I think underpainting in soft pastel is the #1 technique soft pastel painting technique people are curious about and want to learn.  I often get questions on why I choose certain types and wanted to give you a short pro/con list of the different methods.

Dawn in the Canyon, 15×16″ pastel on paper

 

Alcohol (91% Isopropyl):

Alcohol is the number one wet method I use!

The above piece was done with alcohol and hard pastel. I use this method a lot in my video tutorials here and here.

Pro:

• Inexpensive 
• Dries Quickly 
• Safe 
• Creates beautiful drip effects as it dries and mingles on your paper

Con:  

• Has a strong odor 
• Can remove grit from certain types of paper (I use Uart and it handles the alcohol well).

Autumn’s Flourish, 11×14″ pastel on sanded paper

 

Odorless Mineral Spirits:

This piece was done on OMS toned Uart. Using a hard golden pastel, I scumbled an even layer across the paper.  Then, I used odorless mineral spirits to wash this pastel into the paper.

OMS is widely used in oil painting and readily available.

Pro:

• Readily Available 
• Creates beautiful “blooms” and fun effects 
• Inexpensive 
• Can be used to create an oil stain with diluted oil paint

Con:

• Has a strong odor
• Can be unsafe in an enclosed area 
• Hard to dispose 
• Can remove grit from papers
• Takes much longer to dry

Canyon Floral – 8×10″ pastel on paper

Watercolor:

I used watercolor for this painting combined with a bit of hard pastel.

When using water I either switch away from unmounted Uart (see Con below) or use their wonderful premium boards.  LuxArchival is also a paper that handles watercolor beautifully and is the paper I used for Canyon Floral (above).

Pro:

• Harmless 
• Has no odor 
• Easy to dispose 
• Very inexpensive and readily available 
• Can be used with watercolor and acrylic ink

Con:

• Buckles papers (especially unmounted Uart)
• Not as many effects as it dries
• Dries slowly and saturates papers more thoroughly (thus the buckling) 
• Can remove some grits

Blue Memory – 6×6″ pastel on paper

Acrylic Ink: 

I used acrylic ink in this piece on Pastelmat paper.

Pro: 

• saturated vibrant colors 
• readily available at art supply stores (I like this color and this color and this color!)
• don’t have to mix the paint color (or worry about blobs of acrylic on your paper) 
• no odor 
• can use neat application methods to achieve fun results

Con:

• very opaque and “dark”
• to achieve nuance, you must thin with water which can lead to buckling depending on your paper
• can stain your hands and clothing
• can drip down your painting if you’re not careful

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I hope this helps you when you go about choosing your underpainting methods. 

I’ll be sharing other ways to underpaint with soft pastel soon!

xoxo,

Bethany

P.S. Need some ideas for beginning pastel sets? Here are my suggestions!