Pastels are a soft drawing medium, much like chalk.
Pastels are a soft art medium ideal for blending and shading. You can disperse the intense coloration of a pastel by gently smoothing it out, blending it outward on the page. You can just as easily intensify a shade by layering colors and blending them together. The blending method is basic and will not require any extra materials. Even a novice pastel artist can quickly perfect her shading technique.
Instructions
1. Sketch or color the subject of your work.
2. Leave uncolored space next to the darkest part of the shadow. For example, if you want to shade a drawing of a whole apple, begin by coloring the shaded area -- the outer edge of the fruit -- with a deep red pastel. Color around the perimeter of the fruit, leaving the center of the apple -- the lighter part -- uncolored.
3. Run your finger in a small, circular motion through the dark red pastel on the page. Rub it toward the uncolored portion of the illustration. This will cause the pastel to blend or smear into the uncolored area. It will remain darker around the edge of the drawing -- the area that should be darker to achieve the shaded effect.
4. Add color throughout the drawing. Repeat the blending process to keep the shaded areas of the image darker in color. You may use the same color throughout the drawing or layer different colors.
5. Return to the part of the image intended to have the strongest shadow. Add more color to intensify the shadow, if desired, by layering the same color or other colors to keep the color intensity strong in the darkest portion of the shadow.
