I am always impressed by those artists that try so hard to keep their pastels squeaky clean. They post photos of dust wands full of feathers that they use to collect dust across their trays of color or jars full of rice or cornmeal that they lovingly bathe their favorite sticks in before using or traveling with them. Some even vacuum their trays to make sure they are all so bright and colorful.
I just can’t seem to bother.
I am fussy about having a clean “strike” when I hit my painting with a stick, but I have learned that pastels just get dusty and dirty. So I don’t worry about it except when I grab that particular stick. Some colors can go years without being used, so I can’t be bothered with how pretty they all look in my drawers. NO time for that for me. I would rather wipe each stick off as I go along, then I know each stick is freshly cleaned.
I love these handy and very soft microfiber clothes. They don’t take much pigment off of the stick (unlike paper towels) and leave the pastels nice and clean. If you have seen me paint during a demonstration, you know that I throw these microfibers over my shoulder and wipe the sticks off on them as I go along.
If the cloth drops off my shoulder and I forget that it is no longer there, I then make my clothes more colorful.
Bonus! 😊
Ha ha! Never shall I feel shoddy again! Thanks
no shoddy! we are the smart ones!!!!
So glad to read this. It is nice to know that I am not the only one who deals with the dust, basically, one stick at a time. Anything else is just too distracting and frustrating!
Thanks for the validation and tip about the microfiber cloths. Will try them.
you bet! life is too short to clean sticks and not be painting with them!
good tip! Im going to try that with my oil pastels.
🙂
I cant worry to much. Times a waistin’. I just want to play! But I do use an old Tupperware box with corn grits as a palette. When I’m finished a gentle shake and put them away. Works for me.
perfect! There is something about using food for the pastels that bug me….but that is just me…..
I wear a shop apron and wipe my pastels on it. The poor thing will never come clean no matter how much bleach I use.
hooray! uniform of the artist!
Great tip! I recently took a workshop with Melbourne artist Maxwell Wilks and although his paintings where filled with colour his pastels all looked various shades of grey!
mine do that too…..:)
I keep an old towel folded nearby and clean each stick I’m about to use. I will try the microfiber…sounds good!
🙂