Mini-Demonstration

Wet- and Dry-Mixing Color Wheels

PanPastels are soft pastel colors packed in a unique pan format. The special qualities of PanPastels mean that artists can blend and apply dry color like fluid paint. PanPastels are loaded with the finest-quality artist’s pigments for the most concentrated colors possible. The colors have excellent lightfastness and are fully erasable. They can be mixed together wet or dry for a complete painting palette.

Materials

Mixed Media Adhesive or other gel medium

no. 8 round

PanPastels: Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre

watercolor paper

permanent pen or pencil

Sofft knife

STEP1: Sofft Tools and Dry-Mixing

Draw a color wheel with a permanent pen or pencil. (You can also trace the template at the end of the book.) Paint a layer of Mixed Media Adhesive over the color wheel with a no. 8 round and let dry. This will give the paper tooth so the PanPastels can grab onto it.

Use a Sofft knife applicator to lift the PanPastels by gently patting the Yellow Ochre pan with the knife several times. Then simply pat onto the color wheel, adding each of the three pure colors first, leaving an empty space between them. Then mix the colors together directly onto the color wheel by patting one color over the next one.

STEP 2: Medium and Wet-Mixing

Draw a second color wheel with a permanent pen or pencil. Fill in the color wheel the same way. When finished, use a damp no. 8 round dipped into Mixed Media Adhesive and blend together. This will fix the PanPastels and create a paintlike consistency.

Sofft Tools

Sofft Tools, though developed for using with PanPastels, can also be used with other mediums such as watercolor, acrylic and charcoal. They are reusable and can be wiped off or rinsed out to be used over and over. One nice thing about them is that they don’t leave brushstrokes.