Is varnishing or a fixative needed for colored pencil work? What about when you mix charcoal or pan pastels?

I personally only use a fixative (spectrafix) when working in mixed media with colored pencils such as charcoal/colored pencil or pan pastels/colored pencil. In those cases the fixative is for the charcoal or pan pastels, not for the colored pencil. The colored pencils themselves do not need a fixative. Framing them behind glass is enough protection.

These are the products I use when spraying work that has colored pencil mixed in (amazon affiliate links)

We all need to be reminded “Don’t drink the paint water”  and other fun artist sayings. 
Why not wear it on our clothes or coffee mugs to make sure we don’t forget?  LachriMerch.com

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