soft pastel brands?
Cmwolf2
I was wondering if someone could recommend a brand of soft pastels for me. I
am confused by all the names and want the best quality I don't really care
about the price just quality. Thanks for your help.
Cassie
Peter Davis
It sort of comes down to the question "How soft?" There is a wide
variation among brands of soft pastel. Among the ones I have tried, I
would rate them like this:
Schminke Softest
Sennelier Very close to Schminke ... very soft
Grumbacher (If you can find them ... and if so, let me know where)
Winsor & Newton new ... moderately soft
Rembrandt Moderately soft
NuPastel Hard
Conte Hard
I would stock up on the Grumbacher ones if I could find them
anywhere. They're a good, medium soft pastel, and they come in
rectangular sticks, which I like. The new Winsor & Newton ones look
fairly promising, though not as soft as the Grumbacher.
I would recommend having a range of hardness ... perhaps some
NuPastels, some Winsor & Newton and some Sennelier. Many pastellists
like to start with harder sticks, and then work to softer as the paper
gets filled in and the painting becomes more finished.
If you just want to start with one set, try the Grumbacher, if you can
find them. Otherwise, Winsor & Newton might be a good starting point.
-pd
--
Peter Davis
http://world.std.com/~pd
"Boycott intrusive advertisers!"
zi...@interport.net
p...@world.std.com (Peter Davis) wrote:
>On 2 Mar 1998 18:52:07 GMT, Cmwolf2 <cmw...@aol.com> wrote:
>> I was wondering if someone could recommend a brand of soft pastels for me. I
>> am confused by all the names and want the best quality I don't really care
>> about the price just quality. Thanks for your help.
>It sort of comes down to the question "How soft?" There is a wide
>variation among brands of soft pastel. Among the ones I have tried, I
>would rate them like this:
> Schminke Softest -and the most consistentGL
> Sennelier Very close to Schminke ... very soft-I find that the softness
of Sennelier varies from color to color and batch to batch. It even
varies from shade to shade within a color. GL
> Grumbacher (If you can find them ... and if so, let me know where)
_I find them not very beautiful and much too hard
> Winsor & Newton new ... moderately soft Never USed GL
> Rembrandt Moderately soft Something like Rembrandt inmybook GL
> NuPastel Hard Not pastel by my standards Boith of these are some sort of chalk
but not very responsive. More like pencil or crayon.
> Conte Hard Not pastel by my stanbards Ditto GL
One of the best pastels in the world is Rocher. They are the best
found in Paris. Open stock found only at Lucien Lefevre Fournier at
Rue Brea. They are wonderful for landscape, but I would not use them
indoors because they have no synthetics. All of the heavy metals are
real-thus poisonous, and they will be in your studio for ever once you
start using them. They are much harder than schmincke,but they feel
much more rewarding to use and leave agood quantity of color whenever
you draw them along the paper, unlike Rembrandt or Grumbacher.
I prefer Schmincke which can be bought on either coast and supplement
with a few Sennelier huge size sticks, which tend to be more
consistent in hardness than the usuelss sizes, and with a few colors
from Diane Townsend, a hand made stick from PA handled by New York
Central. I also use Sennelier for some very dark colors at
lowintensities, which I find very beautiful and which are usually hard
enough and not too friable, like many of their others.
I also have a few Rocher for outdoor use.
So, now you have two different opinions. I think every person will end
up with a set of opinions about pastel or any other medium which are
specific to their needs and uses.
Gabriel
>I would stock up on the Grumbacher ones if I could find them
>anywhere. They're a good, medium soft pastel, and they come in
>rectangular sticks, which I like. The new Winsor & Newton ones look
>fairly promising, though not as soft as the Grumbacher.
>I would recommend having a range of hardness ... perhaps some
>NuPastels, some Winsor & Newton and some Sennelier. Many pastellists
>like to start with harder sticks, and then work to softer as the paper
>gets filled in and the painting becomes more finished.
>If you just want to start with one set, try the Grumbacher, if you can
>find them. Otherwise, Winsor & Newton might be a good starting point.
>-pd
>--
> Peter Davis
> http://world.std.com/~pd
> "Boycott intrusive advertisers!"
I don;t like a range of hardness. I prefer to know just what will
happen with each stick, based on every other stick. And I change from
one brand to another because of the color only.
Remember-speaking of hard- Degas had his sticks delivered fresh and
stilldamp, and dipped theminto milk between strokes. This also tended
tomake them more permanent because the casein would help make them
into paint
GL