortable conditions.
Perhaps in this situation, you just need to pay attention to cheaper products - sets with a smaller color gamut and not the most famous manufacturers can be found in the price segment and up to 200 rubles.
At least every child is literally obliged to try this material at least once in his life - who knows, what if this is his future?
Kinds
With the choice of this material, not everything is so simple - art pastels for drawing on paper are available in several varieties at once, each of which has its own purpose. Most often, by consistency, pastel is divided into soft and hard, and what specific subspecies the substance belongs to is determined even at the production stage by a simple change in proportions - either more dye and less connecting substance, or vice versa.
For children, soft pastels are often bought - the percentage of paint in the composition is as high as possible, therefore any drawing made with the help of such a substance looks very bright and attractive, and, of course, does not require practically any pressing.
Due to the higher humidity, the softer variety adheres to the paper much more reliably, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel to preserve the picture. Nevertheless, this material crumbles very strongly, and you cannot drop it at all, otherwise you will get powder instead of chalk.
But professional pastels are always hard, both more familiar pastel crayons and pastel pencils are made from it. This substance is much stronger - it has such a high density that the pieces can even be sharpened, which is actively used by professional artists, using this option for drawing small details, shading and other similar purposes.
The chances that such a block will break itself are much less, but it is always worth remembering that the trace from it has not at all such attractive brightness, and it is by no means worth trying to apply it on any paper.
Pastels are classified, of course, in terms of configuration. Professional artists usually purchase either oversized sets with dozens of different shades, or buy material for drawing by the piece, by simply replenishing what they already have with the right colors. Of course, a child can also buy piece pastel crayons, but if he is just learning to draw, and this is also his first pastel, then for a start it is better to purchase a relatively small set - 10-18 colors, maximum - 24.
A wider color variety is not necessary for a child in the initial stages - he has not yet developed his vision of colors, so a wide variety of shades will drive him into a dead end rather than help him choose the perfect one.
It's another matter if this hobby is serious and for a long time: then you can take sets of 36-48 colors, and although they will cost much more, it should be borne in mind that they also have much more weight. You can once buy such a large set, and then simply replenish it with piece shades as needed.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that most dyes in the world are created not only for drawing on a plane, but also for decorating any three-dimensional objects, and pastel is not an exception. In particular, it can be used to color crafts made of fabric. For example, it is often used to give a finished aesthetic look to foamiran flowers.
Speaking specifically about this material, then it has a very smooth surface, accordingly, it is better to choose a soft dye for it, leaving an expressive mark. Nevertheless, in this art branch, the choice of pastels very much depends on what kind of fabric was preferred, so this topic deserves a separate consideration.
Composition
In addition to the classic pastel, the composition of which has already been described above, there are other modern options, the ingredients in which are somewhat different from the generally accepted recipe, which allows you to get a slightly different result with a general similarity of the substance.
If the classic recipe always gives more or less dry crayon, then alternative recipes are usually aimed at a more moist composition, which combines much better with paper, and therefore allows you to paint on almost any paper surface, and even with a long shelf life. Consider all alternative pastel variations in more detail:
- Oil. The name corresponds to reality - linseed oil is a kind of adhesive here. However, the pigment itself with the oil would not stick together, so the crayons are pressed to a solid state. At the same time, the presence of fat is very noticeable - crayons leave greasy marks on the fingers, over time, spots can even appear on the back of the picture. Due to the presence of liquid fat (relatively high humidity), the colors are brighter, while the shades are difficult to mix, and they are not smeared with your finger at all, since they are absorbed into the paper, but you will not get dirty about such a pattern, and the lines on it will not float.
There is a technique of shading pastels already applied to paper using a solvent on a brush or a special stick, resulting in paintings that look like oil painting; however, any professional will immediately see the difference and appreciate the unusual, so it is the real artists who usually use this tool.
- Wax. There is no oil in this type of pastel, but there is polymer wax, which allows the substance to resemble oil pastel in its properties, but at the same time it is cheaper and much less dirty, which makes wax pastel crayons an ideal gift for children. Due to the specifics of the wax itself, such a chalk draws even on glass, but does not leave any stains on the hands, and in general it is somewhat harder. Often, wax pastels are used in combination with the usual watercolors or gouache, but only strictly on top of the paint, because wax does not absorb or let water through.
- Watercolor. This material is actually a cross between classic watercolor and pastel. It is also based on wax, but here this component loses much to dyes in terms of percentage, so a simple drawing looks like it was done with oil crayons, and a blurry one looks like it was done with watercolor in an unusual technique.
Watercolor pastels are almost the same as watercolor pencils, but they leave a brighter mark and are generally softer, and due to the larger contact surface, they allow for faster painting of large objects.
Palette of shades
Another good thing about pastels is the ability to choose the right shade as carefully as possible. Firstly, most of its varieties allow you to mix different colors, creating new shades that accurately convey the artistic intention of the author of the future picture. Secondly, for real artists, industrial enterprises produce a huge variety of colors, because in one set there can be more than two hundred different tones, the names of which are unknown to most ordinary people.
Colored pastels are sold not only in sets, but also individually, however, in order to find the desired shade, you will have to look for a really large specialized store.
You can diversify the color palette even more if you take into account that different types of pastels differ in greater or lesser brightness. Thanks to the combination of various recipes, an almost unlimited number of tones can be achieved that will make even an experienced artist get confused.
At the same time, you should be careful when mixing different compounds - sometimes their properties are rather poorly compatible.
Firms
When choosing any new product for themselves, very many people who are not versed in the relevant industry prefer to rely on the name of the promoted famous brand - they say, since these guys have earned respect all over the world, it means that they definitely do not produce bad products, and I will certainly be satisfied ... Or, at least, I will get a non-distorted idea of what I am trying to learn. This approach is largely fair.
If we talk about rather expensive and professional pastels, then it is worth paying attention, perhaps, to those brands that can be called specializing in such products. These include a Dutch company Rembrandt and their compatriots Talles, as well as a French brand Sennelierfamous for its amazing selection of shades, numbering 525 different tones!
However, it should be borne in mind that the products of all these brands, being not just foreign, but also professional, will be very expensive, therefore, for children's creativity, if they buy it, then either very rich parents or those families in which real young talents grow ...
You can save some finances without losing much in quality if you pay attention to brands that do not pursue recognition from world-famous masters, but still create a very high-quality and relatively inexpensive product.
There are several dozen such brands around the world, for example - Korean Mungyo or italian Maimeri. Famous company of Czech origin Koh-I-Noor, in our country, better known for her pencils, she also makes pastels, which are highly valued in the world of creative people.
Naturally, for budgetary use it is best to purchase domestic products, since, on average, they are much cheaper than foreign ones, although the question remains regarding their quality. Among the Russian companies involved in the production of pastels, the brand's products have gained a certain positive fame. Olki. At least, if you really choose from ours, then it is she who is usually preferred by knowledgeable people.
At the same time, it must be said that this list is far from complete. The assortment of the world's leading companies changes from year to year, the ranking positions change places, and in general in creativity it is better to focus on some of your own criteria, and not at all on generally accepted ideals. therefore do not be afraid to purchase those types of pastels that are not mentioned in our article. Look for your own, and, perhaps, you will be more satisfied with your own find than with the advice of experts.
Additional elements
Pastels are such a simple drawing tool that you can use nothing at all except crayons and any suitable surface, but this does not mean at all that preference must necessarily be given to the most primitive technique.
Take even the same paper. Although wax pastels paint on anything, other types of crayons are not so tenacious, and special albums are produced for them from corrugated paper, where even the texture itself will contribute to the unusual appearance of the masterpiece. In addition, in albums for drawing with pastels, different sheets are usually made not white, but simply certain neutral shades, which allows you to beat the tone of the base for the image of one of the details of the drawing.
Pastels differ from ordinary crayons, which allows you to use additional means to make the result similar to oil painting.
Small children instinctively smear a layer of dye on the paper with their finger, which is used even by professional artists and allows for a better feel of the material, but shading can also be done with other suitable objects. To do this, you can purchase ordinary paint brushes of different thicknesses and hardness, often also use pieces of an ordinary sponge. Wherein it is worth considering the properties of not only the shading tool, but also the pastel itself, because some varieties are shaded more easily, while others are harder, but even those that lend themselves to smearing can do it with different effects.
Finally, it would be strange if pastels, easily crumbling from many surfaces, would hold out for so many centuries - old paintings with its use simply would not survive to this day, and it, at best, would remain an option for children's temporary creativity. In order for the drawn to hold and even allow the canvas to be shaken during transportation, a special fixer, that is, fixer. Today, the fixative is produced industrially and is sold in small jars, from where it is sprayed through a spray bottle onto a painting that is considered complete.
Do-it-yourselfers claim that regular hairspray also does this very well.
How to choose?
In most cases, pastels are bought for those children who do not yet know how to draw at all, and parents just want to pamper the kids with bright colors, and, possibly, interest them in a new hobby. Therefore, the substance should be bright, not too hard, but at the same time not dirty everything around.
It also seems quite reasonable to wish that the crayon should not be too demanding on the surfaces on which the child will draw, because a beginner, and even a little one, is unlikely to have special grooved albums and fixators at home. So it turns out that the best choice for a child is a wax pastel in the form of crayons, which has all the desired qualities. For a start, a small palette is enough, comparable to any other type of paint.
It is quite another matter if the child has already managed to master the technique of drawing with pastels a little and is now at the stage of improving his skills. Firstly, in this case, he probably already grew up a little and got an idea of accuracy, so the requirements for the minimum mark of the substance are no longer so strict. Secondly, now the pastel should offer more flexible possibilities for revealing its different properties - somewhere it will need to be sharpened, somewhere - smeared with a brush with water.
It is also possible that none of the varieties of the produced pastels can provide all the necessary properties at once, so the most reasonable way out is to combine them.
However, if all these criteria are really in demand by a child who still continues to make progress in drawing with pastels, then he already understands the topic much better than his parents, and only he knows what kind of substance he needs.
Reviews
As a rule, those parents who gave their children the opportunity to independently evaluate all the benefits of drawing with pastels are satisfied. Children really like this type of dye, at first for its bright and juicy colors, for the ability to draw with literally a finger, and in the future they also begin to appreciate the variety of techniques, which allows them to convey their ideas as accurately as possible and create something truly unique.
Pastels are criticized much less often., and even then only if it was picked up completely wrong. In such cases, parents usually complain that it is very dry, does not stick to the surface of the paper, crumbles, gets dirty or crumbles into dust when dropped from a height.
As for the general developmental effect for a child, it is generally similar to the use of other common drawing materials. The use of pastel crayons improves fine motor skills of the hands, develops the perception of colors and a general understanding of the surrounding world, promotes the rapid development of imagination and favors more active brain activity in general.
For information on how to choose high-quality pastels, see the next video.
