Dry pastel is one of my favorite mediums to work with. It's flexible and expressive, even though not always forgiving like oil paint, but still very strong and juicy.
Pastel drawings
A pastel drawing is a handmade artwork created using a dry art medium - dry pastel. Often pastel drawings are also called pastel paintings.
What is pastel?
The pastel pigments are the same as those in oil paint, with the only difference that in pastel the pigments are not mixed with a liquid binder. That's why the colors do not change or become dull and yellow how it is often happens with tempera or acrylics.
Pastel attaches to paper without any binding. When you see that your pastel drawing is losing some pigment particles – do not worry, this is normal and ok.
How to care for pastel drawings
The only danger for a pastel drawing is any contact of the drawing surface with other objects or human hands.
Do not rub or try to clean up the surface of the drawing.
My pastel drawings are already sprayed with fixative (spray "varnish"). Please do not spray them with anything, because this will 1) damage the paper, 2) the pigment color will change and become darker, and 3) the drawing may smudge.
Framing
A pastel drawing needs to be glass framed with passe-partout to to avoid any contact between the surface of the drawing and the glass (or acrylic plexiglass).
I prefer glass-framing because the plexiglass doesn't let the light play with pastel pigment the way it happens when the drawing is glass-framed.
Placement
Please chose a room with relatively dry air and avoid placing pastel art in bathrooms or kitchens. Humidity is not good at all for any artwork created with any natural dry medium (charcoal is one of them, too).
My collection of artworks in dry pastel – Nude Male Figure