Wet vs. Dry mediums

[Mike McCarty]

The way I do it is like this: When I need to get down to the fine stuff, eyes mouth etc., I use a small "tortillon" (stub I calls it) which are those rolled up pieces of paper into a fairly sharp point (they come in all sizes). I take the sharp point of the stub and drag it across the soft pastel (I'm not fond of the hard stuff) and basically draw with the point of the stub. If it is a really fine line I will work it with a pastel pencil, but not so you would notice it was a pencil. I know you can sand those pieces of chalk down to a pretty fine edge but you end up wasting a lot of the stuff into dust and I can't ever tell where the chalk is hitting the paper. Other than covering large areas, I use the stubs to do most of the surface. You scratch on color and then you move it around with the stub. In the small areas its stub to chalk, stub to surface, back and forth. Other than that it would be just like using your elbows. I bet Chris would know about this stuff.