After having painted with oils, watercolor, acrylic and oil pastels in various combinations, I find soft pastel an amazingly easy medium for my quiet style. Whichever medium I’ve used, I’ve always painted in layers.  This means starting with a background tone, usually the most subdued, then gradually adding more tones, increasingly stronger and more detailed.  This process was never a conscious choice, it’s just the way that’s always felt most natural to me.  For this reason I’ve never painted alla prima and I don’t usually paint plein aire for finished works.  My process is just too slow for that.  I do love to sketch outdoors, for studies, and just for my own enjoyment.  I’m working toward creating finished pastels outdoors.  My works derive from many hundreds of reference photos, combined with thumbnail study sketches, combined sometimes with my memory of the feel of a place.  When I originally began to paint I would use a refernece photo at face value.  But now almost never.  Using study sketches and digital, I often spend as much time getting the composition and colors the way I think they should be as on the finished work itself.  This, I think, is more important than any painting technique. 

I now do pastels on ‘Kitty Wallis’ sanded pastel paper.  This is a wonderful, heavy duty paper with a fine grit that literally grabs the color from the stick.  It will take many layers of color.  The beginning layers, often earth and sky are often finger blended to a smooth tone.  As I gradually add tones and detail, I also use the sticks more directly, letting the textures come through. Most layers are are done with very soft pastels, giving strong colors, but the final details and fine tuning are done with harder pastels which can give sharper edges.  As with any medium, there is a downside.  With pastel, it’s the dust. Pastel are just dry pigment compressed into sticks.  So a good part of the work is controlling this unruly substance.  I usually wear rubber gloves, although sometimes the touch of the finger is necessary.  Then I am constantly knocking the excess dust off, in which case the heavy paper really helps.  Blowing just spreads the dust around the studio.

Unfortunately, I usually find it necessary to use spray fixative on a work in progress.  When a new tone is applied which doesn’t want to be blended with the last, then this is the easiest method.  I try to keep use of fixative to a minimum, although I find it absolutely necessary after a painting is completed.  Fixative is a foul smelling, semi-toxic material and must absolutely be used outside, although I have recently found one that is non toxic and can be used indoors. 

In spite of the negatives, I am always amazed that pastel isn’t used by more artists. 
Although my process is a little slower than some, it is still far quicker for me than painting with oils or watercolors.  There is no set up time, mixing of colors or drying time involved.  I can literally sit down, pick up a stick and start.  If I don’t like what I’ve done, I just go over it with the next color.  I can get up and walk away without ever cleaning a brush.  I think, overall, it’s a great way to create magic and I’ve just scratched the surface.