Daphne Bennett

By the end of last month I have received an email from Artful revealing the new artful box’s content: soft pastel. I am still quite happy to pay £35 for this edition although soft pastel wasn’t on the list of things I am going to buy. Bring it on, consumerism!

About 6 years ago I went to London and visited an art show with a friend. I saw someone demonstrating using soft pastels there. So I was intrigued and purchased some Conte a Paris pastels and a pack of warm colour and a pack of cold colour Daler Rowney pastel paper, A4, some Winsor and Newton fixative. I bought a book too, landscape pastel drawing. I found pastel very difficult to master and I wasn’t keen (or had any chances) to learn landscape/ plain air drawing, and the platte of my first purchase wasn’t wide enough for me to do much either, so they were mostly put away and forgotten.

I never believe things happen for a reason. But the pastels and paper I bought years ago do compensate what the Artful box is missing.

First, why do they insist giving white paper? Because it’s hard for soft pastel to cover textured paper evenly, most artists prefer paper with some sort of colours, beige and grey are popular choices, and the warm coloured paper I have, ranging from red to pink and orange, or the cool coloured paper, ranging from blue to green. Reason why is that the white on a perfectly white paper always shines through the darkest shadows when using pastels, its very difficult to look professional. You also do need some kind of fixative to keep the colour in place otherwise it will all go messy. Some people use hairspray.

Second is, among their 24 pastels, none of them is good for a flesh tone. So it is difficult to do portraits. But luckily I do have a couple in my Conte a Paris set. I do think the Conte a Paris soft pastels are a touch softer than the Artful box. One thing I don’t like about Artful is they don’t have much product information of the paints apart from the RRP, which can be anything they suggest really. They only says they are of premium artist quality which can be very subjective. I guess they are made in China. I am not saying they are bad, but some more information (like lightfastness) will be useful. Now I am eagerly looking out on eBay for the Swiss brand Caran D’ache soft pastels. And perhaps a wooden soft pastel storage box.

One thing I am really impressed with is there’s no single piece of useless plastic packaging or even paper wrapping in this box. It is tightly fitted with all the goodies.

If you haven’t used soft pastels before, unlike watercolour or pencil drawings, do bear in mind it can be very dusty, messy and hard to control. You will need plenty of space and perhaps some kind of protection for the surface around. But I am a very messy person so I don’t mind too much.

And the magazine is as good as always, this time it features interesting artists like the hyperrealistic pastel artist Ruben Belloso, abstract artist Janine Baldwin, animal drawing artist whose work will be featured on the upgrade box Rachel Bee. Getting the magazine is part of the reason why I want this box.

So, cut the long story short. This is my first 2 attempts with pastels:

What I have learnt is, I need bigger paper for portraits because it is very hard to work on the skin tones and facial expression. I wanted to do one with my son and my daughter on a see-saw but it is impossible. It is my first attempt painting my dog and I do like the loose effect with soft pastels. I think the paper is the most important element when using soft pastels, the size, the colour, the texture, they all matter so much.

Apart from paper, I am blown away by the difference that a few pastel pencils can make, they help making the finer details possible and I am convinced that I need a few more. I am glad Artful box chose soft pastel as the theme for this season and I am curious when they will be able to ship their upgrade box. I just feel the urgent need to get more colours in order to create better work. With pastels if you don’t have the right colour you have to blend. And that will get messy, sometimes unintentional consequences. But I didn’t know I like soft pastels. Now I love it. These are my first 2 attempts and I am looking forward to trying more this kind of drawing.

On the other hand, it’s always said among illustrators that it’s important to find your own unique style and stick to it. I haven’t worked out how I can merge my new experience into my other work, but I am sure with time it will get better and I will find a style I can work consistently with.

For the box itself, I think it is great fun and good value for £35. If you are interested, do send me a message and let me know and I can send you a promo link hence both of us can get £5 off. 😉