Pastel - Charcoal
Pastels and charcoals are dry drawing media worked directly on paper without water or solvents, offering vibrant colours and deep shadows with a velvety texture. Pastels are available in sticks or pencils (soft pastels for smooth blending, oil pastels for intense colours, wax crayons for children’s use), while charcoals offer everything from fine lines to expressive shading. They’re used on textured paper that holds the powder and often require fixative to prevent smudging.
Pastels are coloured sticks of pure pigment with minimal binder, offering vibrant, vivid colours with a velvety texture. Soft pastels are the most popular and soft, easy to blend, ideal for portraits, landscapes, and expressive works. Oil pastels have a creamy consistency, don’t smudge easily, and give intense, almost painterly results, suitable for more graphic work. Charcoals are used mainly for monochrome drawing, offering deep, matte blacks and ease of shading—available in sticks (willow charcoal for soft lines, compressed charcoal for more intense blacks) and pencils for details.
All pastels and charcoals require special paper with a textured surface (Ingres type, velour, or pastel paper) that holds the pigment powder. They’re blended and shaded with fingers, estompe (paper blending stumps), or special sponges. Most need fixative spray to prevent smudging, especially soft pastels and charcoals—oil pastels and wax crayons are more stable without fixative. Pastels are ideal for quick sketching, plein air painting, and works emphasizing colour, while charcoals are preferred for academic drawing, life drawing, and expressive portraits. See also our pastel papers and blending tools.