Pastel Pencil Painting - Bruynzeel

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve got loads of green paper left over, so I’m just going to use it all up. The idea you can see in the photo isn’t mine, but you can probably find it on YouTube. It’s a free video explaining how to make this bird, and it’s done using carbon paper. You use white carbon paper to trace a photo onto the pastel paper. I’m still stuck with that green stuff with a bit of texture, but pastel mat is recommended. I have this paper too. It’s quite pricey, and I have the light blue colour, which just looks like grey. However, I don’t want to use it for this, as this is nothing more than a test – in this case, testing the Bruynzeel brand pastel pencils.
I’d used these pencils during the painting group and eventually I just decided to buy them myself. The pencils are a lot cheaper than anything else recommended, but I actually thought they worked quite well and, all in all, they cost quite a bit, so it would be a shame to leave them unused. I suspect that the Bruynzeel pencil is a lot harder on one end than many others; I wonder whether the colour is actually deeper or lighter, though I didn’t really notice it on the bamboo paper at the time.
What is a fact, however, is that pastel pencils contain considerably less pigment than soft pastel chalks of any brand – in my case, Rembrandt. I had to restrain myself from reaching for these chalks, because the pencils really don’t produce much colour, and as soon as I try to rub them into the paper, the colour only fades further.

As for the result, there’s little difference from soft pastels or chalks. I can’t get the paper to take the colour properly; perhaps that’s not too bad in this case, as a bit of green on a bird doesn’t hurt.

In any case, this piece isn’t finished yet; let’s say there are now about two to three layers on it, and these are a lot less thick (and colourful) once you rub the pastel in. In the end, instead of rubbing, I just gently tapped the pigment in.
I still need to add some details to the colour gradients, and as for the background, I’m still deciding whether it’s worth painting it.

What went wrong?
Of course, I pressed too hard on the carbon paper. As a result, I could see not only the white outlines (drawing details is pointless for this sort of painting because you’re always working in layers), but also the indentations in the paper, which is far from attractive (and I’ve traced more in the same rubbish way. Tracing isn’t really my thing, by the way. I can’t really do that either, just like I can’t colour within the lines).

Did I learn anything from this free lesson?
Not really. To be honest, I think my owl is much nicer, and I made that without any instructions, just by getting on with it using bRbrandt soft pastels

Note
In average it is hard to sharpen pastel pencils simply because they are too soft. For the Bruynzeel pencil I used an average sharpener and it worked great. Since the sharpener is cheap I don't see any point in buying something expensive or use a Stanley knife.

Materials

• Bruynzeel pastel pencils: red, yellow, white, black, purple.
• FABRIANO® - Tiziano pastel paper - kleur: Prato
• pencil sharpener- sponges, vinger, tissue

_12-5-2026