Pastels for shading?

[Evil Eye]

Using ground-up chalk pastels for weathering pigments is quite a well-known technique at this point, however I've had a thought- could you theoretically use them for applying shading to miniatures instead? Pastels blend very, very well, and from my limited experience with them both on models and as an art material they could be a great way of getting airbrush-style smooth shading/gradients by hand. My main concern is that they'd be too fragile for use on tabletop miniatures, but for display minis I can see them actually being really good. Unless, of course, I'm missing something.

[Arkhanist]

No reason you can't do this - weathering pigment powders are the same stuff as in pastels, just really finely ground (much more so than grinding your own) They're available in a wide range of colours, both from artist suppliers and some wargaming companies.

 

The problem is

a] getting them to stay put

b] ensuring even distribution on small, irregular surfaces

 

Left dry they end up looking rather dusty at 28mm scale, which is great for intentional weathering, less so for shading.

 

so you mix them with some form of drying binder and/or solvent - and have just recreated paint!

 

The normal way to get airbrush style gradients is you can either use something that stays open longer than acrylics such as oils or enamels or use slow dry acrylic additive, and wet blend colours together. Or use translucent paint and build it up via successive controlled layers, which is glazing.

 

Feel free to try it out with pigments directly yourself though - just because a technique is uncommon doesn't mean it won't work for you. Some professionals do everything with extensive dry brushing and it can look fantastic, for example.