Did you know you could do THIS with pastels and charcoal?

 A different way to use dry media!

  Did you know that chalk pastels, soft pastels, and charcoal are all actually water-soluble? I learned this little trick in one of my drawing classes in college and I was flabbergasted the first time I heard about it! 

 

Left-Right-Top-Bottom- Generals charcoal pencil, Pan Pastels, Conte pencil, Royal Langnickel pastel pencil, Derwent pastel pencil, Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel pencil,Blick charcoal, Koh I Noor extra soft pastel, Sennelier extra soft pastel, No name student grade chalk pastel, Grumbacher chalk pastel.

   Using water with these very dry mediums can open up a lot of doors for creativity. It's an excellent way to blend, create expressive marks, and to create a painterly feel with your sketches. I love using this technique when I am feeling particularly experimental with my work. You can introduce brush marks, splatters, and washes into your drawings. This technique is also great for plein-air sketching as it requires very little tools. The best part is that this is often a very inexpensive way to work since charcoal and chalk pastels are usually quite affordable. This technique works with many different forms and brands as illustrated by the image above. To learn more about using water with pastels and charcoal, watch my video on this topic!

 




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