playing with pan pastels

Yes - I know - it is a hot sunny day I should be in the garden or outside at least doing something.

Well I was out there a little earlier & I am afraid it was too hot for me.  Never in my life did I think I would find our weather too hot - I used to love being out in it - a job to get me to stay indoors.  Guess it must be an age problem.

Anyway I thought it was about time I tried these Pan Pastels out - I had bought 5 pots at the festival along with some tools with soft tips with which to apply the pastels.  First I did a bit of "Googling" in order to double check how people were using them - although I did already have a reasonable idea.

Not seen this product yet?  Didn't spot them at the festival?  Here they are

That is NOT my supply it is a photo from the Internet.

I have 5 pots & a set of those blue tools which also come with the sponge tips that you can see in the packet behind the tools.

They are like big eye shadow tubs & the pastel / chalk inside is really soft  & creamy.  Although when you brush it onto your work you do get dust, & like chalks it needs to be set.  There are of course sprays that you can buy to do this but I was told that inexpensive hair sprays do the job just as well.

They are really good to work with.

These 3 little samples I have tried to do different things.  I used a fairly smooth card to work on. The sample on the left I stamped the image with Versamark ink (in fact all my stamping was done with Versamark).  I then brushed a pale green pastel over the image (without drying the ink) & followed that with a darker green pastel to get a little more depth.  Finally down the right hand side of that one I brushed some yellowy-orange.  The middle one was stamped & then brushed with pale green, after which I used the more pointy tool & added the yellowy-orange colour into the petals.  I really needed a smaller tip - something like a cotton bud I think.  Then to test the depth the colours can go to in one colouring & trying out another colour I brushed a deep orange over the piece of card outside the design & then across most of the top 2 rows of flowers. The third piece was stamped then coloured with light green followed by the darker green which I brushed on several times.  Each time the colour becomes a little more intense.  I then stamped the sentiment & brushed over that with the same colour.

It is surprising just how long the Versamark stays tacky for you to keep adding colours.  Those little stamps I got from Caroline - they are sort of small squared off versions of some of her texture mats & I thought they made nice backgrounds for small work.

This card was stamped, again with Versamark, first with the daisy style flower head.  Then it was brushed with the yellowy-orange pastel. Next I stamped the other flower over it filling in some spaces & brushed it again with the same pastel.  It took a little darker than the first covering.  The stemmed rose was stamped & dusted with the deep orange & again I dusted it a couple of times to get depth of colour.  It is almost impossible not to get that halo of the deep colour around the rose but I polished it with a soft tissue & did manage to remove some.  You can use a clean eraser to lift off pastel where you don't want it - which is a great way for putting highlights on things too.  But to do it around the rose would have taken the other colour off the background flowers.  I just stamped the sentiment in black archival ink.

I really like the finish & effect & will be getting some images prepared for cards.  Can't wait to have another go - but will have to for now.  Hope to play tomorrow.

'Bye for now.