How to Select the Basic Color Palette for Soft Pastels

Learn how to many colors you need to start painting with pastels or to select enough colors for your plein air box to go to paint outdoors. See which colors are really necessary in your pastel box and which you can create by layering other colors.
This video should be particularly helpful for beginner pastel artists so that they can learn which colors they really need to get first and which colors they can buy later.
You can see my pastel brands and my other favorite art materials recommendations here:
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[@BigDaddy13515]

I love Richeson pastels! Very underrated in my opinion. And I believe it’s a great starting point for anyone starting to collect pastels. They have sets of primary, secondary, tertiary, neutrals, greys, darks, lights and many more which I believe are great for beginners. Great video!

[@LanaBallot]

Yes, I'm glad you love Richeson pastels! It's a nice brand with a great color range. I actually have a few Artists' sets with them, you can check them out on Dakota pastels.

[@dianeoconnor1952]

Thanks so much Lana! I purchased your full Painting Waves with Pastels Course and I'm learning so much! you are an excellent teacher. I can see that so much of what I'm learning about waves can be applied to other medium I may try some day. I also decided to invest in your instructor set of pastels for seascapes by Richeson and they are beautiful! I found out that the Richeson company also has a School of Art and a lovely gallery. Bonus: They are located in Wisconsin a little over an hour away from me! I will drive over for a couple full day workshops, and also submit some of my work for consideration in their exhibits! Who knew when I found you that a whole new world would open up to me - both online and right in my own back yard! Thanks for all you do to pass on what you have discovered to other budding artists.

[@LanaBallot]

Thanks so much for your wonderful comment Diane! And I'm so glad that you love my Waves course and my Richeson set! I hope you'll have your waves exhibited in Richeson gallery sometime. You'd be surprised to know that the Richeson's landscape show was one of the first shows I got accepted (I believe around 2012). We were living in Plover at that time, in WI for my husband's job. So it's very interesting that you mentioned that, a nice coincidence :) Happy painting! ❤️

[@dianeoconnor1952]

Amazing Lana! Plover is 20 minutes from us - we are in Wisconsin Rapids. Next Tuesday I am pulling my granddaughter (who is a senior) out of school and we are going to a full-day pastel workshop at Richeson. I love that they offer classes and the cost includes the materials. That way people can try somethings before they decide if they would like to invest in all the supplies. I know that Charlie will love it and it will be a special time, as she is graduating early in just a couple months.@@LanaBallot

[@LanaBallot]

@@dianeoconnor1952 As they say, it's a small world! 😁 Have a great time painting with your granddaughter!

[@johnsmall4318]

I'm a newer pastel painter... I just found you and LOVE the way you teach! I appreciate your BREVITY! Do you have a Patreon channel I pray? ❤️

[@LanaBallot]

I'm glad my videos are helpful. I don't have a Patreon, sorry. I do have a few Zoom classes throughout the year and the Independent study courses in my online school.

[@juliabroadley8411]

Really useful video thankyou them colours😮

[@LanaBallot]

Glad it helped 😊

[@kfin3054]

Thank you Lana. Appreciate your inspirational information!

[@LanaBallot]

You are welcome!

[@1DaTJo]

Who knew that buying beautiful soft pastels would become addictive?!! I don’t use alcohol, tobacco or gambling, but I have a serious pastel habit ;) Thank you dear Lana for your wonderful videos ❤

[@LanaBallot]

I hear you 😂 But it’s so hard to resist those gorgeous colors..

[@1DaTJo]

@@LanaBallot it’s true! You know how it is, Lana! ❤️

[@sherrywest8566]

Excellent video, Lana! Such good advice.

[@LanaBallot]

I’m glad you liked it!

[@dawnmacdonald7334]

This is so useful! Thank you for posting.

[@LanaBallot]

I’m so glad it is. I wanted to have a video like this so I can refer my potential students to it, particularly the beginners, and I thought it might be useful to others too.

[@lyndawright8716]

Thank you Lana for this excellent lesson extremely helpful!! Take good care.Lynda

[@LanaBallot]

You are welcome! I’m glad it is 😊

[@loati94]

I recently fell in love with pastels and I've been getting myself some good quality pastels. I have some rembrandts, unison and sennelier and they all are extremely different from each other. The rembrandst are great for lower layers since they are harder and although very pigmented, they don't deposit as much pigment as other brands. The unison are fantastic for everything and they have enough hardness for details. The sennelier I think are better suited for more impressionistic work like yours since they are too soft for details. I've also noticed that your techniques and how you blend might not work for a more detailed style so that would mean needing more variety of colors and values.

[@LanaBallot]

Thank you for sharing your experience with pastels! Yes, a lot of artists work from harder pastels to softer. That’s what I’m doing as well particularly on sanded paper. On non sanded paper, I find it’s best to start with softer brands right away. And since the beginners often use non sanded paper first, it might be easier for them to work on it with softer brands. It’s entirely up to them and depends on their budget as well (as harder brands are less expensive). Either way, they need to learn about color, how it works in pastels. That’s what I wanted to focus on here. We need both types of pastels - harder and softer. If beginner artists start with harder pastels they’ll add softer brands later, or the other way around. But I find that it’s essential to have a base selection of colors that will allow them to layer colors, to get enough variety to paint what they want. I also mentioned plein air in the video because the approach of selecting the colors is rather similar. It's very likely that artists who pack their pastels for going outdoors already have some experience with the medium, so they would have their own preferences in harder and softer brands that fit their style. And I absolutely agree, if someone loves detail and smoother color transitions, they would need to expand their palette to include more colors. Of course, in that case it would not be the base color palette. There’s so much to talk about when it comes to pastels and color. I feel like the hard and soft pastel brands would make a good topic for a separate video at some point. Thanks again for your input! I’m sure a lot of people will find your comment very helpful. ❤️

[@bryangrayson9053]

This is so helpful! Thank you!

[@LanaBallot]

You are welcome! I’m glad it was helpful.

[@monetcafe]

Wow! What a great subject to cover. As always, your presentation is wonderful.

[@LanaBallot]

Thank you Susan! I always have a paragraph about the basic palette in my Materials list to classes, but now I can refer my students to this video. So I've been thinking about making this video for some time 😁

[@monetcafe]

@@LanaBallot great idea!

[@agold1702]

Great review, thank you!

[@LanaBallot]

You are welcome!

[@sandralundell78]

Thank you! Very good video!

[@LanaBallot]

Glad you liked it ❤️

[@robindurso6911]

Great information, thank you

[@LanaBallot]

You are welcome!

[@mjpete27]

Hullo Lana, I believe this is a great video! Very well done too! I am asked how many sticks must I buy to get started? I have recommended the Paris Set from Sennelier 120 half sticks rather affordable and the newer Unison 120 half set is another very good starter set, but quite a bit more money. I appreciate how you showed how to choose the values you use in your smaller choice boxes! I am a huge fan of Schmincke Pastels and I do have full 400 set, but they do cost much more and they also have a good 120 stick starter set but again even more expensive than the Sennelier Paris set.

[@LanaBallot]

Thank you for your recommendations, Pete! Yes, both Sennelier and Unison sets you mentioned are great to start with. It’s a good investment for those who are serious about the medium.

[@sujanithtottempudi2991]

Great video.. however I'm using sewing kit plastic box for pastel storage very cheap and adjustable compartments

[@LanaBallot]

Yes, whatever works is fine. I have some plastic boxes too for storing extras. I did line them with spongy material too. Later I got the boxes for plein air really, it had to be attached to a tripod - it’s hard to invent something that works that well.

[@dawnmacdonald7334]

Thanks!

[@LanaBallot]

Thanks so much Dawn! I really appreciate it ❤️

[@aliciamolloy5948]

Hi Lana thank you for this wonderful video. Looking forward to your zoom class 9/7.

[@LanaBallot]

You are very welcome! I’m looking forward to meeting you in class!

[@susiesue9901]

Hi lana very beautiful tutorial i wanted to ask you if its possble to give us any more instruction of painting flowers I have limited expierence in the tiny flowers and the big beautiful flowers i have been trying to learn with no advail I have learn some but keep making the same mistakes and wanted to ask if possblie to give us more tips on just how to do this if I could afford to take your online course i would hopefully you can help us novices to flower pastel work thank you very much for your beautiful work it is truly inspiring you are very gifted and we are all grateful to you 🌹🌺⚘️🌻🌼🌷💐

[@LanaBallot]

Thank you Susie! I'll see if I can make a flower tutorial sometime, something that shows the basics more. Thanks for watching my videos!

[@susiesue9901]

Thank you Lana I shall look forward to this I just finished trying another flower picture and will keep trying to get better at this as there are so many beautiful flowers to appreciate

[@1DaTJo]

@@LanaBallothow exciting! I too look forward to your flower tutorial, as I love painting nature.

[@gillbaker1310]

Very helpful, thank you. Would be good to have a video in colour selection (eg. How to "see" the colour in the reference, before choosing it from the box!). Colour relativity ruins me I think 😬

[@LanaBallot]

Thanks! A good suggestion 😊

[@dost2508]

Oh yes please! That would be very helpful!!

[@antoniodelmar4406]

👀 Maestra

[@LanaBallot]

Thanks!