On Painting with Pastels > After years of navigating the delicate balance of watercolor, Allison Krajcik found herself craving a more forgiving medium. “I’d become frustrated with having to dance around the white of the paper to save my lights and highlights,” she says, “and it was too easy to make mud if I wasn’t careful with my washes.”
With pastels, Krajcik discovered she could embrace a bolder, more experimental approach to her work. “The dry nature of the medium means that the colors stay pure even when I apply one on top of another, creating a depth and intensity I could never achieve with watercolor — and no mud. Plus, I can add highlights at any time, and even brush off what doesn’t work.”
Her first stroke of pastel en plein air — a blue-green dragged across a cinnamon-toned Sennelier La Carte paper — was a revelation. “The complementary color vibration was so immediate and alive. I was hooked!”
Still, the transition came with a learning curve — starting with trading brushes for fingers. “When it came to blending colors in pastel, I learned the hard way to make sure my hands were clean — and that sanded surfaces can take a toll on the skin. Now, I use medical tape to protect my fingers, and finger cots to help with the mess.”
The artist also had to adjust her technique for covering large areas of her surface with color — a process that proved more difficult with a dry medium. “To accomplish with pastel what I could do with a simple wash of watercolor, I either had to use a colored paper or create an underpainting by blending broad strokes of pastel with water or alcohol and letting it dry.”
But pastel didn’t just change her technique — it expanded her artistic mindset. “I went from a limited primary palette to over 450 sticks, all pre-mixed and full of nuance,” she says. “In addition to expanding my palette, pastels made it easier to understand how important relative color temperature is when it comes to creating luminosity.”
For other watercolorists considering a transition to pastels, she recommends swiping a range of colors over a dry watercolor or pastel underpainting to see how the colors come to life. “In particular, study basic complementary combinations — orange and blue; yellow and purple; and red and green — to identify their potential,” she says. “Consider, for example, how a reddish underpainting could be effective when painting a green field.”
Krajcik continues, “I also recommend coating a failed watercolor painting or study with clear gesso, letting it dry, then applying pastel over top. Opaque gesso can also be used to lighten a too-dark painting or substrate before applying pastel on top. Of course, some papers need to be mounted or stretched first, but that’s nothing new to a watercolorist. And the fact that you can work that painting for a long time without fear of failure is totally worth it!”
Connect with the artist at allisonkrajcik.com.
The editorial above is part of a series that spotlights the work of an accomplished plein air artist featured in PleinAir magazine.
Published bi-monthly, PleinAir magazine is focused on landscape paintings by historical and contemporary artists, art collections, events, and the process of creating plein air paintings. Beautifully designed with rich reproductions on high-quality paper, PleinAir features the top artists and artworks from around the world. Start your subscription here.
Story prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Plein Air Today
