If you draw with pastels, you know that they are never permanently “set” on the paper; brush against them with a finger, and they will smudge. To lessen this problem, some artists use fixative with their pastels.

There are many brands of fixative available in stores, ranging from about $5.00 to $25.00. A less-expensive route some people take is using aerosol hairspray (I’ve tried this when I was in a pinch), but it often doesn’t spray evenly across the painting. Workable fixative for pastels comes in a spray form and is used to set the pastels on the paper. You may also use it as you work on your painting in between the layers of pastel.

While fixative does make the final piece harder to smear, there is a downside. It often dulls or darkens the colors of the pastels, and in doing so changes the artwork. I showed a piece I had done of a tiger to my eleven-year-old daughter when I had first finished it, then showed it to her again after I used fixative on it. Her first response: “Why did you change the colors?” It was that big of a difference. (I went back and went over the piece again to brighten it up).

Since then, I’ve decided not to spray fixative on my own work, though I do use it on my students’ paintings, since their pictures are likely to smudge as they are taking them home. If you’re not sure, try it on a practice piece and see what happens.  There are so many different brands of fixative, paper, and pastels, your results may be different.

If you decide not to fix your work, how do you protect it from smearing? The best way to protect your pastel painting is to frame them behind glass in a frame. If you aren’t framing your work yet, you could store it flat with glassine, an ultra-smooth, archival, translucent paper.