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Question: What's the difference between charcoal and soft pastel!?
in terms of textures, smoothness and such!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
There are different types of pastel

Soft or Chalk pastel which is like working with a chalk!.
Oil Pastel which is the sticky stuff the last guy was thinking of!.

Cheap Soft pastel is very dry, mixes together when you do not want it to to create a mud, and creates a dust cloud!.
Nice Soft pastel is easily blends, allows for one color to be placed ontop of another without mixing, and stay where you place it!.

Since there are several different types of charcoal it depends on the type you have!.

Vine charcoal is soft, creates a nice smooth line that can be easily removed!. No matter how hard you lean on this charcoal you will always get a gray!. It is easy to smear and use for fine details!.
Compressed charcoal is harder (compressed)!. It leaves a much darker line, it can not be removed fully and is harder to smear!.

Cheap charcoal will have contaminates in it that causes you to scratch your paper!.

Using charcoal and soft pastels work well together but most artists try to use only the value scale (range of black, white, and gray) or color, but rarely both!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Charcoal and soft pastels are really similar!. You can buy different qualities and smoothness!. The main difference is soft pastels come in lots of colors, and charcoals generally only come in black and white!.

If you use either of these, make sure you use a workable sealer, otherwise your work will smudge and not look as good!.
For a final sealer, hairspray is cheaper and works just as well!. :-)Www@QuestionHome@Com

Pastels are a bit more crayon-y, and more soft, blendable!.
Charcoal is similar to chalk, smudgy, powdery!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

pastel is sticky,charcoal is rusty!.Www@QuestionHome@Com