How to Sharpen Pastel Pencils - No More Snapping!
Channel: Shaymus Art Tutorials
Date: 2021-03-15

Pastel pencils are loved by many, including myself, as they're easy to blend and produce vibrant colours. But they're also hated by many for their easy ability to break and snap, especially when trying to sharpen them with a conventional sharpener. This can be incredibly frustrating as they're not cheap! For the past year, I have been sharpening my pastel pencils so quickly and effortlessly and with hardly any breakage. 

This video is for educational purposes only, I’m not an expert, I’m simply showing you how I sharpen my pencils. This method involves the use of a craft knife and a sanding machine and can be seen as quite dangerous if you're not careful so I urge you to be. If you’re more comfortable with a safer option, I suggest using a sanding block / paper instead of the sanding machine to sharpen the pastel.

Sharpening pastel pencils this way has totally transformed my experience with pastel pencils. No longer is it frustrating and more costly than it should be. The process is a rather quick one after some careful practice and I can always rely on having a sharp pointed pastel pencil ready to go. My work has benefitted from this immensely too, before this method I would always try and work with blunt tips on my pastel pencil’s as I always dreaded going to sharpen them again in case they snapped off in the sharpener. Now, I always have the perfect sharp tips because sanding them down takes a few seconds with this method and rarely any breaks. 

You can also use this method on regular colour pencils if you're after a super pointy tip.

Not my exact belt sanding machine as it is no longer on sale but this is the most similar from the same brand - https://amzn.to/3wu183d

Further reading: https://shaymusart.com/2021/02/22/how-to-sharpen-pastel-pencils/

My Patreon channel: https://www.patreon.com/shaymusart​, there you will find many real-time drawing videos and tutorials!

#arttip #arttutorial #pastelart

some links are affiliated

Music used
Something New - by Jonny Easton
Link: https://youtu.be/DY80mfcc_Xo
Check out his channel
Link: https://www.youtube.com/jonnyeaston