Update: 1.25.12: It was tough to pick just one winner …there were so many great entries. So we decided to select two winners! Crystal Thomas and Karen Karlsson. We’ll contact the winners by email to arrange their prizes. Thank you to everyone who entered. We’ll have more giveaways in the future…
Do you have a useful tip/working technique that you’ve discovered when using PanPastel Colors?
Enter our latest giveaway by telling us about it. We will choose our favorite entry and one lucky winner will receive: a palette tray filled with 10 PanPastel colors of their choice, along with a selection of Sofft Tools.
Using the comment form below in this post (click “Read More” ) enter your favorite PanPastel tip or working technique. All entries must be submitted by Saturday January 21st, 11pm EST (New York time).
One entry per person. This giveaway is open to entrants aged 18 and over. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Winners will be announced on this blog and at our Facebook page. Other Giveaway Rules
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{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been experimenting lately with the use of natural stencils. Bits of lace, punched plastic, cardboard shreds and sponges can be laid on your paper, and using a Sofft rounded or square tipped knife, or even one of the Sofft sponges (depending on your cover area), dab layers of colour on these stencils gently and remove them when you’re done for a gorgeous effect. :)
My tip would be to take advantage of PanPastel’s fabulous multimedia capabilities. Recently I laid down a “wash” of PanPastel in different blues to violet. I then printed a linoleum block print of a shark on top. It turned out fantastic! I’m excited to try other techniques and read what others have done!
One of my favorite ways to use Pan Pastels is first using acrylics, then completely almost covering the acrylic with the pastels. I love the amazing sheen it gives when used this way. I also use resin quite a bit and it’s amazing how it can brighten it.
I am loving using the pan pastels in mix media art journal, they work beautifully with many types of mediums…this is a great give away! Thanks!
I have been using pan pastels over encaustic medium or paint and then coating the piece with clear shellac and burning off the shellac. The pan pastels separate as the wax shifts creating wonderful designs!
I’ve started out doing portraits by doing the eyes first then I find doing the darkest of facials features then adding lighter and lighter- blending with a clean sponge on the tool, gets me amazing results. Having all 80 colors is a dream!
I am loving using the pan pastels in a scrapbook page in mix media and art journal!!!
They work so marvelous and beautifully with many types of mediums!!!I´m in love with those !1
This is a great give away!
Thanks to have a chance to win.
Have a wonderful week.
Big huges and kisses from Brazil
Cynthia
I have dipped my finger lightly in glue, then panpastels and written words- when it is dry, and i shade around the glue mix- it is Gorgeous!!
I am pretty much a purist. I love applying layer upon layer of PanPastels, using a sanded ground. I can get up to 25 layers of color, and the creamy consistency of PanPastels gives great depth and richness to my subject, and where necessary a velvet texture. I can take an old toothbrush and rub off color where I want a rougher texture.. All in all, I love my Pans!
I LOVE your pastels! I always work with my blowdryer near by It is so much easier to blow off the excess!
I literally only just got my first few PP about a week ago so I am still very much in the learning stage.. The only tip I can share is to EXPERIMENT & PLAY.. Don’t be afraid of the medium, try it on all surfaces and see what happens!!
I am a complete newbee when it comes to working with PanPastels. I got my first five pans recently and I’m experimenting right now. My tip might be to search the internet and read all about the PanPastels and try it all…like all those great tips mentioned above! And on this blog!
I love blending!!!! When I blend, it makes my work even more realistic looking. Of course blending with my finger is natural and the first reaction. I prefer it. I also use folded or rolled up paper towels for hard to reach places and blending sticks.
My favorite thing right now is using a stencil to lay down a pattern of Versamark ink, then going over the stenciled ink with pan pastels. You can check it out by clicking to jump to this post. Specifically, the second picture, right hand page. Thanks for the chance to win! I don’t have enough colors yet… :o)
PanPastels have totally changed how I paint in pastels! Since I use them mostly for blocking in and all the major shapes and colors planned in the composition, they are the key to saving time and setting the stage for details with sticks. I believe using them has improved my work, giving it a characteristic softness that only the pans could accomplish. I also love doing trees and architectural settings with them, because the foam tools give me a wonderful texture that I can’t imagine achieving with sticks. Thank you, whoever invented PanPastels!!!
I am fairly new to the world of pan pastels and proudly own 2 colors…yes…sad but true! I have discovered that they work excellent when I want to add aging around the edges of my mixed media canvases and work fabulous on my coffee filter flowers as the paper has a little grab to it. It almost gives them an aged/burnt edge to them and gets down into the creases much better than ink or paint does! My all time favorite thing about pan pastels….NO CLEAN UP!!!!! Would love to get my hands on a wider range of colors!
when your art is your only income, money is usually tight-so i only have a a few of the colors; but i covet them more than gold! when layering in with different mediums, they don’t get *muddy* and retain their color brilliantly, and i love being able to just reach out with a fingertip (the tools are lovely and good for small places-but the creamy texture does not require them) i use them on canvas, paper, and clay; and to have additional colors would be *Fabulous!*
thank you for the oppurtunity!
My best tip for using PanPastels would be to not be afraid, just start trying things. My personal art mantra is “You can’t do it wrong”, and this is more than true with my pastels. I got my first few colors and made the most beautifully blended sunset I’ve ever done in my life. They really give me confidence to try more and more techniques. I’d adore more colors even if just to see how many more things I can blend. They also work just fantastically with the stencils I use in my art journals. LOVE MY PAN PASTELS!
Love blending colors and to add some dimension I brush over some areas with papier glass finish. Makes flowers pop!
I love the way your pan pastels take any kind of pens without a problem
I dont have any techniques – but would love to win!
You can make PanPastels into a creamy paint by mixing a little pan pastel on your palette with some gel medium, clear glaze, crackle medium, or even some white or clear glue (watered down a bit). When they dry, they have a beautiful texture and color. Experiment with different gel mediums and glazes and glues for different effects. Just make sure that you don’t introduce anything moist to the actual PanPastel itself- instead, bring the color over from the PanPastel to your palette or mixing tray (even some wax paper will do fine!)
I love the magic that happens if you use your Pan Pastels with a big background stamps and Versamark ink!!! When you stamps your background stamp with Versamark ink (it’s a clear sticky ink) and then apply your Pan Pastel over it, than you get an awesome “tone on tone” result…
being new to all of these I have just purchased some colours recently so all I can say thank for all sharing your tips and I look forward to playing with them and trying out what you have all so generously shared
I don’t even get to pick these in person as my nearest stockist is over 500kms away
Use the foam you find in all stick pastel boxes to wipe your soft tools with.
When you think you need to wash your sofft sponge, use whatever mix of color is on it to sketch a new painting instead. When it lays no more pigment, it is clean enough!
I only gave 3 colors, but I like to stamp in my journal with a clear medium(perfect medium), then tap the dust with pastel on a q-tip. I can also blend a tiny bit of colors to make other shades. I would love to have more colors to experiment with!
I like to paint buildings in the landscape and I find it tricky to get a clean sharp edge with Pan Pastels, so I developed the following idea
Once you have painted in the background, hold a piece of paper flat on the painting where you want the clean straight edge to be like a mask, then stroke the colour across the mask and the painting and you are left with a crisp, clean edge. You can create quite intricate shapes with the Sofft tools using this method.
I love using them with an image stamped with versamark ink on coated paper. The panpastels stick perfectly to the ink, but do not stick to the paper. works well with both fine and chunky stamps.
I LOVE PanPastels. Apart from their ability to replace inks in scrapbook pages, and their obvious use for pastel drawings , I love to use a light rubbing of assorted colours across an art journal page, then i love to dip a dampened paintbrush onto the pan and paint a line design. Once thats dry, I love to give the whole page a light mist with a water spray, tipping the page to watch the colours spread and mingle. You can then dab the PanPastel back across the wet piece, and the colours will ‘pool’. Such a beautiful effect, and the perfect beginnings to a Mixed Media art piece!!
I have taken a few pics for a step by step so you can see what I mean. http://www.debgodley.blogspot.com if youre interested!!
Debxxoo
Pan pastels are the most versatile tool in my art arsenal. Lately Ive been applying them to prints of old black and white photos. The effect is romantic and dreamy making them perfect Valentines!
I’ve learned that some of the pastel papers I have with textures are ones I don’t like for compositions I make solely with traditional sticks. These are the papers that I can use with PanPastels, as they fill the little valleys on the textured surfaces with ease! (PS. Don’t choose my tip as a winner, I already have a full set of Pans! I just really want to be able to share and see more tips for using them.)
newbie to these but I love mixing the shades with white acrylic paint or different mediums ie silkscreen or matte gel to get that “ooooh” effect when dry.
they work beautifully on canvas, with acrylics and pens and scrapbooking papers.
one tip I use is to use cheap make up sponges (it keeps sofft products untarnished) and baby wipes are excellent for blending (just don’t put the baby wipe into the pot)
:-)
I’ve had only a little experience working with the GORGEOUS Pan Pastels, but I can tell it’s quite addictive! A group of us spent an evening playing and experimenting with techniques on shading….so much fun! I never imagined I could take one product and produce so many varied results! I have started my collection…..with many more purchases to go!
i use them as if they were makeup on my face, they feel so like it and can do wonders with it. adore them!
All my techniques are still in my head because I haven’t got any panpastels yet! I draw some amazinfg stuff in my imagination but so far that’s where it stays! Being cheeky here but I live in hope…!!
I use pan pastels as background for journal pages or in stamping. I love to blend colors using my fingertip as my “tool” . I get the best control that way……love the blending of this product as well as how pure the colors stay!
The tip that I would like to share is that while I am drawing waves, it is very easy to use Pan Pastels to make realistic spray for the waves that splashes up. I take one of the soft tool knives and dab it into the color or colors of choice and then I hold it over the drawing where I want the splashes to appear. I then tap on the knife and the color comes off onto my drawing. I use my finger to push the specks into the drawing. (I use pastelmat) After that I just blow away the excess pastel. It works like a charm! :)
Here is a link to a drawing where I used this technique. :
http://fav.me/d4laq3z
Thanks for the great product. It is now my favorite medium to use!
Sandie Blair
I’m new to the world of mixed media art and don’t own any pan pastels yet. I say yet because I know it is only a matter of time. My tip is to keep reading Paint.Draw.Blend for good tips. Off to read now. Thanks to all the contributers :-)
I just found out about your blog!!! Thanks for the chance to win some lovely Pan Pastels!!!
I only own one beautiful purple pan pastel – would love to win this – I love diluting my purple with a little water and use it as a wash over my canvasses
I only used Pan Pastel once…. but it was enough to fell in love with them… I took a class with Donna Downey at my LSS, I swear I felt like Pablo Picasso!!
Love the way my work ended up. It was soooo easy to apply… I have to admit that I was a little intimidated at the beginning but after I put my first color in the canvas was awesome..
I talked about my experience but not a technique, I only can tell what I learned at that class and now I’m looking forward to learn techniques…. so I will read all comments, :o) Hope not everybody talks about their experience …and explain techniques we can all share. At this moment I only have the tools, at least I have something!! so I really wish I can win this set so I can give a tip or technique in my next post! thanks!!