"Pastel chalks" Topic

Hoping Mark 1 and/or microbiggie read this.

I was wondering what you two gents use for colors for your various roads?

I'll take a look at your blog microbiggie to get a feel for what colors you might be using.

Thank you

Mark 1 is not PM-able, but I just PM-ed microbiggie to notify him of this post. I want to see the answer too. :-)

You can read what Mark Luther says about pastels in this Flickr set in his Flickr collection. It looks like he uses standard oil-based pastels you can get in any art shop. I have a bunch of those already, I guess I should try using them for terrain. I love his terrain. I have the same approach and all the same ingredients, but his results look way better than mine. Clearly I just need to ratchet my efforts up several notches. Lots of good tips in those photo sets.

- Ix

I agree, both of their terrain techniques look great. I've looked over many of his photos, but haven't read much of his captions in each (don't think there is much about what colors he choose, but the "eye" test is probably good enough).

Heading to my local Blick art shop to pick out some pastels. I do know they've mentioned softer pastels.

Thanks for reaching out to him

The local Blick is where I get my pastels also. And I load up on dark Browns, red clay, tan, beige, medium Browns, … Basic earthy colors. I generally do the dark brown first, with a pretty solid line on the side of the road. Then just fill in the center with colors that would seem to be prominent in that area. I generally use the lightest color last. That could be a real chalky looking light beige for Greece for instance. And I always get the cheapest pastels I can find. They are messy and I always wind up with pastel under my finger nails, so don't do this before a nice dinner or job interview.

HA!…..my wife is going to love my grungy fingernails!

Thanks Microbiggie! :)

I find cheap ones are too hard; decent quality ones are soft enough to leave a mark without dragging the cloth. Terracotta, dark brown and a sort of yellowy clay colour are all I use for roads.

I basically got the idea from Mark's Flickr pictures (see above)

My gaming mat washes off in a cold cycle with regular powder, no Vanish needed or anything.

YouTube link