While majoring in Fine arts at Wayne State University (Detroit), I was exclusively a "wet media" artist, working in the traditional painting media, oils and acrylics. Since my style has always involved a good deal of layering and blending, I found watercolors to be completely unsuited to my own, particular needs. I had done a lot of drawing, with charcoal pencils, and with pen and ink, but other than figure study classes, I seldom used drawing tools while an art student. Many artists, many painters, do their preliminary sketches on canvas with charcoal pencils, but that is simply a means to an end, not the tool of first choice for the completed piece. Below is a fairly typical, preliminary sketch for a painting called "Old Campaigners" by Mitchell Jamieson. Artists seldom do a more "finished" preliminary study than this. Creating preliminary sketches right on the canvas I was to paint on, was true of my painting techniques in both oils and acrylics, until about 20 years ago. At that time, I developed an urge to try something new, for no particular reason other than an artist's creative curiosity. Because my style is so detail driven, I realized before investing in a set of pastels that soft, pastel sticks would not be the answer for me. So, I bought my first set of Conte pastel pencils, being familiar with Conte's line of charcoal pencils. I don't recall the subject matter of my first effort with pastel pencils, but within a couple hours I was already falling in love with the textural characteristics of pastels on paper. What was just as striking was the manner in which light reflects off the micro grains of pigment. The colors, to an artist like myself who dotes on color, were DAZZLING! As I worked the pastels into a medium "tooth" (texture) pastel paper, the ability to layer and blend the pigments, with such complete control captivated me. Oils can be blended beautifully, but generally are a pain to layer, with artists using "glazes" and thick, "impasto" techniques to arrive at the desired effects. Acrylics, because they dry so quickly, are easy to layer, but that same fast drying makes them a bugger to blend unless you work very quickly, or apply any of a variety of solvents which are designed to retard drying. With pastels, you can blend at your own pace, using a variety of methods, notably ones own fingers, and other pastels applied on top and worked in with varying degrees of pressure. You can work one color deeply into the tooth of the paper, and with a lighter touch, apply entirely new layers on top, letting the lower layers show through, if you wish. You can also spray on a variety of "fixatives" that enhance the layering qualities, without appreciable blending as you apply additional layers of color. I should take a minute to address a side issue that comes up when artists talk about pastels. Pastels are often thought of by the public as "Chalk"... NOT!!! Chalk is generally a gypsum or limestone product, with no artistic permanence at all. Pastels are almost pure, artist grade pigments, mixed with a "binder" material which allows the soft pigment powders to be pressed into sticks and pencil leads. Depending on the binder used, pastels can be extremely soft, or almost as hard as graphite pencil leads (I prefer something in the middle, as constantly sharpening too-soft pastel pencils while doing fine detail work, is a royal pain in the derriere!). Because of their quality as pure pigments, pastels have an extremely high level of permanence, probably as good as acrylics, and just below that of oils. Yes, they do smudge easily, but once properly framed, under glass, that single vulnerability is rendered null. Some pastel artists finish their pieces with a spray fixative, but I hate the darkening effects of these solvent sprays, as well as the "graininess" that occurs from the grains of pigment coalescing around the microscopic drops of mist. Fixatives positively ruin the look I'm trying to achieve, so I refuse to use them. Having found myself in love with pastels, I soon threw away all my brushes and tubes of paint. One of the side benefits of pastels, which I should mention, is that when you've finished a long, demanding session at your easel, you don't have to go through the tedious chore of cleaning brushes! Yee Haa!!! Years of experimentation with various hardnesses of pastels, and with pastel papers having different textural qualities, have settled me on CarbOthello pencils, as well as Faber Castell and Derwent pencils. My paper of choice is an acid free, French made paper, called Canson Mi-Tientes. These papers come in a lovely range of soft tints, which can dramatically impact the overall color tone of a piece you're working on, as well as having two, workable sides, one a deeply textured tooth, and the other (that I generally prefer for my detailed style) is a medium-smooth surface. All paper art loves to absorb humidity out of the air, even within its frame, so I routinely "dry mount" the Canson papers to a 3/16", acid free, framers' foam core board. (This is an issue I also discuss on my "Features & Costs" page.) I consider dry mounting to be absolutely imperative (I use a thermal sensitive, dry mount tissue, in a professional heat press)! Paper artists who don't do this for their customers are not properly preparing their art to look it's best for a lifetime. It's going to eventually warp and pucker, I promise you! My dry mounted pastel portraits will look just as good 100 years from now as they do the day you receive your portrait, and open the box. 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