Surfaces and supports - PastelMat

I find PastelMat to be a very nice surface to work with. It shares the depth of tooth with sandpaper without the harshness. This means that pastels (specially PanPastels) adhere quite well to it, blending and erasing are a bit more difficult and fixatives are not required. Also there is very little dust produced while working on these surfaces, always a good thing.

I call this painting "The leaning Lighthouse of Peggy's Cove", and was created using PanPastels, soft and hard pastels on PastelMat paper.

Surfaces and supports - sandpaper

Here is another example of painting on sandpaper: a Tuscan window overlooking a vineyard.
Painted using PanPastels and hard pastels.

Surfaces and supports - sandpaper

I find artist's quality sandpaper very nice to work with, as long as I don't try to blend with my fingers...
It has a rough surface that pigments adhere to quite well.
It works well with PanPastels, specially if you use the SofftTools that come with them.
This painting or Reader's Rock Garden was done on sandpaper using PanPastels and hard pastels.
Artist's quality sandpaper is not found at your local hardware store, but in your Art Supply stores. It is acid free and of archival quality. Private collection.

Surfaces and supports - paper

Here is another example of painting on coloured paper.
This group of old milk bottles was painted using PanPastels and hard pastels on Ingres green paper.

Surfaces and supports - paper

This painting of a plate of mangoes was done on blue Ingres paper, using PanPastels and soft pastels. The paper colour shows through in places.
Pastel paper comes in many colours, and you can use this to complement your painting.
Private collection.

Surfaces and supports

Pastels are very versatile and can be applied to almost any surface that has some texture for the pastel to hold on to. Shiny stuff will not work!
There are several makes of pastel paper, pastel board, velour paper, sandpaper, and PastelMat.
Some types of pastels work better on certain kinds of papers, I found.
For instance PanPastels are too soft for Strathmore Pastel paper, it just doesn't stick. But it works great on sandpaper or PastelMat.
Or a type of "velour" paper, very soft, like the one used to paint this flower. This velour paper is very interesting to work with, blending is more difficult - and careful planning is required, as erasing is not easy either.
There is so much available these days that can be confusing at first. If you are just starting out exploring the wonderful world of pastels, start with the Strathmore Pastel paper. It comes in assorted colours and is relatively inexpensive. Canson Mi-teintes and Fabriano (these people have been making paper since 1264!) are favourites with most pastelists for their versatility and range of colours.