need help in choosing hard pastels

kimmybgsz · Joined: 27 Dec 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Newcastle

hi everyone!
i am starting to get into pastels and was wanting to get a good range of pastels up. i would like to get hard pastels and soft pastels as well. at present i have the windser and newton assorted colours pack, but i'm now starting to look for a harder style pastel but am at a loss. i would like to get somthing in a pack (as it can be cheaper and easier). anyone have any ideas?? any help would be much appreciated

also is there anything that you guys use constantly that you cant live without in your 'pastel toolbox'?

thanks heaps in advance
kimmy

Devilbiss · Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 3214

Have you tried Conte crayons?
They're pretty hard and look good on toned paper.

kimmybgsz · Joined: 27 Dec 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Newcastle

hey, i havent tried them yet but have been a little interested in them. i seen a huge pack if those a couple of months ago but didnt get them when i seen them. went back the next week to get it and they sold out and it was only a promotional pack. so im a little dirty at myself for that. and to buy them individually they cost an arm and a leg! if i cant find a pack of hard pastels i will get the conte ones but i dint know what colours to get if i do go that way. thanks for helping though. much appreciated. Smile

pugwash · Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 1380 Location: Perth

It depends what you are painting. I bought a box of pastels when I started years ago and I've still got some of them. It would have been cheaper to buy them individually. They are really quite cheap. A pastel lasts a long time compared to other media, and none of it is wasted.
I use mostly Rembrandts. If you're on a budget you can sometimes buy broken ones in the art shops. They are good value. You're going to break them anyway.

also is there anything that you guys use constantly that you cant live without in your 'pastel toolbox'?

Black and white.

Devilbiss · Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 3214

I always have a stick of rembrant white.
It has a lot of uses.

thecatsgrin · Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 2181 Location: Gippsland

I have a hoard of pastels, mainly Art spectrum, which are good to begin with, they have solid colours and an okay range of colours, I also have a few rembrants, a few lucas (soft) a fair few senelliers (really soft) and some unisons ( love these but they arent cheap).
I got most of mine through a factory clearance center that sold shop damaged items, the senelliers were 50 cents each because they had little pieces chipped from the ends, and the art spectrum were broken in the middle and were a dollar, or on occasions 2 for a dollar, in the end they just bagged them up randomly and sold about 12 in a pack for $4.00... so it was a lucky find.
But... I do recommend getting the pastels loose to begin with, the packs might seem enticing because they work out a few dollars cheaper, but when there are colours in there that you are not likely to use alot, it doesnt work out any cheaper, especially as there is always a colour you need but doint have!

To start off, i would suggest a warm and cool shade in all the primary colours plus a white (warm) and a titanium white and a black.
There are other dark shades that are good aswell, but to begin with just start small, with these colours there isnt much you cant mix and create.
See Leigh Rusts work , (wildatart on the forum) he can paint a pastel masterpiece with only this small batch of colours like the ones i suggested.

kimmybgsz · Joined: 27 Dec 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Newcastle

so rambrants and art spectrum are harder style pastels??
thanks so much guys for your help. i have like $140 in girft vouchers to my fave art store and haven't been game enough to use them for buying my first set in fear of not getting the harder style that i wanted. lol!
thecatsgrin, where was this art discount place your talking about?? be great to check out.
ah also before i forget, the canvas boards (or panels i think they are called?) are they good for pastels as well? i have a stack of them that i brought thinking they would be good for acrylics but then told of my best mate that they warp and bend if you use them with paint? just thought they might be good for pastels coz they are a fair bit rough. your thoughts??
thanks so much again! as you could proberbly tell i'm a self taught novice to scared to use the trial and error theory! LOL! thanks heaps again everyone!

thecatsgrin · Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 2181 Location: Gippsland

Hi, the rembrandts and Art spectrum are all soft pastels, just not as soft as some.
They are a bit more like chalk.
Hard pastels i think are the contes which are more like a coloured pencil crossed with a chalk... they are good fro drawing, but I havent really got into them much. The colour range isnt very big either.

canvas boards are made for paint, in a frame they shouldnt warp or buckle.
You could use them for pastel but you would need to paint them with a pastel primer first, or the pastel would drop off over time, and then they would have to be matted and framed.
I personally love the colourfix paper which is like a sand paper , it is nice to work with, and has a nice finish to it.

The art store factory place was the Riot Art factory outlet in Keys road Moorabin, I went there a few weeks ago and they had no pastels left, so it is now a waiting game to see if they get more in eventually. Check out if they have one in your state, because they would have different stock.

I often buy more pastels when they have their sales on, (just the normal Riot store).
The local art shop here has specials regularly also, like buy two get one free...it is just a case of looking around, or waiting!!

kimmybgsz · Joined: 27 Dec 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Newcastle

ah so it's only the conte brand that is a hard pastel. cool.
i was hoping the boards weren't gunna go to waste, thanks heaps for that. i got a paper pad that was for pastels (cant remember the brand) but didn't want to waste the boards so id thought i'd ask.
ah havent checked out the riot stroe yet, i'll have to see if there in one in newcastle. i think there is.
thank you so much for helping thecatsgrin and everyone for the advise! very much appreciated!

Tango · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 1360 Location: Melbourne

The hard pastels I use are Conte and I have a box set off Faber-Castell plus I find the Conte pastel pencils handy as well
But the down side of using pastels is the framing , because they have to be behind class they are expensive to frame, where as for oil or acrylic I can get away with a simple edge frame or none at all.

bruce johnson · Joined: 01 Feb 2010 Posts: 16 Location: Brisbane

Prismacolour Nupastels.. available from Dick Blick.. best there is for pastel portraits .. set of 90 is about 60 bucks from memory.. Check out my blog in my signature below.. all the portraits were painted with Nupastel