Friday 17 August 2012

Art Journal Everyday: Pan Pastels

Have you tried Pan Pastels yet?

I finally, finally, finally played with Pan Pastels last weekend.  I've been wanting to try them for ages and my friend, Marg, graciously let me try hers.

Pan Pastels are artist grade ultra soft pastels in cake form. Their website is great and has lots of information about what these little cakes can do.

I particularly liked how they worked with my new stencils on this page...

Pan Pastels_Hexagon
Check out the new Balzer Designs stencils: Hexagon and Chunky Chevron

and this one...

Pan Pastels_Hearts
I love Dina Wakley's new Hearts stencil

And the colors! There are 80 colors in the line and if that's not enough, you can blend them to create even more colors.  The way they blend reminds me of Distress Inks but these are dry where Distress Inks (being a water based dye-ink) are wet.

I did a little bit of blending to color the modeling paste flames on this page.

Pan Pastel Flames
Flame Girl - page in progress

Pan Pastels have rocketed to the top of my wishlist. You can buy them individually or in color sets. They are pricey so it's going to take me a while to build up a collection but that's ok. I think they  make fantastic stocking stuffers.

I've also got my eye on some classes to learn just what Pan Pastels can do.

  1. Donna Downey has 5 classes that she teaches online. It takes you from beginner to advanced techniques. They are all priced at $25 USD and you can see them on her website.
  2. Nat Kalbach offers a 6 week online class for $59 USD. You can read a class description on her website. Marg took this one and said it was really good.
So that's my art journaling adventure this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

zove

Cathie

6 comments:

  1. I have not used pan pastls before. Looks like they produce good color. Do they smear (accidentally) much?

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    1. Good question. After looking around I've found that it's a good idea to use spray fixative. If not, the colors will move and blend. thanks for asking!

      Also, see the comment below for some class suggestions.

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  2. I LOVE my Pan Pastels. Just broke down and purchased a 20 color set and am having a ball playing around and learning how to use them. Joanne Sharpe uses them in the classes that I take with her and they've rocketed to the top of my favorite art supplies. But definitely invest in some Fixatif to keep the color from dusting up everything!

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    1. Thanks for the comment. I'll definitely check out Joanne's Pan Pastels classes. I've wanted to take one of her doodling classes for ages.

      Do you recommend a particular brand of Fixatif?

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  3. I've heard alot about pan pastels and they look like fun-but there are SO many fab new stencils on the market that I want-like the ones you've used, amongst others. Really nice pages!!

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    1. Thanks, Linda. It's hard to go wrong with stencils. I love mine. They are quite addictive and they work with everything - paint, ink sprays, pens...

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