Difference Between Pastel and Encaustic Painting
The pastel is a type of dry painting media, which is portable and used to create paintings with a velvety texture and a lot of lusciousness. The pastels are a type of pencil sticks that are composed of color pigments and wax binders.
The word "pastel" originates from the Medieval Latin pastellum, which means "woad paste," and the Late Latin pastellus, which means "paste." The word pastel first appeared in
French in 1662 and originated in northern
Italy in the 16th century and were used by
Jacopo Bassano and
Federico Barocci. Pastels have been used by artists since the
Renaissance, but it gained a huge popularity in the 18th century when a number of well-known artists like
Edgar Degas,
Mary Cassatt and
Odilon Redon made pastels their primary medium.
On the other hand, Encaustic painting or hot wax painting, is a complex form of painting media, where the molten wax with added color pigments is used for making paintings. It is a type of oil based quick drying painting media which uses wax as pigment binder.
In ancient Greek and Roman painting, encaustic painting was a popular technique. The word "encaustic" comes from the Greek word "enkaustikos," which meaning "to heat or burn." The
Roman scholar
Pliny the Elder explained the wax encaustic painting technique in his first-century book Natural History. The
Egyptian Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits, painted between 100 - 300 AD, are the oldest Encaustic panel paintings still in existence.
Jasper Johns,
Pausias and
Benjamin Calau are the name of some famous artists that uses the art medium for their artworks.
To create hard and soft pastels, pigments are ground into a paste with water and a minimal amount of a non-greasy binder, like tragacanth gum or methyl cellulose. The pastels are then rolled, pressed, or extruded into sticks. Many of the colors, including the vivid yellows, oranges, and reds, are made from hazardous substances like cadmium. Hard pastels, soft pastels, pastel pencils, water soluble pastels, and oil pastels are the five basic types of pastels.
On the contrary, To create the most basic encaustic media, the colors are combined with waxes like beeswax and damar resin, as well as other substances. While colored wax, inks, oil paints, and other pigments can be used for pigmentation, some artists prefer to employ dried powdered pigments.
Colored pencils allow artists to add precision and detail to their sketches while also creating vibrant artworks. When compared to other painting materials, colored pencils are inexpensive and simple to use. Color pencils are made up of wax like binders but still they are made a little more brittle as compared to the pastel pencils.
But, Encaustic paint has a texture similar to translucent clay. When it's hot, it can be used like liquid paint, but as it cools, it solidifies and can be sliced, carved, stamped, or even sculpted to give the painting a three-dimensional appearance. Encaustic paint and its byproducts are totally waterproof because they are based on oil or wax. It can endure sunlight even though it was created by melting on heat. It also doesn't fade even when exposed to the sun all day, though it is advised to maintain the painting at room temperature.
Pastels are easily bendable, and can be blended with fingers, a blending stump, or a cloth. The final color effect of Pastel colors are more similar to natural dry pigments than any other painting technique.
In opposition, The viscosity of the encaustic paint is similar to translucent clay. As it cools, it solidifies, allowing you to cut, carve, stamp, or even sculpt it to give the painting a 3D aspect. When it's hot, it may be applied like liquid paint. The colors don't flow into one another despite the fact that encaustic wax shares many traits with oil paint. This is because it dries considerably more quickly.
Pastel painting can be challenging because, unlike other painting techniques, the substance is mixed and blended immediately on the working area. There is no way to verify the colors on a palette before applying them to the surface as a result. Additionally, pastel mistakes cannot be concealed the same way a paint mistake can. Handling pastels with utmost caution is necessary because they are not permanently affixed to the paper's surface. Contrarily, pastel sticks to the paper's surface and is quickly contaminated unless it is covered by a glass or a fixative made of glue or gum solution.
Instead, Encaustic painting produces opaque or translucent effects by layering hot wax on laminated wood panels. Encaustic paintings have numerous benefits, but they also have certain drawbacks. For instance, a heat lamp or heat gun is required to fuse and bind the media in an encaustic painting. Encaustic paintings should also be routinely rubbed between 6 to 12 months using soft, lint-free cloths like pantyhose and stored strictly at room temperature. Direct sunlight should also be avoided.
Most of the fixatives are poisonous. Additionally, many of the pigments, including the vivid yellows, oranges, and reds, are made from hazardous substances like cadmium. All pastels are unsuitable for vegans since they use oil or fat as a binder and certain pastel hues also contain animal fats.
Yet, Because they are made of wax as a binder and color pigments as a binding agent, the majority of encaustic paintings are completely safe to use. Encaustic paint is safe for vegans since the acrylic wax used to bind the pigments in it is vegan-friendly. For instance, because beeswax is an animal-extracted wax, it cannot be used in products that are vegan. Thus, the wax that was employed to keep the pigment together has a role.
Credit to @remy Pastel Painting