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Stabilo CarbOthello Pastel Pencils

" Create beautiful artwork with these chalk-pastel pencils. They are perfect for art students, artists and creative people of all ages that love to create stunningly luminous and beautiful artworks. "
Stabilo.com

Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils greens, blues and pinks
​Colours Available: 60
​
​Sets Available:
Open stock (Individually) In a tin 12, 24, 36, 48 & 60 
​Wooden box of 60

Costs: RRP £1.57 Each (Ave)

This stunning collection of STABILO CarbOthello chalk-pastel pencils is available in a range of 60 beautiful color shades. They can be dry-blended or smudged with either the fingertips or a blending stump to create a variety of artistic effects. Dramatic results can be achieved when used on dark backgrounds and delicate papers, too. Areas or outlines can be lightened or highlighted using the white pencil. Partially aquarellable, the pigments can also be worked brush and water; the contours will remain visible. These premium chalk-pastels have high pigmentation with excellent light-fastness – and for superior results the finished artwork can be treated with a fixative.


Stabilo CarbOthello Pastel pencils in a tin



Product features:


  • ​60 colour shades in various ranges
  • Charcoal-like feel
  • Can be blended and smudged, partially aquarellable
  • Highly pigmented colours
  • Excellent light-fastness
  • Can be used wet or dry
  • 4.4 mm diameter lead
  • Great results on dark backgrounds and specialist papers

Stabilo CarbOthello Pastels for fine detail

Stabilo CarbOthellos were originally called 'Coloured charcoal' and are a little softer than other pastel pencil brands (with the exception of the Caran Dache range), they blend really well and the colours are rich and highly pigmented offering a great choice of lights and darks. ​They evenly distribute the colour when used and are easy to blend with products such as sponges or the silicon and paper blenders.  The collection has some colours that other pastel pencil sets do not have and they are ideal to have along side other ranges. Being aquarellable, they mix well with water but the colours are not as vibrant when they are wet. Diluting the pigment will also dilute the lightfastness of them too, the more you dilute the weaker the lightfastness will become.  These pencils can be sharpened with a stabilo pencil sharpener, or with a craft knife allowing you to shape the tip to the length and point needed for those small areas as can be seen in the artwork below which was created by pastel artist John Graham.
Applying fine fur to a Border Terrier using the stabilo carbOthello cream 105 pencil
Rich and vibrant pigments help to create brighter highlights
Applying highlights to a rabbit drawing with the Stabilo CarbOthello Light flesh tint 681
The flesh tint is a great colour which can be used for skin tones and highlights
applying fine white fur on a pastel pencil springer spaniel
Sharpening the pencil with a craft knife allows you to achieve very fine lines

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The Colour Chart

Each pencil is marked with a star rating which can be found next to its number at the end of the pencil. The asterisk system is based on a blue wool scale of 1-8 with a sufficient light fastness achieved from 1 star onwards, this is where the STABILO system starts:
0* - Poor   (3)        1* Sufficient  (5)           2** Satisfactory  (4)         3*** Good   (17)        4**** Very good  (9)     5***** Best  (22)
The worst lightfast colours tend to be the blues and the pinks
Faber Castell Pitt Pastels official colour chart and lightfast codes

Discontinued colours

Stabilo originally had 80 colours in their range but now there are only 60. I understand why companies remove colours from their collection especially if they feel like they are 'doubling up' on a pigment but I have to wonder why some of the colours were removed especially as there is nothing like them on the colour chart anymore, the brown umber colour (605) a prime example. If you have photos of the 10 other discontinued pencils, please get in touch as I would love to add them here for others to see.
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New v's old - A vintage pencil

John Graham is my partner and has been working with pastels for a few years now so has quite a wide range of brands including the CarbOthellos. In his collection, I found some vintage ones which he appears to have purchased as a batch alongside some discontinued colours and as I like to include the history as much as the latest information, I thought I would add this extra section in. I believe the vintage ones date back to the 1950's and thought I would share these pencils with you to allow you to compare old and new. I note that the earlier pencils were a left handed design whilst todays' are right handed, this means the print on the barrel of the pencil is the right way up when holding in your working hand. There are very few pencil brands made this way (if any?) and if anyone has any information on why they were initially made this way, please do get in touch.
Any further information I find about the history of these pencils, will be added here.
Yellow vintage Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils
Green vintage Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils
Vintage Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils
Yellow vintage Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils
Vintage Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils
Vintage Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencil tips
For anyone who still has a collection of these vintage pencils, I came across a list showing the old names and 2 digit numbers of the 62 pencil colours available at that time:
10 Indian Red
11 Ice Blue
12 Pale Ultramarine
13 Ice Green
14 Naples Yellow
15 English Red
16 Light Emerald
17 Heliotrope
18 Yellow Orange
19 Purple
22 Prussian Blue 
23 Olive Green
24 Lemon Yellow
25 Ice Green
28 Light Flesh Tint
29 Dark Flesh Tint
​ 30 Pale Vermillion
32 Ultramarine
33 Meadow Green
34 Canary Yellow
​35 Sepia
36 Emerald
37 Red Violet
38 Sanguine
39 Yellow Ochre
40 Vermillion
41 Cobalt Blue
43 Leaf Green
44 Yellow
45 Van Dyke Brown
46 Black 1, 2, 3
47 Dark Violet
48 Carmine Red
49 Medium Warm Grey
50 Crimson
51 Turquoise Blue
52 White
53 Turquoise Green
54 Orange
55 Violet
57 Azure Blue
58 Rose Madder
59 Bistre
60 Pompeian Red
63 Earth Green
65 Umber
70 Burnt Carmine
73 Dark Green
75 Burnt Sienna
83 Forest Green
88 Ochre
89 Dark Ochre
91 Pale Warm Grey
92 Light Warm Grey
93 Deep Warm Grey
​94 Pale Cold Grey
95 Light Cold Grey
96 Medium Cold Grey
97 Deep Cold Grey
98 Payne's Grey
Information credit: 2dpuppets on Wet Canvas

SAFETY WITH PASTELS

Pastels create dust which can be dangerous to health over a period of time. For protection, ensure you are in a well ventilated area when using Pastels. You may prefer to wear a face mask to avoid breathing in the dust and/or purchase an air purifier. If you have any breathing problems such as asthma, pastels may not be the medium for you, or you could opt to work with pastel pencils which creates far less dust.
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Are these pencils animal friendly?
​Stabilo states:  No direct animal-derived raw materials such as meat, tallow, fat, etc. are used during the research, development and manufacture of STABILO products. Although renewable plant-derived materials are predominantly used, unfortunately we cannot as yet guarantee that these are exclusively vegan raw materials.

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  • Home
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    • Starting Out With....
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