My art supplies | Soft pastels, pastel paper, pastel pencils

You might have seen my studio tour video but in this video I will show you all of my art supplies that I use to create artwork with soft pastels.

I will show you how I store my pastels, what brands of soft pastels and pastel pencils I have and what paper I use for my artwork.

Here is a quick list of the brands that I use (all bought with my own money, not sponsored in any way):

Soft pastels: Sennelier, Rembrandt, Schmincke, Koh-i-noor, Olki, Inscribe; I also have a set of PanPastel but I do not use it (I really should start adding it to my works) 🙂

Pastel paper: Canson MiTeintes, sandpaper, Canson MiTeintes Touch, Clairfonatine Pastelmat & Hahnemuhle Velour (I did not mention the last two in the video but those are the paper that I also use)

I wanted to add that you can buy sheets of A3 of Canson MiTeintes on Amazon (they come in a pack of 50) for a really good price, thus saving money. And just a word about sandpaper, I do not recommend it for serious artwork but it is a great budget version paper to practice on.

Pastel pencils: Stabilo Carbothello (I have the full set that came in a tin but I find it more comfortable to store my pencils in a pencil case), Derwent, Koh-I-Noor Gioconda, Faber Castell Pitt pastel pencils, charcoal pencils by Derwent

I have heard a lot of great things about General’s charcoal pencils. Their main advantage being that they layer over pastel very nicely.

Sketchbooks: I have found the Strathmore Toned sketchbooks really nice, the paper is smooth and at the same time holds the pastel really well. All you need to do is to add sheets of tracing paper in between the pages (I attach it with masking tape) so the drawings don’t smudge. It’s also comfortable to take out on a planeair. If you are a fan of ingres paper (I do not like this paper particularly but I know some amazing artists like Vicente Romero Redondo who use it) you will find that Fabriano Quadrato artist’s journal is a great choice.

I also use a daylamp (it provides full spectrum light) and a Swordfish pencil sharpener.

I hope you found the video useful. As usual, you will find many tutorials here on YouTube and much more on my Patreon 🙂

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