I’m starting a series of comparing brands of pastel by price, quality, etc. I have been using Rembrandt, Mungyo Gallery and Grumbacher Pastels for many years. Only recently I’ve begun to compare the more expensive brands to the least expensive. Tools we use make our ability to create faster and more effective, often you get what you pay for as they say but I wanted to see the difference price makes in pastels.
Oil Pastels
First – oil pastels. I started using Grumbacher from a very young age. I was given a set for Christmas and I can remember the excitement opening each present with all the tools that would develop my future style and spark my inspiration.
This is an update from a previous image-Rembrandt Pastels on blue art paper.
The wonderful thing about oil pastels is you can use them much like oil paint. Recently, I’ve used them to bring out certain details in my oil paintings. As I learn more about the difference in a quality oil pastel and a lesser quality is the brilliance of color, I would guess the permanence and ease of technique in blending is another aspect I will explore.
I like how oils will bring out movement and shadows in a pastel without simply softening the image like a soft pastel-there is a movement much like using Adobe Photoshop’s Motion blur technique.
So the first oil pastel I will highlight is where I started-Grumbacher, the permanence is great, the flow and brilliance of color is exceptional. I have enjoyed years of their performance and still have pastel paintings that look great even 40 years since they were created-that’s saying something about their quality.
Let’s Go Shopping for Art Supplies
Just went to Jerry’s Artarama on Preston Road in Dallas and I was in my glory as were the other artists I meet. I’m loving the variety of brands they have and they seem reasonably priced. I also bought a box of Mungyo Gallery soft pastels and some boards-Davinci Pro Panels, I am excited to start experimenting with different papers, boards and textures.
Last night I started a soft pastel image of water and a spring scene. I am excited that the Artist Loft pastels I bought at Michaels did very well. On the less expensive scale, a little bit messy as they are in sticks with no paper but the brilliance and ease of use was wonderful. I loved the texture I was able to achieve on a blue medium textured board, also from Michaels.
Here is the first image, it is a work in progress but I like how the pastels were soft and adhered well to the texture of the matte board.
To see the most recent original pastels and to get on the mailing list- check out artbygordon.com
More pastels are in the works and I will review the Davinci Boards as well. Please stay tuned.
For other articles on Pastels- Pastels on Black 2023