Pan Pastels Experiments
Friday, March 2 I am in LOVE!
You know how it feels when you fall in love, you feel all giddy and tingly and possibilities lie around every thought?
Well that's me.
But Mr. Shabby does not have to worry.
Because my new love is a product. Pan Pastels.
I love them so much I bought them for the shop! And now I'm on a discovery spree, playing and experimenting with them.
Last night I decided to try color tinting a digital print.
This was a print I had digitally altered a while back but had done nothing with. So I grabbed it and printed it in black and white on plain old cardstock. I then "painted" the whole image. I shaded and highlighted and blended just like I would regular paint. Which really is what I feel Pan Pastels are. Dry pigment in a cake (thus the "pan") form. This is NOT chalk and I really think it is more than pastels because there is so much less filler and more pigment. They are non-toxic and dust is so minimal. And so soft. Plus you don't need much so a pan of color will last a long time.
Ok, so today I decided to print some black and white images on watercolor paper. I used 140 lb. cold press paper.
For this image I simply tinted her dress and scarf. Then I added a little "blush" to her cheek.
Now I'm using these lightly because I wanted the appearance of a hand tinted photograph. But these Pan Pastels can lay down brilliant and opaque color just like paint. But they're DRY! Ok, you can't see me jumping up and down but I am. DRY!
Think about this for a moment...ink jet printers. How we worry about the ink smearing when they come into contact with anything wet. Ok, folks, this is DRY! LOL Does this get you thinking? One more time. Dry.
Here is a black and white clip art image. Done in a matter of a couple minutes.
I "painted" the entire image except the shaded parts. And you can erase into this too if you make a mistake.
Now a lot is going to depend on your substrate, the cardstock that I used, was smooth and kind of slick, but you can see in that first image it didn't do so bad. It came out looking all soft and dreamy which I like. The watercolor paper took the color stronger and since it had some tooth, gave the images some texture.
This last image, on the same watercolor paper, was a black and white photo I took one summer. I know a lot of people would have tinted the flowers, but I just wanted to be different this go round, so I colored the basket and the bench and just a couple of the flowers. Then I darkened around the edges for a more "aged" look.
I definitely will be trying different substrates. Including fabric! And I'm starting to mix them up with my wet mediums for more experimentation. I will say this one more time. I love the fact that these are dry. They add so much to my already loaded arsenal of products I work with.
A couple more things, if I forget and leave the lid off, no big deal, no dried out paint to deal with. Clean up is almost nil. No water needed {did I tell you they are dry? ;-)}. And though I would suggest a fixative spray for most projects, you don't have to buy a particular product or an expensive one and you can come back and spray at any time! I know some people use hairspray but I did find that only keeps any dust settled and did not prevent smudging. When I used a spray fixative I was able to come back over the Pan Pastels then with a wet medium and no smudging!
I see that these are making their way into the world of mixed media, altered art, scrapbooking, card making, journaling...you name it, Pan Pastels are here to stay!
Want to see our beautiful colors? Try a couple for yourself and see how fun they are!
I'm wishing you all a happy creative weekend!
Reader Comments (1)
oh shoot!!! I've been resisting them and resisting...and then you come along and make me want them.lol. I keep hearing such good things about them, and then I really see how you are using them....aaaaah, my resistance is breaking down. You did a lovely job on your photos...and they work on fabric too???? I cant wait to see what else you do with them.