Essential Pastels

Hi Artists!

I am always being asked what are my favorite pastels ; so today I thought I would address that question . So I will share my favorite pastels that I use in almost every painting. ☺

First of all, my essential pastels are NuPastels and Rembrandts. I also love Girault pastels. They are smooth and creamy although a bit more pricey. So if your budget has room, consider a set of those.

Personally I have lots and lots of pastels. I am a collector of sorts. I love them all but to start out you only need a few.

Here is a list of my favorite NuPastels:

Darks

  • 229 Black
  • 259 Dark Grey
  • 209 Deep Warm Grey
  • 305 Spruce Blue

Browns

  • 203 Burnt Sienna
  • 253 Cocoa Brown
  • 353 Cordovan
  • 263 Indian Red
  • 343 Rust

Highlight Colors

  • 211 White
  • 277 Ivory
  • 299 Light Cool Grey
  • 249 Light Warm Grey
  • 276 Buff

Colors

  • 207 Chrome Yellow
  • 266 Pale Vermilion
  • 233 Raw Sienna
  • 308 Palm Green
  • 298 Bottle Green
  • 348 Endive

Rembrandt Colors

I use these colors for all my under layers when I paint. These are the basic colors I use for all my wolves and horses.☺

Darks and Greys

  • 700.5 Black
  • 704.3 Dark Grey (my favorite dark grey)
  • 704.7 Grey (Optional)
  • 704.8 Grey (Optional)
  • 707.8 Mouse Grey
  • 727.5 Blue Grey (Optional)
  • 727.8 Blue Grey (Optional)
  • All the greys are nice if you can get them all!

Browns

  • 411.5 Burnt Sienna
  • 411.3 Burnt Sienna
  • 409.5 Burnt Umber
  • 538.5 Mars Violet

Greens

These are useful in backgrounds.

  • 627.2 Cinnabar Green Deep (fabulous dark green!)
  • 626.3 Cinnabar Green Light
  • 626.5 Cinnabar Green Light
  • 231.5 Gold Ochre

Blue

These are useful for backgrounds especially mixed with the greens.

  • 570.7 Thalo Blue
  • 508.8 Prussian Blue
  • 506.9 Ultra Blue Light
  • 505.8 Ultra Blue

White

  • 100.5 White

Pencils

There are pencils I use in every painting that I think should be part of everyone’s pastel materials collection.

  • General White Charcoal Pencil
  • General Charcoal Pencil 6B, 4B and 2B
  • 9B Graphite Pencil (Prismacolor or Cretacolor Brand)

With these colors you can paint most anything and you can always add more as you delve deeper into pastels.

These will cost you around $110 at Dick Blick. If you can spend a little more, get a small set of Stabilo CarbOthello Pastel pencils as well.

Hope this is helpful and I will discuss more about these specific pastels in the future. Please leave comments on topics you are interested in the comments or send me an email at sleepingdogart@gmail.com.

Thanks!

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