Yes you *could* wash it off, but you'd be washing off the gouache too.

Hi PannOConnor Yes the Natural Glass will change the appearance of the soft pastels. Our Degas fixative will change the color very little, if at all, but a great deal depends on the quality of the pastels you are using and any fillers they may contain. With 2 or 3 coats of the Degas fixative, you may find the soft pastel does not move when touched with your finger. You do not need to apply a varnish at this point. However, if you do decide to apply Natural Glass after using the Degas fixative, it will change the appearance of the artwork somewhat, because you have introduced another layer for the light to pass through before bouncing back from the paper to your eye. It's just optical science, if you see what I mean. If you are looking for the lustrous surface that two or three coats of Natural Glass will provide, then try a small demo piece first and get a feeling for where your colors and values are going to land once you have applied the varnish, and adjust accordingly.

@@invereal Excellent thank you!!

Hi Reelynn, Yes plexiglass can develop static electricity and attract your soft pastel granules to it, resulting in a hazy shadow on the back of the plexiglass. Putting a little distance between the pastel painting and the plexiglass helps improve this, but using our Degas fixative will help even more. For soft pastel, I would recommend the Degas fixative, as it contains only casein, and does not deepen the colors as much as the FinalFix or Natural Glass. If you 'spray-as-you-go', your pastel will be held firmly to your support (paper, canvas, etc), and with a couple of coats at the end, may not require framing at all. Use your finger to judge whether it will smear when touched. The casein only gets harder with time. The FinalFix fixative contains beeswax with the casein and provides a very durable coating. It works particularly well on multi media, combining drawing media underneath oils and acrylics. For the delicate colors of soft pastel, we recommend our Degas fixative.

Hi Reelynn, Yes plexiglass can develop static electricity and attract your soft pastel granules to it, resulting in a hazy shadow on the back of the plexiglass. Putting a little distance between the pastel painting and the plexiglass helps improve this, but using our Degas fixative will help even more. For soft pastel, I would recommend the Degas fixative, as it contains only casein, and does not deepen the colors as much as the FinalFix or Natural Glass. If you 'spray-as-you-go', your pastel will be held firmly to your support (paper, canvas, etc), and with a couple of coats at the end, may not require framing at all. Use your finger to judge whether it will smear when touched. The casein only gets harder with time. The FinalFix fixative contains beeswax with the casein and provides a very durable coating. It works particularly well on multi media, combining drawing media underneath oils and acrylics. For the delicate colors of soft pastel, we recommend our Degas fixative.

Hi Reelynn, Yes plexiglass can develop static electricity and attract your soft pastel granules to it, resulting in a hazy shadow on the back of the plexiglass. Putting a little distance between the pastel painting and the plexiglass helps improve this, but using our Degas fixative will help even more. For soft pastel, I would recommend the Degas fixative, as it contains only casein, and does not deepen the colors as much as the FinalFix or Natural Glass. If you 'spray-as-you-go', your pastel will be held firmly to your support (paper, canvas, etc), and with a couple of coats at the end, may not require framing at all. Use your finger to judge whether it will smear when touched. The casein only gets harder with time. The FinalFix fixative contains beeswax with the casein and provides a very durable coating. It works particularly well on multi media, combining drawing media underneath oils and acrylics. For the delicate colors of soft pastel, we recommend our Degas fixative.

@@spectrafix6262 Thank you so much! I will try the degas fixative with the frames I have been given. I appreciate your quick response.

Yes!

It goes quite a long way, you could cover many sheets. However, A4 copy paper may buckle a bit.

Yes, the liquid would pick up the pastel and smear it. It should be fixed first with SpectraFix Degas or FinalFix fixative. This product is really designed for Colored Pencil, which becomes very slick and waxy when applied thickly. Because it dries transparent, it can barely be detected as a 'patch'. However...yes, it is useful to create initial grit for pastel.

That's Great 😃, I'm so glad it works for you. Gouache seems to respond particularly well to SpectraFix products!

Yes, the beeswax in FinalFix shifts the color more than our Degas Fixative, but it yields a very durable protective layer.

Yes, FinalFix is quite workable and can be layered deeply with Colored Pencils or pastels.

Yes C.M., it is quite workable and will easily accept more layers of pastel or colored pencil.

Glad to hear you're becoming a fan! I hope you enjoy the Natural Glass and let us know your experience :)

Hi Cookiemnstrr! Thanks for this question. Yes FinalFix can be used successfully on just about any drawing material, but for oil pastels I would suggest our Degas fixative. The beeswax in FinalFix may not stay adhered to the oils in oil pastels, which are often mineral oils, and it may delaminate. Our Degas fixative works beautifully with oil pastel though, as it is simply casein. It also does the job with dry drawing media too. I hope this is helpful.🙂

@@invereal Thank you.

FinalFix is made from our Natural Glass product, but we have since dropped the reference to Natural Glass and just call it FinalFix. Natural Glass Varnish & Medium comes as a Brush-On version which is very similar to acrylic mediums, but we now have a sprayable version of the Natural Glass Spray Varnish, available through our website SpectraFix.com.

@@spectrafixartistmaterials4935 Thanks for this update. Just to clarify: this works over soft pastels?

@@lindabarnett7653 Oh yes, it works very well on soft pastel. Of course, there are some do's and don'ts...., for instance, don't spray too heavily on the first round, so you don't cause the pastel to become overly wet, and possibly run. Better to do a few light passes. And do a practice piece first, until you get the hang of things. It's easy to use, but if. you've never done it, then play around first and see how it responds. Also, spraying as you go, every once in a while, is much better than spraying a lot at the end.

@@spectrafixartistmaterials4935 I'm confused. I thought Natural Glass didn't need to be sprayed. I don't like using a spray, quite frankly.

@@lindabarnett7653 I have made a sprayable version for those who are using it on easily reactivated materials, like gouache. Now there is a choice 😃

Yes, there is a color shift due to the beeswax. SpectraFix Degas fixative has less of a shift.

Thank you! So glad you've enjoyed it!

Thanks Hajra! I'm so glad you're giving Natural Glass a workout with your paintings and ornaments! You've shared so many valuable insights into the product, my customers often head over to your channel for valuable tips. Best wishes for your December housewarming!

You're welcome Penelope!

I'm so glad! I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with it. :)

Great! Drop by the factory ;)

Yes! Hajra Meeks has created a fabulous review of Natural Glass and FinalFix! I am so grateful to the artists who use my products and find so many creative ways to employ them, and in the process discover aspects that I had not explored! Thanks for giving me a heads up on this

Thank you so much!

I don't recommend Natural Glass for use over oil pastels, because the oils in the pastels can eventually cause the Natural Glass to delaminate. The Degas Fixative seems to work better with oil pastels.

Glad to hear you like what you see :)

Hi Birdsong, The SpectraFix Degas fixative does a better job on Oil Pastel than this product, because this product contains beeswax and does not adhere as well to the Oil Pastels.

@@invereal please tell me if I can use it over wax crayons art which are water soluble which were used on top of a Crayola sketch

@@katherinearion9169 No, it won't work over wax crayons, the wax will repel the liquid and it will peel off.

I'm sorry to hear that, I seem to be able to hear it just fine. Maybe you could check your settings?

@@invereal .....I updated my IOS and now it’s fine; thanks!

@@Brontesister1 Yay! Enjoy :)

Soft pastel is so delicate that its appearance is easily altered by anything that fills the air space between the granules. Many artists choose not to use fixative for this reason, but Spectrafix Degas Fixative is an excellent choice for maintaining the fresh color of your pastels. Natural Glass goes further and provides a semi-gloss coating, which does change the original appearance of the pastel. I have a spray-on version called FinalFix which changes the appearance much, much less, and provides a strong, wipeable, matte surface. You may like to try that. It will be available soon!

Hi Silent-Active, If I understand you correctly, you are saying that the applied color isn't quite as opaque or rich, because the Absorbent Grounds are not finely ground enough to pick up dense color? InstaGrit is very finely ground, so it does pickup a lot of color, as you can see from the video, however I'll test it next to the Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground and pumice gesso, and maybe do a little video on that :). I hope this helps!

I'm actually saying that the mediums I mentioned (DS Clear Absorbent Ground and Liquitex Clear Gesso) actually dry to a semi-cloudy, translucent state. They are not true transparent nor clear, once applied over your artwork you lose about 10% vibrancy yet the absorbency and gesso-like toothy qualities are really effective because of the particulate matter used in the medium. In this video it looks like the SpectraFix product is truly transparent/translucent. I would love to see a side-by-side comparison but either way thank you for your response. I really appreciate it!

@@Znobishtucon Thanks for clarifying your observations, and Yes, InstaGrit is not translucent but actually transparent, unless it is put on too thickly, in which case it does show a little cloudy white due to the grit. But the colored pencil easily covers those areas and one quickly learns how to apply it at just the right density.

I genuinely appreciate the clarification and this is *exactly* something I can use... I can't live without my Spectra Fix spray so found this video through your website. Sold! Thank you!

You would have to dilute it to spray it, painting it on seems to be best, as it self-levels nicely. On top of pastels, you would fix them first with the Degas Fixative and then brush it on. Natural Glass softens if you deliberately leave water on it, and can then be lifted off with a brush. Email me through the website if you need more information.