September Art Space: The Wax Pastel

A guide to my favourite dry medium, the Caran D’Ache Neocolour II Pastel

My top 18 favourite pastel colours (it’s hard to pick just five or ten)

Hello September! Welcome to Art Space, the monthly art activity for paid subscribers. I’m back from an extended end-of-summer studio break, so this Art Space is arriving a little late 🍂🍁

If you’re new to Studio Notebook, the Art Space activity is a place where I offer art tutorials, paint-alongs, and essays; mostly sketchbook-based and woven into my ongoing art practice. If you’re interested in sampling the tutorials, I offer a free one here, or you can peruse the subscription options below.

I’ve been working on a tutorial about scaling up drawings, but after a subscriber reached out to me about using the Caran D’Ache Neocolour II wax pastel, I decided to make an Art Space entry all about this (favourite!) medium. (Not a sponsored post 🍄)

I became curious about this pastel while watching some of artist Beya Rebaï’s process videos. As far as softness and blending, the pastel sits somewhere between a pencil crayon and an oil pastel,