Caran D'Ache, the Swiss company that makes the Neocolor 2 crayons, calls them the water-soluble “Swiss army knife” of wax pastels.
I 100% agree and it sounds like a good thing to go on an adventure with. So that's what I did... in the video below.
It was a fun adventure and I learned a lot. Take a look.
Neocolor 2 vs Neocolor 1
One of the first questions that comes up is: "What's the difference between Neocolor 1 and Neocolor 2? "
The 2's are water-soluble and the 1's are not. That's it.
Since you aren't required to use water with the 2's (you can leave the marks dry). I would recommend getting the 2's if you have to choose. I have both (because I have an art supply addiction) but I use the 2's more often because they are much more versatile.
One thing I don't like about Neocolor pastels, is they tend to be more fragile than a water-soluble pencil that is encased in wood. It's not a huge deal since you can use broken pastels but it is something to keep in mind.
Also, since they are a bit chubby, it's hard to make some of the more refined marks that a pencil can. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your intended style.
My Favorite Surface to use with Neocolor II
I really like painting with Neocolor II water-soluble pastels on Ampersand Claybord. Ampersand Claybord is a proprietary hard wood fiber board coated with kaolin clay ground and sanded to an ultra smooth finish. You may think that is an unusual surface for painting on but I like to try unusual things and once I did, I loved it.
I chose the 5x7 inches size of Claybord and I'll walk you through the phases of this painting to describe some of the challenges and benefits of using these pastels on that surface.
My Process
To start out, I like to quickly sketch the basic composition. Since I know these lines will soon be covered by other colors, I like to start with a light blue since it will be the least likely to muddy up the other colors when I blend with water later on.
After the initial composition sketch, I used a darker, warmer Prussian blue for initial placement of the trees and the lower foothills.
In this stage I'm just trying to get a basic composition with the light and dark values. At first I tried to make sure I kept the white of the snow-topped mountains. I did a pretty good job of it, but I messed up a little bit in a few places. Thankfully this Claybord is really forgiving and it will be pretty easy to get rid of some of the color later on.
I put down a fair amount of color before wetting it with a brush but It's hard to judge how dark to make the sky though. Especially considering the Neocolor tends to get lighter and lighter as it dries. I can adjust as I go though. I'll just keep building layers up.
The Claybord is absorbent but it is slow to soak up the colors or water, so you really have to work patiently. Especially when it is cold outside.
The first non blue color I used is yellow ochre. l put that down in the trees as well the foothills. Then I also did some dark blue and purples to add some "spice". I will alternate back and forth between wetting the pigment and simply drawing with the pigment. A lot of people try to finish the whole drawing before using water but I like to work in a more layered approach. It allows for some impressionistic color combinations when an underlying color peaks through a top layer of color.
For me learning how to paint has been a lot of trial and error but it's been fun especially when you mix in going outdoors. It was just beautiful that day and being outside is an important part of my art hobby.
Painting outside in the snow reminds me of how beautiful the blue sky is. The contrast with the white snow is amazing.
If you've watched any of my other videos you know how much I like an electric eraser. I need to get back some of that white snow on the mountains and I used an eraser to do that. Erasing paint may seem odd but it works really well with this pastel and Claybord combination. Claybord is actually designed to be scratched with different instruments and even though this eraser is quite soft, it does a great job of taking off the dry paint.
It's taking shape so I'll use a warmer color on the trees to create some depth to the painting. Cooler colors like blues tend to recede and warmer colors like reds tend to come forward in a painting like this.
I'm not too worried about details yet because the wet brush is going to blend it all together and some of the brush work will actually help it look more natural
I had an unfortunate accident when some of the snow I was standing on gave way and I sank to my knees. When I got up and tried to move the tripod that I was painting on everything fell over and all my pastels fell on the ground. It was a mess. Since the pastels are water-soluble, and snow is water, they started to bleed. I decided then and there to just clean up and get out of town and go home.
After I got home and dried things out, I was excited to finish the painting.
I like painting inside. It helps me remember the experience. As I continued working on it for the rest of the week, it was fun to remember the experience of being in the mountains. I had plenty of photo references of the place but I still took some artistic liberties on that tree on the foreground on the right.
You can watch the video for how I did the finish touches but I will highlight here that I really like the looseness of this painting. I've enjoyed seeing how to use these Neocolor 2 pastels. They work great dry when I used them on the final branches. I also eally liked the versatility of this Claybord. I finished off by carving in the light side of these trees with the electric eraser.
End Result
Materials Used
Neocolor II Water-Soluble Pastels
Ampersand Claybord 5x7
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