Pastel Pencils

By Carol Leather

Pastel pencils are what they sound like: pastel pigment encased in wood, in the form of a pencil. You get the soft, vibrant colour of traditional pastels and the precision and cleanness of a pencil. No fingertips covered in dust, no chalk crumbling everywhere, no dedicated workspace required.

Three kinds of artist tend to land on a page like this. Someone who tried soft pastels and found the mess unworkable. A coloured pencil user looking for a faster way to cover larger areas without losing colour quality. And someone returning to art who wants to draw realistically and finds pastel pencils less intimidating than tubes of paint.

Below you'll find supply guides, the core techniques, project tutorials in difficulty order, an honest look at when pastel pencil is right for you (and when to stick with something else), and the four mistakes most people make on a first attempt.

Two of Peter Weatherill's pastel pencil pieces to give a sense of what the medium can do once you're comfortable with it:

Start Here

Six reference pages worth bookmarking. If you read only two, make them Brands (so you know what to buy) and Paper (so the pencils actually work when you get them home).

Project Tutorials

Four tutorials in rough difficulty order. The vase is the lightest first project; the cottage doorway pushes you onto black paper, which changes how every colour reads.

Is Pastel Pencil Right for You Right Now?

Three honest options. There's no wrong answer; the question is just what fits where you are.

Try pastel pencils if you want to:

• Create realistic artwork with soft, vibrant colour.
• Work on fine detail while keeping the colour saturated.
• Avoid the mess and dust of traditional soft pastels.
• Blend and layer without drying times.
• Combine precise line work with soft, painterly areas.
• Cover larger areas faster than ordinary coloured pencil allows.

Stick with dry coloured pencils for now if you:

• Are still building confidence with basic layering and blending.
• Want maximum control for tight photorealism.
• Mostly work very small.
• Want to avoid any texture or dust considerations.
• Are still mastering your wax or oil-based coloured pencils and don't want to add a second medium yet.

Consider soft pastels instead if you:

• Want to work large and cover area fast.
• Enjoy the hands-on, tactile blending process.
• Aren't focused on fine detail.
• Have a workspace set up where dust isn't a problem.

Either way, you'll find your feet. If you're not sure, the vase tutorial is the lightest possible commitment.

Four Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

A few habits to break early. These are the four I see most often on a first attempt.

If you want a clear route through this page, start with the Brands guide and the Paper guide so you buy the right things. Then work the vase tutorial to feel what the medium actually does in your hand. Everything else builds from those two starting points.