Yarka pastels?
 

I'm getting ready to purchase a 185 set of pastels made by Yarka. I was wondering if anyone knows of their quality because they seem relatively cheap. They describe them as water-soluable and sharpenable. Both of which appeal to me.

If anyone has any experience or knowledge about them, please let me know. I don't want to make a bad purchase.

Hi Nathan,

You might want to try a very limited set to check out the exact properties of the sticks. It looks like there are a lot of redundancies in the grays, especially. I've really enjoyed playing around with my box of Yarka "sauce" but am not sure if their "pastels" are the same composition; I could not tell from the literature.

My experience: experiment with as little a financial outlay as possible. We all have closets full of materials we will never touch twice.

I haven't used Yarka pastels. My limited experience with some of their other products is that the quality is uneven. Try before you buy.

A Rembrandt set, together with a set of darks from Unison, and the big (96) set of NuPastels would be a great way to start. Then you can sample other brands by the stick so you become familiar with their differences.

Chris are these the thin, hard sticks? If so, do you use these a lot or just for detailing?

Yes, Beth. They can be sharpened if you like.


Here's an example of of their use in conjunction with charcoal. Or here using the black and white.

It would be rare for me not to use any in a pastel painting.

They are great for drawing, layering, knocking off too mush pastel, unifying color. Some people use them in the early layers (Daniel Greene for one) and some for the finishing work.

Nathan, I hope you don't mind me jumping in and asking questions on your thread, but I thought they were pastel related.

Chris, I forgot to ask - when you have a subject you want to paint which is not a commission, in other words you get to chose the medium. How do you decide oil vs. pastel?

Yarka is one of the largest art supply manufacturers in Russia from what I've heard. I do like their quality. I recently purchased Yarka Sanguine & Sepia drawing crayons from Dick Blick and I'm happy with the quality especially for the price I paid for them. I want to eventually pick up their watercolor pan set.


http://www.dick-blick.com/items/200/46/20046-OAww.gifhttp://www.dick-blick.com/items/003/35/00335-OEww.gif

Pastel thread
 

Hi Nathan,

Check out the pastel thread dealing with substrates, methods, materials etc. There are some concerns about which pastels are lightfast as evidenced by the ongoing testing by the ASTM.

As a response to the findings at present, I would recommend the Windsor Newtons. They are reasonable, lightfast and hard enough to get a sharp point.

www.dakotapastels.com has a descending list of pastels in order of hardness.

My personal favorite is Unisons, soft, but they hold a great point. They are rather expensive however.

Sincerely,

Cheap pastels
 

Hi Nathan,

Another thing you might want to consider when buying pastels; can you get individual replacements for the colors you use? If not I would pass, nothing is more frustrating than not being able to replace a particular color when you need it.

Sincerely,

Sharon is absolutey right. Start out with the most lightfast pastels you can get. Although you'll need to replace some of them as you use them, there are many others that you'll have for years.

Nathan,

If you don't care what your artwork is going to look like in 50 years or more, it doesn't matter what you use.

Virgil Elliott

I was just remarking to my husband that the kind of large pastels I am doing now probably would not have been possible without the explosion of pastel manufacturers that have come about in the last decade or so. Previously, to a great degree color mixing in pastel had to be done more optically, rather than relying on the enormous number of shades we have today. This probably makes the question of fading presently more dicey. I will probably continue doing pastels trying to use some common sense and avoiding especially those colors called hues.

There is a new UVA protectantant spray on the market from www.goldenpaints.com, but iI doubt that that is the answer.

I noticed that some of Mary Cassat's pastels have faded, worse her paper changed color. I think people should be much more careful about the paper they use as well. There is a parallel problem with pastel or colored papers. Many are touted as lightfast and are not as they are dyed. One popular paper MiTeintes, I believe is dyed, not pigmented, therefore it will fade or discolor. There are many others which have a similiar problem. I believe it behooves the pastel artist to seek out lightfast papers, the ones that are pigmented. Unfortunately, they are more expensive and generally handmade.

I also noticed that Rembrandt is advertising a comlpletely revamped line.

Sharon,

Paper fading or discoloring is indeed another problem for pastel artists, if they are inclined to leave some of the paper showing. It's probably better to cover the paper entirely with pastel, or make our own supports and grounds from non-fading materials. I've sometimes used Masonite panels, and primed them with acrylic gesso mixed with marble dust, applied with a seamless roller to give it texture. I mix in some acrylic color to tone the gesso, making sure to choose only paints rated ASTM Lightfastness I for the toning colors. That way, there will be no fading of the ground layer. Golden now has an acrylic primer made especially for pastels, and that's what I intend to use next time.

UV protection additives in varnishes and fixatives probably help a little, but their effectiveness is limited, as the protective power diminishes with time.

The result of all this attention and testing is going to be better, more lightfast pastels for us to work with. I always enjoyed working in pastels, but gave it up when I realized I could not expect them to stay looking the way I painted them to look. That's why I started all this. I'll be painting in pastels again soon, with renewed enthusiasm.

Thanks for appreciating what I've been doing.

Virgil Elliott

I have been using the Golden Ground for Acrylics for a while now and love it .
I have noticed that you have a lovely finished classical style. I will tell you what has worked for me and how I think you can make it work better for your style.

I just used it on DiBond which is 2 aluminum skins with I think, a polyethylene core. Very lightweight , stable and less prone to warping, than masonite. It come in 3mm and 4mm and you can get it from signmaker suppliers. There is a very tony conservator supply site selling it for inflated dollars but it is the same material the signpainters use.

The next time I use it I am going to use a drying retardant so I can control the texture better.

I tint it first, then I spray ( airbrush) it with Golden's Fluid Matte Acrylic, mixed to the color I want. It makes the most beautiful velvety surface imaginable.
Make sure you use the Matte!

I use a simple single action Badger airbrush, not the small one, it is about $100 and a Sears compressor.

Sincerely,

My efforts to provide myself with archival pastels and paper
 

Hi Sharon and Virgil,

I've been enjoying reading your thoughtful and candid discussion.

I want to add what I've learned about archival quality in pastels.

Wallis paper is archival, the Museum grade tested at 500 years by Weyerhauser. I use the white, underpainted with Createx Pure Pigment since its contents are known and it doesn't fill in the grit texture of my paper. It also dries matte. I choose the pigements I know to be lightfast from their line. Therefore I don't have the fading paper issue.

I make my own pastels from pigments I have researched and found to be lightfast. Hansa Primrose yellow, Hansa Golden yellow, Azo Golden, Azo Red, Napthol Red Dark, Quinacridone Magenta, Pthalo Green, Pthalo Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium Dioxide, and a group of earth colors. I also use Gum Tragacanth as the binder and a mixture of the whitest chalks in the white mix. I realize there are more pigments available. I like to keep my palette simple as possible.

Here is the underpainting and finished painting of a recent demo.

testing pastels
 

..."make sample swatches on a suitable surface, cover half of each swatch, and leave the other half exposed, and set the panels in a window facing the sun. Check them once a week, comparing the covered half with the exposed half."

Thank you Virgil,
I appreciate your comment on my paper. I plan to test my pastels as you suggested above.

I did such a test with the usual brands and colors of tinted pastel paper. Within a few months most of them were faded by more than half. I used the back shelf of my car.

Kitty