Colored Pencil vs Pastel Pencil on Pastelmat Paper

I want to show you an experiment I did and this is on pastel matte paper, light gray, and I drew this one with regular colored pencils and I drew this one with pastel pencils and regular colored pencils for the details. So I have been getting a few questions about can you also use regular colored pencils on pastel matte. So I wanted to try this out and show you the difference. So I didn't film this, this was just a quick study that I did for myself. So if you are wondering if you really don't like pastel pencils and you just really want to use your colored pencils, yes you can. Yeah so I would advise you to get some pastel matte yourself, try this out for yourself, feel how the layering goes, and yeah let me show you a close-up of the two. So you can see there is a difference. The difference I noticed and I see is that with pastel pencils I could blend easier and create softer layers. That's so much easier with pastel pencils but also I think the colors are just richer. I used the exact same colors because I have the Faber-Castell Pitt pastel pencils and I have the Faber-Castell Polychromos so I use the exact same colors, they have the same names. Let me actually show you a quick demonstration here because this was just a quick study for myself but once I was finished I thought I do want to show you the difference and my thoughts about it. So I have the Faber-Castell Polychromos starting with the dark sepia 175, so I started with the darkest shadow. Let me show you the layering process and how that goes with colored pencils. So you do want to use light pressure throughout the whole drawing process. With pastel pencils I also do that, with colored pencils you also want to do that. This is the 169, adding a layer next to it and I'm also going to go over the shadow color and then I have the Burnt Ochre, this is the 187, the main like the base color that I chose. So I go over the whole shadow area or yeah over the whole layer to blend. Okay I zoomed in a bit so you can see the layers better. This is the Ivory 103, this is the like the cream color and I'm going to go over, see that I'm layering a few times so I don't use harder pressure, I just layer over it. You do want to go with light layers over dark layers to blend it all, that helps the blending. Still light pressure and then back with the shadow color. So now I have a bit of a smoother layer and so that was the 175, this is the 169 again and the 187 again. I go over this and again with that Ivory 103. Okay so this is the layering process with colored pencils. Now let's do the same with the pastel pencils. So this is the 175, so again I have the exact same colors and the 169 and I'm going to do the same. I'm also going to layer over the shadow color and again you want to use light pressure. The 187 and the 103. Let's also go over these layers to blend, see that I go in a circular motion, just the same as I did here. Okay and now again with the shadow color, the darkest the 175. Let's bring back that darkness back, let's see a bit over the line so that we get a gradation with the 160. So you can already see when I'm adding the darker colors how rich the colors are compared to the colored pencils and that's what I mean and that's what I also noticed throughout the drawing process. This is the 178 again and also how easy they just blend. This is the 103 again, blending that. Okay you can see how this layer looks. Let's go over this again just to see if we can get it darker. So I'm going over the layer, I'm trying to press a bit harder but you don't, I don't want to press too hard. Okay let's go over this with the 169. Again I'm trying to add a bit more pressure and then with the 187 and the ivory. Okay so you see that yeah I could get it a bit darker with adding a third layer. This is two layers, these are three layers so a bit more layers and let's say so when once I have the layers I like to glaze additional colors. So let's say we want to add the red. So if the the burnt ochre, like this orange color, I want to add a bit more red and then I glaze that. Okay so let's add just a red and then with pastel what I do is just gently blend that in like that. Let's do that. This is the same, this is the 225 and the polychromos was also the 225. So what I do is just add a light layer of red and then just dab and you can also use a blending stump to smudge a bit or blend a bit because the pastel matte paper allows you to do that and you can also work with light over dark. So with the pastel, now let's say we want to add some yellow. This is 102. So let's add a yellow layer and notice that I need to add a bit more pressure but I am getting it a bit more yellow. I think this is the 102, the same yellow. It's really light pressure. I can just add this and glaze. I feel like I used, on the third layer, I used a bit more pressure to darken and I do feel like it started to limit the layering. I'm not sure. But again, still this layer is so rich and I can just continue to endlessly layer. Let's go, this is the shadow color 175 to darken again. 116, 187 again. So yeah, I would advise you to try this out for yourself if you're also wondering how colored pencils work on pastel matte paper. Let's add another layer, the same I just did here. So adding another layer to the shadow, adding another layer with the 169 first. Now I do feel that I need to add more pressure but I still can add more layers. Use more pressure to add the layers but it still works. I can still add more layers. Okay, so my conclusion is yes, it works with colored pencils. The layering process is longer than pastel pencils. You will need to do a bit more, add a bit more layers to also get the same blending. You won't get the soft blending. I just really like that painted look that you can get with pastel pencils. With colored pencils you won't get that same. Yeah, it will just still look different but it all comes down to preference of the artist. If you're just not a fan of pastel pencils, I can understand that. You could also follow along with regular colored pencils. Again, if you're if you have the Faber-Castell Polychromos, the names are the exact same as the pencils I will be using. So this is the 169 and this is also the 169 of the Polychromos. And they also have the names on the Polychromos. Caput Morton, that's also the name of this color. So yeah, you could follow along with your pencil, see how that goes for you. Because pastel matte allows you to work light over dark. This is the white pencil. Let's see if that, how easy that goes. I do need to add a bit more pressure. So you can't do this with regular or with Bristol Smooth or Bristol Vellum with colored pencils. You can't go light over dark. So that's the, I would say, this is the white with pastel. I would say that's a good thing. Look at how easy the pastel. So if you're let's say drawing hair and you need some highlights, this will work really great with colored pencils and another paper. You wouldn't be able to do that. Yeah, I would say colored pencils, Polychromos on pastel matte paper, it works. You will just need to add a bit more layers than I would be doing with the pastel pencils. Okay, so I wanted to show you that quick experiment I did with the colored pencils. Next, we're going to pick out, I'm going to show you how I pick out the colors for this nose study.