Using Pastel from Dark to Light or Light to Dark

We had an interesting question from of our members recently:

"I have become quite confused as to whether one should start a pastel picture light to dark or the other way round. I have looked at quite a few of your demonstrations where you always seem to go light to dark with pastel pencils and then reading other stuff about soft pastels where they seem to say it should be done dark to light! Perhaps the difference is between Pastel Pencils and Soft Pastels."

The pastel pencils do not have the same degree of pigmentation as the traditional soft pastels - therefore require a different approach. The easiest way to prove that this is true is to apply the dark pastel pencil colours then try to add the light pastel pencil colours on top of them. The result will be a muddy mess.However there are times when it is possible to place the light colours over dark to create certain effects, I have shown this many times in the videos.

In Colin's Puffin Tutorial, you can see him use the white pastel pencil over the darker and medium tones.

It's right though that soft pastels do work well when light is applied to dark. However this medium is both difficult to master and to the beginner a very messy experience. Only the very best artists using this medium can make soft pastel paintings look good. Compare those statistics with the beginner using the pastel pencils - no contest.If you want to learn how to draw using pastel pencils, try our free courses or learn about our membership.