Artwork by Carey-Lynn Melnychuk

Pastel supplies that I usually work with:

I am a bit of a collector of pastels, often buying multiples of colors that I use a lot of and buying new brands in hopes of getting that perfect color that I might need! I use many different brands of pastels: hard, soft, & pencil pastels. Each has their own unique properties, but they can all be used interchangeably within the same piece.

Soft/chunk pastels:

• Rembrandt (not too hard, not too soft, available open-stock in Saskatoon)
  
• Winsor & Newton (a little softer than Rembrandt, colors come in a variety of tints allowing you to use many different values of the same color, available open stock in Saskatoon )


• Holbein (a harder pastel, available open stock in Saskatoon )
  
• NuPastel (a harder pastel, reasonably priced, nice to use the corner of a NuPastel to create details such as whiskers, great color selection, available open stock in Saskatoon )
  
• Art Spectrum (great darks, some can be quite hard & scratchy, however will work great on sanded surfaces, some are very soft & work well on suede, can be difficult to find in Canada)
  
• Schminke (very soft pastels, good for final/top layers, great for whitest whites, a bit pricey, can sometimes be difficult to find)
  
• Sennelier (very soft pastels, great darks, excellent color selection, a bit pricey, available open stock in Saskatoon)
  
• Unison (very soft pastels, excellent color selection, a bit pricey, available open stock in Saskatoon)
  
• Girault (harder pastels, bought from the U.S., amazing darks…most are almost black but not quite)

Pastel pencils:

• Stabilo Carb-Othello (my ultimate favorite that I have grown up with, a bit hard, keeps a nice point, good color selection, reasonably priced, available open stock in Saskatoon)


• Derwent (a bit softer, great color selection, colors come in different tints/shades so you can get the same colors in a variety of different values, their Ivory Black is the blackest black in pencil pastels, available open stock in Saskatoon)
  
• Faber-Castell (new to me, haven't used them a lot yet, harder pastel, good color selection, available only in sets in Saskatoon)

Surfaces:

• Suede mat board available at a framing store (buy mid-tone colors as very dark or very light can be difficult to cover, be careful not to press too hard when transferring or you could create grooves which can be difficult to work with, do not scrub/rub/press too hard as you can lose the nap of the suede if overworked making it extremely difficult to rework, very little dust created, pretty much stays where you put it)


• Pastelbord by Ampersand (I use this most recently, my favorite sanded surface, comes in a variety of standard sizes in beige or grey, holds color well, great for layering, not too dusty)
  
• Colourfix pastel paper by Art Spectrum (can be difficult to find, great selection of colors, nice to blend on, a little dusty)
  
• Wallis sanded paper (I no longer use this as I prefer the above two, you can literally blend until your fingers bleed on your first layer, so blend lightly!!!, can be very dusty)


• Canson/Degas pastel paper (I haven't used this in years, however, it is a great surface to start on, each side has a different texture to it, use the smoother side to avoid the texture showing through your piece)

Other supplies:

• Lascaux fixative (crazy expensive, but I use this exclusively on my personal artwork, has never let me down!)
  
• Winsor & Newton workable fixative (I have used this in the studio for my students pieces, reasonably priced, good quality, would be my second choice after Lascaux)
  
• Colour Shaper (a rubber tipped "paint brush" used for blending pastels, I use this only in areas that my fingers are too big for, comes in a variety of shapes & sizes, I use #2 taper point, firm (grey rubber tip), can be difficult to find)
  
• Staedtler kneaded eraser (gently lifts/erases the top layers of pastel to make changes, won't erase completely, but enough to be able to cover with a new layer of pastel)


• Magnabrite magnifying lens (sits flat on my reference photo to see more detail)

A few notes:

• When selecting pastels, choose ones that feel heavy for their size. If they feel really light then they have more fillers than pigments. Heavier pastels have more pigment than fillers, therefore more saturated colors.


• Professional quality pastels (like those listed above) are more expensive than student quality ones, but have more pigment in them & are easier to use. It is worth spending the extra money to get better quality.
  
• If money is an issue & you are just starting out in pastels then choose good quality student grade pastels (such as ProArt, Mungyo, Demco semi-soft) that feel heavy for their size or a well priced artist quality pastel such as NuPastel. Buy a small set (12-24) to start, just to see if you like working with pastels before spending more money. Add on as needed by buying individual colors for each particular piece. If you find that you enjoy working with pastels, you can buy better quality pastels open stock as you need them.


• Harder pastels work better on harder surfaces such as sanded surfaces & pastel paper. Softer pastels work better on softer surfaces such as suede mat board. They can be used interchangeably however, so don't be afraid to experiment.
  
• You can often blend your colors using a harder pencil pastel which will push the pigment around, doing the blending for you without your finger or a blender.
  
• Paper blenders (tortillons) tend to remove the pastel instead of blend it.
  
• When working with whites & blacks, save the softest (with most pigment) until the end. Work in baby steps to build up the color. Save the brightest whites & darkest darks for your final touch ups at the very end of the picture to give it the final POP!
  
• Try not to use black unless absolutely necessary. Build up layers of your darkest colors (or use the colors complimentary color) instead. If you find that you have gone as dark as you can but it still isn't dark enough, then you can start to add in some black. Use black in combination with other colors to avoid it looking flat.
  
• Try to layer your pastels hard to soft to avoid saturating the surface too quickly.
  
• Do not sharpen the pencil pastels with a pencil sharpener as it will often break the pastel lead, I always use a sharp blade to remove mostly the wood casing then shave the pastel to a point when needed.

This is a very small sampling of some of the supplies that I use. The container at the top right is all of my pencil pastels, the bottom two containers are the palette that I am using for my current piece (which I have just started so this may increase in number as I work on the piece), the top left container is the palette for another piece that I haven't started yet. Also shown is the magnabrite magnifying glass and an empty box that I collect the shavings in from sharpening the pastel pencils (this saves me trips to the garbage). Not shown are the numerous boxes of soft/chunk pastels in my collection that I have them separated into color families. I keep all of the pastels for my current palette in a separate container so I am not searching each time I am looking for a color that I have already used.