Jessica Crabtree

First stage of Apache, 12×16, pastel on suede. It will be in full-color, but in a painting with lots of dark shadows I find it works better to put in the darkest areas first. This look of this initial black layer has a really neat effect, I think. More coming soon!

People frequently ask me what brands of pastels I use most often. Here’s a quick list of my favorite chalks and their characteristics.

Sennelier soft pastels – hand-made in France; produced in the widest color range available. Usually classified as soft, but vary from medium-hard to very, VERY soft. Extremely rich and blendable chalks. I use these for base coats, large areas of color coverage, or wherever I need especially rich tone.

Nupastels – Prismacolor’s signature line of hard pastels, and probably the most versatile (and affordable) set around. Very good range of colors with nice, sharp edges for fine lines and detailing. Some of my paintings, such as Cougar, 16×20 (below) were done almost entirely using Nupastels.

Art Spectrum – Australian brand notable for hard-to-find-colors. The chalks are big and durable and also come in nifty small assortments that are handy for individual projects.

Besides these I have a partial set of the old Grumbacher soft pastels that was handed down to me. This line is no longer in production (Grumbacher pastels are now made by Prismacolor) but I especially like their fine, creamy flesh tones. And I still have plenty of my old student pastels on hand to use on occasion. It’s true, you can’t have too many pastels – but it’s better to have the ones that work best for your needs in order to get the most out of them.

Cougar, 16x20

Modern pastel painting began during the Renaissance under the auspices of artists like Leonardo da Vinci, but it didn’t achieve real popularity until the 17th and 18th centuries when it emerged as a favored medium for portraits. In spite of this, pastels are an exceptionally straightforward art form: namely, naturally occurring pigments that have been pulverized and mixed with binders such as chalks or various gums. In some ways this places them more in a class with ancient forms of art, like earthenware pottery and cave painting, than with modern painting media.

Prehistoric cave paintings such as Altamira in Spain and Lascaux in France depict the natural world of the Ice Age in red and yellow ochres and black charcoal.  Some of the original “pastels” used to paint these images have been discovered in the caves. As it happens, the principles of pastel-making haven’t changed very much.

When painting portraits I find that nothing gives vitality and depth to a face like a rich base coat of red ochre. It’s my favorite pigment to work with – and probably the oldest known to man. The pigment itself is made from iron oxide – the same compound that makes clay red and gives our blood its color. Its vibrancy and its association with the life force made it sacred to ancient cultures all around the world.

The iron oxide pigment I use, incidentally, is obtained from clays found not too far away from where the Lascaux caves were painted – and their colors are still vivid, despite being many thousands of years old. Even into modern times, the flexibility and durability of these same pigments and materials make them particularly appropriate for painting portraits, both human and animal.

I find it fascinating that the pastel artist gets to work with little pieces of the earth from all around the world, and reuse them to bring life to a new painting.

Who knew pastel painting was such an ancient tradition?