Pastel Workshop 125ContinuedNotes on brand characteristics Here’s an introduction to some of the brands I use.
» Art Spectrum These are from Australia and
the colour range reflects their origin. They pride
themselves on their pure colours. These pastels are at
the harder end of the soft pastel range, but this allows
you to build up more layers before the tooth fills up.
They have some great colours, there are quite a few
of my go-to colours in this range. My signature colour
(Amanda’s) Jacaranda was one of my recipes plus a few
others—greenish umber, grass green and blue grey.
Art Spectrum will have released a new range of soft
square pastels by the time this article is in print. Call
me biased... they used some of my recipes to develop
the new pastels, so I know there will be great range of
useful colours! I’m looking forward to being able to try
them in the near future.
» Blue Earth Pastels These pastels from the U.S.
are on the very soft end of the spectrum and come
in a large range of colours. They are square and
quite small. The company has taken a different
approach, organising the colours by hue (colour),
value (light or dark) and intensity (pure or greyed).
As a result, it is possible to buy the colours—dark,
light and greyed versions—in the one set.
» Daler-Rowney From the U.K., these pastels are a
medium soft pastel with a creamy feel that creates
less dust than some other pastels. They offer a nice
range of greys and some strong colours.
» Girault These are medium soft pastels from
France. They are quite a thin pastel stick but firm,
and with a nice colour range. You can chew through
them fairly quickly because they are thin, but a very
pleasant consistency.However, I find it frustrating,
and this was my bugbear from earlier, that their
colours do have names, but on the sticks there are
just numbers.
» Great American These pastels are from the U.S.
and have a huge colour range; they are at the very
soft end of the spectrum. There are some great
greys and good purple greys too—I love a good
purple-grey! I feel their very light tints are not as
opaque as they could be.
» Lukas Pastels These are medium to soft pastels
from Germany. They have some good colours,
including their dark green and a grey reddish, but
they have no names on the pastels, and numbers as
long as your arm!
» Mount Vision From the U.S., these are big pastels
that fit in the medium to hard range of softness. A
great range of colours. I love their beautiful greys,
and they have some great muted greens that are
very suited to Australian landscapes. They also
one of my favourite dark greens, Dark Green Earth
“700”. Again, no names, just numbers.» Rembrandt These pastels from the Netherlands
are on the harder end of the spectrum. They have
a good range of colours, some great darks and
some very nice greens. The composition of the
pastels seems to have changed over the years since
I bought my first set, but there are a few colours in
this range that are part of my essential pastel kit.
» Schmincke These pastels from Germany are
considered the softest of the soft. They offer a large
colour range and a very creamy texture. I find they
are best used in the final stages of a painting as it
is sometimes difficult to get other pastels to “stick”
over the top. Again, as with a lot of the very soft
pastels, the very light tints are not as opaque as one
would hope. This means that if you are using a dark
paper, it may show through to some extent. Being
so soft they have a tendency to crumble.
» Sennelier From France, these are on the softer
end of the spectrum. They offer a huge range of
lovely colours, and nice greys. However, they are
another company who just puts the number on the
pastel stick!
» Unison These medium/soft pastels are from
the U.K. They have a good colour range. Again,
individual pastels are numbered but not named.Breezy Day, Malua Bay, pastel on deep blue Mi Teintes Tex (Touch) paper, 31 x 42 cm, (12 x 17")Colour
Where do you start? A good basic set is a
starting point, I often recommend ½ stick
sets as you get twice the colours for your
money. From there you can add colours as
you need them. Unfortunately, many starter
sets contain bright, pretty colours that look
good, but aren’t actually very useful. Look
at any experienced pastellist’s pastel box,
and you will soon realise the useful colours
aren’t necessarily the “pretty” ones. More
commonly, the most used pastels are the
muted colours that best highlight or balance
a touch of brighter colour.
Soft pastels come in a family of colours, for
example French ultramarine. A single colour
will have several lighter tint options and a
darker tone as well. The manufacturer starts
with the pure colour. They then add white to
give paler tints and black to give darker tones.