• Home
  • Articles
    • Art guides for beginners
    • Coloured Pencils
    • Graphite Pencils
    • Soft Pastels
    • Acrylic Paints
    • Water based Products
    • Oil-based products
    • Papers & Canvases
    • Art Accessories
  • Tutorials
  • Workshops
  • News
  • Kofi-blog
  • About
  • Mail Us
  • Site Map
STEP BY STEP ART
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Art guides for beginners
    • Coloured Pencils
    • Graphite Pencils
    • Soft Pastels
    • Acrylic Paints
    • Water based Products
    • Oil-based products
    • Papers & Canvases
    • Art Accessories
  • Tutorials
  • Workshops
  • News
  • Kofi-blog
  • About
  • Mail Us
  • Site Map

Soft Pastels & Pastel Pencil Reviews & Articles


We add new articles to our website every three months and make it a point to update existing ones to include more information or enhance their appearance. Remember to visit us often for the latest updates. To access articles of interest, click on any of the images below. Not all articles may be available for viewing, as some are still in progress or will be created soon. If you have any requests for specific articles, don't hesitate to contact us through our contact page. 
​
To support our website, which receives no funding, you can buy us a coffee for as little as £3/$3. We appreciate your support in helping us provide free content for artists worldwide.

Pastel brands

Autumn leaf created using prismacolor nupastels and blending sponge and stumps

Soft pastels | A guide for beginners

Have you always wanted to give the soft pastels a go but unsure what you will need to start out, this helpful article offers you lots of information.
Unison pastels additional box set 37 - 54

Unison Soft Pastels

Unison pastels are one of the finest, soft pastel ranges available and they blend extremely well. There is very little binder, so the pastels are more vibrant, due to the pure pigments found in the ingredients.
Faber Castell PITT pastels in a glass jar

Faber Castell | PITT Pastel Pencils
UPDATED October 2023

Looking for information on the Faber Castell PITT pastel pencils, find out about their abilities &  lightfast qualities suited to all pastel artists, particularly pet portrait artists.
Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils wooden box set

Stabilo Carbothello | Pastel Pencils

These pastel pencils offer 60 vibrant colours and would make a great addition to the colour palette of any pastellist. Find out more about this range.
Prismacolor NuPastels box of 12 colours

Prismacolor | Nupastels

These pastels feature rich, creamy pigments that allow for easy blending and shading. Perfect for creating illustrations or drawings, these pastels can be sharpened to a fine point for detailed work or dulled for full coverage. 
Derwent pastel pencils - Tin of 24

Derwent | Pastel Pencils

These pencils have a unique highly pigmented fine chalk texture which creates a beautiful laydown of soft colour and are easy to blend. These pencils can be used dry or with water to create light washes. Find out more about these pencils.

Papers & Canvas boards for Pastels

Art Spectrum colourfix paper

Art Spectrum | Colourfix​

Art Spectrum® Colourfix™ Papers are sheets of acid-free, 300gsm hot pressed watercolour paper with a fine, deep tooth. It is a superb surface for pastels, oils, acrylics, inks, oil pastels, gouache, watercolours and dry media such as charcoal and pencils. Available in 20 lightfast colours.
​

Art Spectrum colourfix smooth

Art Spectrum | Colourfix smooth

For anyone who is a fan of the Colourfix paper, did you know that Art Spectrum also offer a smooth surface version too? Find out more about the Colourfix Smooth, compare between other surfaces and see where you can buy yours. 
Ampersand Pastelbord

Ampersand | Pastelbord
UPDATED May 2023

​The marble-dust tooth holds more layers than pastel paper and works well with all types of pastels, it is suitable for other mediums such as charcoal, conte crayon, coloured pencils, watercolour pencils, ink and acrylics. This article provides valuable information showcasing its remarkable adaptability and delves deep into the intricacies of this surface.
​

Black and Brown sheets of Canson Mi-Tientes 'Touch' paper

Canson Mi-tientes | Touch

A highly innovative and unique surface - this versatile, finely textured paper is perfect for pastel, charcoal, pencil, & acrylic artists and suitable for both dry and wet media techniques.
Clairfontaine pastelmat paper and pastels

Clairfontaine | Pastelmat

This paper is held in high esteem, especially among pastel artists. In this article we analyse the performance features in depth and explore its capabilities when used with other mediums like; coloured pencils, watercolours, oil pastels, charcoal, acrylics and mixed media.​
UArt black sanded paper - coloured pencil drawing of a leopard eye and derwent pencils

UArt | Dark sanded paper

This dark sanded paper by UArt is ideal for soft pastels and other mediums such as pencil. In this article we review the paper using coloured pencils. We will extend this article soon.
Black papers including Derwent, velour, stonehenge, colourfix smooth, Sakura notebook and Somerset

12 popular black papers for artists

During our search for the 12 black surfaces in this article, we found many more, with companies producing their own ranges, in varying shades of black and different textures. The following article provides you with a selection of the most popular brands, including some lesser known.
Bristol 500 strathmore Plate and Vellum pads

Tim Fisher | Fisher 400

Developed by Tim Fisher specifically for painting with pastels. The paper has no surface pattern, which can otherwise show through, on your painting, and it will take layer after layer of pastel. Suitable for both fine, detailed work and also for more impressionistic painting. It is also very good for mixed media.
ARTICLE TO FOLLOW.
​NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

Accessories for pastel artists

Ghiant transfer spray 200ml

Ghiant | Transfer spray

The perfect way to transfer outlines with less mess and wastage than carbon sheets. A popular product among artists. Find out how it compares.
Pencil sharpeners

Sharpening pencils

This article gives lots of information about different types of sharpeners as well as explanations on how they can play a huge part in your art techniques too.
Pencil chest for 250 pencils - Pencil chest made by Creations by Rod

Pencil storage chest

Finding suitable storage for your pencils and pens can be difficult, so when we came across this pencil chest made by 'Creations by Rod', we wrote an article about it. They make 24 unique designs including the pencil chest, which are aimed at the creative market.
Loxley fixative spray 200ml

Loxley Fixative

Read our blog for some hints and tips on when to use a fixative, how to apply and why you should never use hairspray as a cheap alternative. Pencil artist Karen M Berisford also explains how fixative plays an important part in her own pencil work.
Lumi LED task light

Lumi LED task light

In our latest blog post, artist Karen M Berisford discusses her search for a new studio light that provides bright, natural light for close-up work and balanced coverage when working on larger portraits. She turns to The Daylight Company to find the solution. ​
Art products for blending soft pastels - sponges, paper stumps, brush, q-tips, Pan Pastel translucent blender, Sofft tool and rubber tip blenders

10 blending products for soft pastels

Do you work with soft pastels or relatively new to the medium and require guidance? Have you found a particularly efficient way to mix soft pastels? Did you know that there are many ways to blend pastels? In this article, we provide a list of 10 blending tools that will assist you in your work.
​

Why not try one of our tutorials for soft pastel artists

If you are completely new to soft pastels, why not try one of our tutorials which will show you, in great detail and explanation, how to create any of the subjects below by following the directions beneath each progress image, you will learn how to to build up your base layers and create fine details to aid realism in your work. If you are new to acrylics, you may wish to start with the 'Beginners' tutorials, work through the 'All artists' ones and then go on to the 'Intermediate' tutorials which are more challenging.
Enjoy!
Unison pastels on Mi Tientes Touch paper
Tonal Skies on Mi-Tientes 'Touch' | Learning the basics
Soft Pastels tutorial of an Autumn Leaf using Prismacolor NuPastels
Layering and blending | Autumn Leaf on Pastelmat
Violet flower in soft pastels on colourfix smooth paper
Violet flower on Colourfix smooth paper
Swallow in soft pastels on Pastelbord for a step by step tutorial
Swallow on Ampersand Pastelbord tutorial - 2 stage

MORE SOFT PASTEL TUTORIALS WILL FOLLOW
​Why not request a subject?

QUICK LINKS

​Articles
Art Tutorials

Art Workshops  

Workshop Gift Vouchers

Art Blog

About ko-fi
​Our social media page
​

About the Tutor  
Contact  

Site Map
Vertical Divider
Picture
Instagram logo
You Tube logo
Green Animal friendly logo

HOW TO SUPPORT US

Colourful coffee cup digital image

Thank you for visiting our website, which offers valuable global resources for artists. We strive to provide a pleasant browsing experience by keeping our site advertisements-free. We do not earn money from this website, but you can show appreciation by buying us a coffee on ko-fi.com. You will find the donation buttons below and can follow us on ko-fi to stay informed of the latest news. We appreciate your visit!​
​
​
What is Ko-fi?
No part of this website should be copied or re-used anywhere without written permission from Karen M Berisford - 2011 - 2023
All images on this website are copyright of Karen M Berisford unless otherwise stated - Website design by Karen M Berisford. All rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Art guides for beginners
    • Coloured Pencils
    • Graphite Pencils
    • Soft Pastels
    • Acrylic Paints
    • Water based Products
    • Oil-based products
    • Papers & Canvases
    • Art Accessories
  • Tutorials
  • Workshops
  • News
  • Kofi-blog
  • About
  • Mail Us
  • Site Map