A master of both oil and pastel, William A. Schneider believes in cross-training. “Certain effects are easier in pastel and others in oil, but trying both sharpens your skills overall,” he says. “Working with pastel, for example, heightens your sensitivity to shifts in color temperature, and since you don’t mix on a palette but rather on the painting itself, you quickly learn to see the components of even complex color notes.”
Pastel also encourages a cleaner, more impressionistic approach. “You learn to apply pure color directly, which changes how you think about mixing in oil,” he says. Adding to the freshness of the medium, pastels create a matte surface, which allows you to avoid the brush marks, glare, and muddy color that can make oils look overworked.
“Using the side of a pastel stick to apply color is much like making your whole painting with a two-inch brush,” he says. “It forces you to abandon fiddly, overly tight strokes, giving your work a more painterly look you’ll want to mimic in your oil paintings.”
That same technique, however, has a downside. Or does it? “Unlike paint, pastel lends itself to soft edges,” says Schneider. “In fact, you have to work to achieve a sharp edge. As a result, you’ll develop a better understanding of edge relationships and gain better edge control.”
On the flip side, oil teaches the pastel artist valuable lessons in darks, transparency, and scumbling — all of which can be achieved (with some effort) in pastel. “Each medium feeds the other,” says Schneider. “If you want to grow, switch things up.”
Bonus: William Schneider teaches his pastel and oil painting techniques in a variety of art workshops from PaintTube.tv (learn more here).
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Blog post prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Plein Air Today
