The shifting winds of a hurricane heart

—

Dulce María Loynaz, Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems; “Poema LVIII” (tr. James O’Connor)

natalie diaz, ‘skin-light’

with its salt and crush.

✰ Pastel Dust Tutorial ✰

When I post my art materials list online, I almost always receive a question regarding what pastel dust is and how it is applied to my illustrations. I decided to finally sit down and create a visual sort of tutorial showing how to use it! 

Materials: : 

Soft pastel sticks

X-acto knife or razor blade 

Thick, almost stiff-bristled paint brush

A container for the dust, or a piece of paper (I use my pastel box lid to hold my dust.) 

Kneadable eraser 

Directions : :

Grab some soft pastel sticks. You don’t have to purchase high-end materials for this to work. My pastel sticks shown above were probably $8-10.

With your x-acto knife, scrape along the stick to create a fine dust until you have a sufficient pile. Make sure it is collected on a piece of paper or in a container. 

Use a somewhat thick and stiff bristled (dry) paint brush to spread the grains across the paper. You can use strokes, or scrub the color into the paper.

For more saturated tones, apply more dust to the area and continue scrubbing in the color. 

Dab your kneadable eraser over the dust to lift away color.

When finished, gently remove any excess left on the paper. *Note* Please be careful if you blow off the extra dust. Do not inhale this dust, and clean up your area with a wet paper towel when finished to remove the rest. 

Tips : : 

Pastel dust is great for tinting areas of your illustration as it can be applied over paint, color pencil, and gel pen.

I suggest applying the dust after the majority of your illustration is colored. Painting over such areas will create a muddy effect.  

The dust has a tendency to dull certain areas such as inked line work. This can be fixed by either going over the lines again (which may clog micron pens), or waiting until the illustration is finished and spraying the surface with a matte fixative. The fixative wets the dust over the lines and brings back the rich, inky black. 

Experiment. Play. See what blending approach works best for you and your materials! 

More Information : : 

Pastel dust was taught to me by my illustration professor at college, who used it for many of his scientific illustrations. 

Along with pastel dust, I use acrylic, color pencil, micron pens and gel pen on medium weight coldpress illustration board. 

For more pastel dust applications, see my art! 

If you have any questions, feel free to message me. (^∇^)/