ANSWERS
What is Pastel?
Made by blending dry powdered pigments with a nongreasy liquid binding medium
such as gum arabic. The resultant paste is usually rolled into a stick and
then dried. A wide spectrum of pastel colors is possible, and by the eighteenth
century, some artists endeavored to imitate the power and richness of oil painting
through a coloristic and painterly style of draftsmanship, so that many of
the finest pastels of the period are known as pastel paintings. Pastels were
invented at the end of the fifteenth century in northern Italy, and it is thought
that Leonardo da Vinci was the first artist to use them, although none of his
pastel drawings are known today.
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