Lefranc & Bourgeois: Conte Soft Pastel Set (Portrait)

PACKAGING : The “Portrait” assortments come in boxes of 12 and 24 colours. They are also available separately (8 mm diameter, 70 mm length sticks) to enlarge or top up your colours. SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS : This set of bright colours lets you draw all kinds of faces and ethnic groups, ranging from the very light tones of a translucent and pearllike skin to the copper tones of an American Indian or a Laplander. GENERAL USE : The secret of a successful pastel portrait lies in superimposing successive layers of colour until a dense and luminous layer is obtained (the surface of the paper is almost entirely covered). The basic colours are used to create the preparatory layers, then the flesh and light shades create a face with discerning contrasts. INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE : Use the black pastel or burnt umber to sketch the portrait, and lightly mark the shaded areas of the face: shadows of the neck, nose, eyebrow arches and upper lip. Use the purple and garnet for the entire area of the face and shade off with the fingers. Next, add yellow ochre and orange to the lightest areas: cheekbones, bridge of the nose, forehead, chin…then shade off. In this intermediate phase, it is useful to use the black to lightly restructure the drawing partly erased through shading off. Finish off with the orange lake, the flesh tone then Naples yellow and white for the finishing touches. Useful hint: To avoid washing your hands each time you change colours for shading off, use one finger per colour… this little detail means that you do not lose your concentration owing to frequent hand washing that rapidly becomes tiresome.