Best Soft Pastel Sets
Our Top Picks
A Sennelier extra soft pastel is composed of high quality pure pigment ground with a natural transparent binder. The Giant soft pastel is available only in White and Ivory Black. Their comfortable handling and large contact surface allow large areas to be covered with a high degree of regularity. Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff carries a wide range of pastel products, including soft and hard pastels, oil pastels, pastel sets, papers, primers, blending tools and more. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser.
'With almost 400 different pastels, sold individually or as color-coordinated sets (as well as portrait and landscape sets) you can add colors as you need them.'
'With the range now at 400 different sticks, there is an ample choice for the pastel painter.'
'Sennelier provides the widest range of tones for their colors, which is ideal for those artists who hate blending to create intermediate shades.'
'If you are beginning pastels, this brand is very forgiving, and will take rougher handling than those mentioned above.'
'Daler Rowney consider themselves to be 'the world masters in the making of artists' pastels.'
'This small plastic box, barely half-an-inch thick, is a perfect traveling set if you are going anywhere by plane.'
Other Pastel Brands at Amazon
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'There are a number of other brands of artist quality pastel available.'
Unison Soft Pastels
John Hersey's handmade Unison pastels are as close to perfection as you are going to get. With almost 400 different pastels, sold individually or as color-coordinated sets (as well as portrait and landscape sets) you can add colors as you need them. My only problem with Unison is the lack of pigment information, but since the selection of pigments is what makes these so good (along with minimal binder) it is only a minor problem. Just be warned, if you make the move to Unison pastels, nothing else is ever going to feel as good, and you will have to deal with the urgent desire to replace your entire pastel collection.
Schmincke Soft Artists' Pastels
Schmincke make the most beautifully soft pastels available: with an almost buttery texture they glide onto the surface of the paper, even over already heavily worked areas. With the range now at 400 different sticks, there is an ample choice for the pastel painter. Schmincke darks (which I obtained as set of 15) are a must when you start to expand your collection, nothing else works quite as well for adding those final flourishes to a painting as a Schmincke pastel.
Sennelier Pastels
A medium soft pastel which comes in a delicious range of 525 tones/colors – enough to please even the most particular pastel painter. Sennelier provides the widest range of tones (up to eight in some cases) for their colors, which is ideal for those artists who hate blending to create intermediate shades. And if you want to create some special effects there is a great range of metallic and iridescent colors. Available as full-length or half-length pastels.
Rembrandt Soft Pastels
I was lucky enough to start pastel painting with Rembrandt pastels, and learned to use the medium-soft pastel to good effect. An excellent pastel for line work and early layering in of color: these are my pastel of choice for starting off a painting. If you are beginning pastels, this brand is very forgiving, and will take rougher handling than those mentioned above. Not quite as large a range as my other suggestions, with only 203 sticks covering a range 44 pure colors (each with an additional four tones), but still more than enough to get you started.
Daler-Rowney Soft Pastels
Whilst Daler Rowney has one of the smallest range of pastels for the alternatives listed here, just trailing Rembrandt with around 190 tints, and were traditionally quite tiny in size (1/4 inch diameter), they have reintroduced the range at a more standard pastel size (the old tiny ones used to be great for a traveling set). Daler Rowney consider themselves to be 'the world masters in the making of artists' pastels', and whilst I wouldn't go that far, they are a good back up pastel and have a few quirky colors you may not find elsewhere (lizard green and pansy violet come to mind).
Conté a Paris Soft Pastels
I once bought a box of 48 assorted Conté soft pastels, each the same shape and size as the old Daler Rowneys. Whilst not my favorite pastels to use, and not quite the same quality as the others listed here, this small plastic box, barely half-an-inch thick, is a perfect traveling set if you are going anywhere by plane. The range of colors was perfect for landscape (actually seascape in Venice) pastel painting, and the slightly harder pastel was forgiving and perfect for smaller sketches to be developed later in the studio. (Think of Conté pastel pencils remade as a stick.)
Other Pastel Brands
There are a number of other brands of artist quality pastel available: Art Spectrum, (which are on my 'to-try' list), Diane Townsend (which have a nice feel, but I can't get used to the shape), as well as Terry Ludwig, Great American, and Mount Vision. The bottom line is try out those artist quality pastels you can obtain easily (replacing a favorite color will otherwise be impossible) and remember you will ultimately be using a range of pastels with different softness, may require a range of tones, and you may want a particular color to match something in nature.
Customers recommend
I love these oil pastels they are very smooth and blends very well and it arrived a day early and it was well packaged none of them were broken it was perfect I am very pleased thank you so much. oh and I highly recommend these to any artists you won't be disappointed. thanks again.
…Good set to have to the budding artist.
These Fantastic colored pencils are so Amazing to worked with, they are smooth to Layers and Shading, they Blend very well, i really love these and i recommanded these Wonderful colored Pencils Artist Grade,to everyones who would like to achieved a Fabulous result with these Fantastic Vivid colors, i reallyn wish they would made a wonderful Bigger set of 120 colored pencils, because try these it's adopted these for ever!
…Highly recommend this item for any artist out there!…
On time, as advertised, good quality, reasonably priced.
…She is a little artist in the making and these worked well for her.
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I love these oil pastels they are very smooth and blends very well and it arrived a day early and it was well packaged none of them were broken it was perfect I am very pleased thank you so much. oh and I highly recommend these to any artists you won't be disappointed. thanks again.
Colors are vibrant and just what my daughter needed for her art class.
Great value for mixed media artist or students
Not sure what you mean by student grade, but yes, they are very soft and blend very well. Hope that helps.
I am not a portrait artist but I do think all the colors included would help with any skin color. Use sparingly the rule of three colors to mix.
…All in all, they're decent pastels, easy to use, a great value for the money and the perfect set for a beginner artist.
These are surely artist quality.…
…I'm not gonna dissapointing the other brand be cuz they were a wonderful price and still worked really good and nvr claimed to be artist grade.…I use my artist grade color pencils and alcohol markers with coloring books the most, but when working on my own art, it's these all the way!!…
…My budding artist of a granddaughter got to work immediately on her creations.…
…I have never used the expensive oil pastels that are recommended for artists, so I cannot compare.…
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…Good set to have to the budding artist.
I purchased this as a gift for a friend who wants to return to pastel work after years away so I can not comment on quality compared to other brands. For the price, I would rate this boxed set to student grade. I can comment on how complete the set is. Add a pastel pad, a spray can of workable fixative and you're good to go. The box is nicely made and holds the pastels well.…
I bought this for my niece who is a budding artist.…I think it is the perfect gift for the artist in your life.
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These Fantastic colored pencils are so Amazing to worked with, they are smooth to Layers and Shading, they Blend very well, i really love these and i recommanded these Wonderful colored Pencils Artist Grade,to everyones who would like to achieved a Fabulous result with these Fantastic Vivid colors, i reallyn wish they would made a wonderful Bigger set of 120 colored pencils, because try these it's adopted these for ever!
…These are excellent artist grade pencils and enjoy using them for coloring.…
I bought these for my mom who is an acrylic paint artist.…They make a great gift for anyone, accomplished artists to beginners, these are great pencils!
I do not know since I purchased them as a gift to someone who is an artist for a company. She likes them.
This Schpirerr Farben set is oil based artist quality with 72 different colors. They are highly pigmented and easy to blend and come highly recommended by professional colored pencil artists. Sargent Arts are waxed based pencils with very little pigment.and are geared towards children. There is no comparison.
…Gifted these to an adult daughter who was thrilled to have her own (usually has to share with her kids) and she is very creative and artistic.. Great gift to the adults or more mature artists in the family who love gradations of color.…
…These are great whether you're a beginner colored pencil artist or used to using only the best supplies as a previous reviewer artist.…
…I'm an artist and my primary medium is colored pencils, I use them almost all day, every day. I own the majority of the professional artist quality colored pencil sets and these Schpirerr Farbens are like a perfect combination of Polychromos, Prismacolors, and Luminance! …So far I've not been able to find out the lightfast ratings on these but I hope the company will take note of the importance of this info to artists and publish this information soon.…
Yes, you can. They are just colored pencils. Many artists and hobbyists use a combination of mediums (pastels, markers, colored pencils, etc) in their drawings.
As seller states it is an oil base pencil.. A nice creamy pencil that blends superbly. Several of my fellow color pencil artists are testing for light fastness. There are no color names on the pencils just numbers.
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…Highly recommend this item for any artist out there!…
Good assortment and high quality
Nice range of colors, great for artistic work, works well on pastel paper
I bought the 60 set.
Pastel comes in two kinds oil pastel which is great for blending and chalk pastel which is more powdery. Most artist uses both, when you are doing a background you might use the sticks or for instance if creating a portrait the pencils are best. You must determine your level of experience and go slow and have fun with it. These pastel pencils are the chalky powder type, they are great pencils. I'm an eclectic person, so I use both. You can also use charcoal with them to create different effects.
Absolutely love my new pencils and the plentiful color selection. The purchase price was great and received them in perfect condition. I'm totally looking forward to using them!
My husband loves these pencils, he is quite the artist and they work perfectly no matter how he uses them.…
As described.. timely shipment.. excellent pastel pencils.. would recommend to any pastel artist.
Soft Pastel Techniques
I do not know if you are still in need of these, but assuming you are in the market for art supplies in general, have you tried the dickblick.com website? they have the best prices--specially when combined with special offers (a 20% off offer comes around several times per month). I do not know if they ship to Italy, but you can contact them to find out. as an artist who regularly purchases from them, I can vouch for the company itself. good luck!
Soft Pastel Colors
I am not an artist. I color for fun. I do mix water color, pencils, soft pastels (Stabilo for instance), crayon, felt tip pens, and .. eye shadow. As long as it goes on the page, doesn't bleed -- I will use it. Play and have fun! Some projects will be great and some will go in the trash. I see others have left more detailed answers. Have fun!
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On time, as advertised, good quality, reasonably priced.
Easy to use product good variety of colors excellent for blending. Can be used on paper or canvas using a shoe brush forblending shadows.
Love these!! Beautiful colors, easy to use.
Depends on what you friend likes. I find they are very good for the price. They cover well and there's a variety of colors. I use them with my students and I am extremely happy with them!
Actually these are Artist quality, not a child's product.
I bought these for my daughter who is 7 years old and loves art. We use these a lot and really love them! They blend so smoothly and the colors are rich and vibrant. You can't beat 50 oil pastels for under $7! There is a wide variety of colors in the set and two whites.…
Great color choices for an artist.…
This is my first time working with oil pastels. I'm really loving these.I think they are great for mixed media and any other paper people. You will love the smooth creamy vibrant colors.
NO..these are oil based. It would smear really bad. These are more for canvas. I asked my daughter..she's the 'artist'! : ) Hope this helps.
I for one don't sharpen an oil pastel crayon. I will use either a scraper such as a scratchboard nib and stylus, or a clay shaper to cut in and manipulate a line. Sometimes I will snap a crayon in half and use the sharp edge of the break. You can use sandpaper pads and a knife or try a pencil sharpener. I don't know if the crayon is hard enough for that though. I know this wasn't alot of help..but really, most pastel artists don't sharpen oil pastels because you waste so much of the material.
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…She is a little artist in the making and these worked well for her.
This is exactly what my grand daughter wanted. We are pleased!
…i have the 25 pack and this pack. the colors are vibrant and so gorgeous, and blends really well. these are more for beginner artists though if you ask me. definitely something for ages 9 and up. this is an amazing product, but if you are a very serious artist you may want something else.
I am only a junior artist. As such, I am not yet allowed to have fingers, so I can't speak to your question, except to say that I envy you your fingers, smudged or otherwise.
great for my young artist
This is a great product for early aged artists.…
This junior artist set was even better than the one adults would use, I purchased both and my kids were fighting over this one because of thegreat color wheel choices.
Perfect for kid artists off all ages
…The item is great for kids and practiced artists alike.…
Artist Quality Soft Pastels
Got these at a super-duper low price, so these are definitely a worthwhile set of cray-pas to add to your budding junior artist's collection of supplies.