Which pastel for you ?

Properties of each pastel type

It becomes easier to navigate if you realise each pastel has its own properties and abilities for making marks.

Testing

You should start with pastels that you feel comfortable to use, hopefully a good art store will let you softly test on a scrap piece of paper the loose pastel brand you would like to buy, so you can determine its mark, before buying a whole set.

Subjects

I think that a good way to look at what type of pastel is to ask yourself what will I be painting? What kind of marks will I want to make to express my subject?

Flowers and portraits might need a lot of smooth transitions and blending (super soft pastels), abstracts might need a lot of bold marks (hard pastels), landscapes might need you to cover large areas quickly (pan pastels) and pet portraits might need a lot of detail (pastel pencils). Then there are all the combinations of these as well.
 
So you may in the end have a combination that suits your subject matter. 

Buying set vs loose

A set is a good way to buy pastels to begin with as there is considerable cost savings, but sets can also be restrictive if you want to make subtle colour gradations. Here the idea would be to buy them loose in colour families, or groups of a tone. For example for seascapes you may want blue greens or blue greys in various tones from dark to light, so you can express the deep green at the bottom of the wave through to the highlights at the crest. Some pastel manufacturers know how artists use this technique and create sets designed for landscapes, or portraits or flowers for example.

Check your source photos

Another good method is to explore your source photo and determine your colours from there. Do you have any gaps? Or can you use another colour that you do have to express that? Sometimes this kind of experimentation leads to happy accidents in creating.
 
Do test your selected colour palette at the edge of your photo or on a scrap piece of paper to ensure it’s a good match for what you want to create. 

Costs

Unlike other mediums we are not required to mix anything together to obtain the colours we want. That has its advantages and disadvantages. Firstly someone has done all the work for you to create the violet grey you might want in the sky, you can just pick it up and use it, so convenient. But the cost to have that exact colour you want might be needing a few greys in your palette to choose from. Something else to consider is half pastel sticks, which are cost effective and give you a nice array.

Pigments

Pastels are highly pigmented, with very little ground or filler or binder. As a general rule the more expensive and soft pastels will give you more of that vibrant pigment that everyone loves about pastels. Some less expensive ones, contain more binder and can be harder to use, and this is reflected in the cost.

What are you painting on?

Depending on what paper (substrate) you are painting on, you will choose a pastel type to suit the paper. Again a good art store can help you choose the right paper and the right pastel for it.
Is the paper smooth? Highly textured? Velvety? Rough? Is it a pastel board? Various paper manufacturers also have different pastel paper grades.
 
This blog wont get into much about paper, as that is a whole other topic!!

Brands

I saved this for last as it is the minefield of pastelists. Which brands to choose?
A good starting point would be to go to the manufacturers website and check any videos they have about their products. Also large Art stores also have information and content on their websites on comparison of mediums.

Here are just some of the pastel brands by type:

Soft/Super soft

These are highly pigmented and a lot of these are hand made with very beautiful pigments, leaving what is described as “buttery” or “creamy” feel. Great to blend with or use as special highlights.

Soft

These are still very soft but not as soft as above. Great for blending or covering large areas.

• Art Spectrum (Australian brand)
• Mungyo
• Rembrandt by Royal Talens
• Windsor and Newton Professional 

Hard

These are good for lines and line work, cross hatching

• Prismacolor

Pastel pencils

Pan Pastels

These are compacted pigments in a container, used with tools or hands to