Why I Love NuPastels

'Georgia Peach'            5x7         pastel        ©Karen Margulis
available on Daily Paintworks auction bid here

 They were my first pastels. I bought a set of NuPastels on ebay. I was so excited with visions of the wonderful paintings I would make. It didn't really happen that way.  I quickly discovered that the NuPastels weren't enough. They were too hard to get that wonderful buttery texture I so admired in other pastel paintings.  And so my pastel collection began,

And for awhile I would use the NuPastels for under paintings. They were hard so they didn't fill the tooth of the paper quickly. But after awhile the NuPastels were set aside. I had too many other wonderful choices.

But lately they have made a reappearance in my studio. In fact I had to order some new ones!

When did they start coming with wrappers! Now I have to take the wrappers off before I can use them. So why do I love them?  I have discovered that they have their place in my painting techniques and they fit the bill perfectly.  Here are two ways I use them:

• Underpainitngs. I have been doing a lot of 'Dry Underpaintings'.  I use the NuPastels to block in my big shapes and rub them in with a piece of pipe foam. They give me a clean vibrant block in and they are so inexpensive. The bonus is they don't fill the tooth of my paper. See my recent demo here to see my NuPastel block in.

• Building up scribbly layers of pastel. This isn't my usual way of working but I attended a workshop on Pastel & Water with Bill Creevy at IAPS.  He uses hard pastels to put in his first layers. The peach was painted using the techniques he shared at the workshop.  (I  brought Holbeins to the workshop and they didn't mix with water...another story) The NuPastels work great and look at the yummy colors!

I need to mention though that testing has shown that some colors especially the reds will fade over time. So for this reason I never use them in the final layers. They are used in the underpainting and then covered by other pastels. If you are concerned you may like Polychromos which have a similar feel.

Next Wednesday's pastel classes in my Marietta studio will focus on the techniques I learned at the workshop. So if you are in the area and want to have fun exploring pastels and water send me an email. I still have a few openings!