Fingers are perhaps the best tool a pastel artist has. One can cover the fingers with latex gloves to avoid adding grease to the image. Never rub a kneaded eraser on a pastel painting, as this can make it slick and greasy. Fixatives A pastel fixative is a thinly diluted varnish that binds the particles and holds them to the page. A fixative alters the character of a painting.
Particles absorb the varnish and coalesce, resembling thicker and heavier paint more than pastel.
Finally, the tonal balance of a painting can be lost with too much fixative. Many pastel artists alternately fix and work color over the fixative to build up heavy layers. This method is characteristic of the pastel paintings by Degas, who used fixative as a medium to create a thick paste which could be worked into with a brush. This fixes particles into the grain of the paper without affecting the surface. Spray the fixative from behind the paper so that it soaks through and holds the painting together without affecting the surface.