Soft Pastels vs Pastel Pencils: What's the Difference?

[@FoxinSmocks]

Emma, I am having my high school students follow along with your tutorials and seeing beautiful results. Thank you for taking the time to teach your craft, it is so helpful to us who are not experienced in this medium. We are all enjoying learning from you.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Thanks so much for your comments. These are the best comments to receive as I just love imagining your students working along with one of my videos wherever you are. Say a big hello to them from me!

[@kentjensen4504]

Your channel isn't just a wonderful school for pastel painting, but an encyclopedia on this art form. Amazing work. Thanks!!

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Thank you!

[@kimberlychason7351]

Thank you for this video! I'm new to pastels and have 3 different sets of pencils, I'm looking to expand to soft pastel sticks and this was extremely helpful to make that step!

[@TheEquineJournalist]

Emma Colbert, Thanks for being So informative!! Fantastic teaching . . . 👏 I use the Faber Castell in both pencils and pastels and love them.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Thanks for commenting and I'm glad you found this helpful!

[@acerobst1147]

Excellent video! I can't believe the difference in intensity between the pencils, and the sticks! What a difference! This video was soooo helpful. Thank you Emma for creating this video, and all your videos.

[@mariad.9334]

Love the way you explain things. I love pastels!🎉

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Thank you! Me too :-)

[@hissyfitz7890]

Great video. Especially love your grid of color on the wall. 😆

[@PassionForLifeGallery]

thanks for your contribution to the medium Emma

[@christineblount6069]

With all my different blacks; conte pastel pencil, faber castell pencil, conte hard pastel, pan pastel etc. my deepest blacks have to be my lyra hard pastel, koh-i-noor soft pastel and conte pierre noire pencil. Love my pierre noire for my final touches and details, wouldn't use it until after because of the binder mind you. (the conte sketching white is amazing too)

[@barbarascott1774]

Thanks Emma for another great video. I am hooked on unison pastels. Still working on getting stronger showing whiskers. So pleased to see you get messy hands 🙌 thought that was just me. I often get a dirty looking face also.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Yes...dirty face, dirty light switches and door handles...and you can forget clean fingernails!

[@doriswoodruff4810]

thank you! great to actual know what a difference there is!! plus using soft pastels better coverage more pigment for your money than the pencil firm!

[@elizabethvaughn5565]

I've always wondered about the differences. Very helpfull.

[@mjpete27]

Yes, another quality video Emma! You have a lovely manner about you and your so generous with your knowledge! Thank You! I finally decided on my soft pastel brand, after trying so many different ones I picked Schmincke! I even posted a picture of them on my Instagram feed! Silly to be proud of picking pastels, but there ya go! You have lovely taste as well!

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Haha, there is no bad taste in art supplies I think. Any good quality pastels work great, just different for different styles. Enjoy those Schminckes, I have an artist friend who has an enormous collection of them and loves them!

[@mjpete27]

Emma Colbert Art I have a few Unison sticks that I am going to keep using, I might or might not replace them, I just liked the range of the Schmincke and the Sennelier were just to brittle, I think that I personally do better with consistent supplies and I had trouble using so many different brands, you have so many wonderful videos, thanks for sharing your expertise and joy in working with pastels!

[@cynthiamarston2208]

So are the scmincke similar to the rembrandt by any chance? I mean if you tried the rembrandt. Due to reviews i was planning on schmincke but got a unused 2nd hand set of rembrandt off etsy….and its just 30 sticks so i might still try schmincke.. my impression is its more like chalk than i figured pastels would be. Maybe im remembering oil pastel…. Whatever blends the best regarding creating mixed colors.

[@CreativePhenomenonArt]

Thanks that was very informative. I Just got some pastel pencils and quickly realized just what you are saying. I have a no buy art supply year ahead of me so I guess these will be fawned over until 2023🤗. I look forward to more of your videos to get me ready.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Enjoy your pastel pencils in the meantime! They are wonderful too and you can learn lots about pastel from just them.

[@crib4046]

Wonderfully presented and thorough, Thank you.

[@CatsInDungarees]

This video read my mind, I used to just use soft and hard pastels, I then just used pastel pencils, and I've finally reached the understanding that I need both, I also realised this because pastel pencils are dear and using them on everything really kills the white and black.

[@kimxu7796]

Thank you for this video ❤❤

[@sandyphillips2467]

Thank you so much ,very very helpful ,thank you for your time .

[@joyellis3354]

Thankyou Emma very helpfull tutorial

[@karenallen6174]

Thank you for this video very helpful.

[@nicasso]

I also combine pencils with soft pastels as a blending stump or kind of, I smudge, fuse or whatever in english is

[@robertcook2572]

blend!

[@krishna_saadhu]

Superb. Really interesting

[@96HDFXSTC]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@dineshwankhede7600]

Thanx Emma....for the helpful suggestions. But plz help me to know whether we can layer with the FB polychromos oil pencils on the top of unison soft pastels; and off course tell me the type of paper for doing this.Thanx a lot . Looking forward for yr upcoming video dealing with this subject.will be grateful to you. Thanx for a great video.looking for another one.✌👍

[@EmmaColbertArt]

I haven't tried it but in my experience the soft pastels don't mix well with oil pastel products. The two mix very differently and I think they're best kept separate. I could be wrong!

[@LucaPiccoloSandri]

Beauty and talent combined = Emma 💕

[@ArtandKitchen_]

Have you ever tried charcoal for black and white paintings? They work almost the same as pastels and flexible

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Yes I do a lot of drawing with charcoal, more sketchy and I enjoy building up the tones in greyscale. Most charcoal is not as pigmented and dark as black pastel however, but some charcoal pencils are pretty dark. I like willow charcoal when I sketch as it's lighter grey and very smudgy!

[@ArtandKitchen_]

@@EmmaColbertArt Great! Hope I can see your charcoal drawings too

[@sujanithtottempudi2991]

Thank you

[@leerag]

Im unable to get unison where iam so have Schmiecke sticks . Ive been unsuccessful as it fills tooth of paper and i cant do detail layers on top. I use pastelmat. Unable to order from UK due to the extremely high shipping being more than my order.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Hi, yes the Schmincke pastels are a little too soft for my liking. I'm not sure where you're based but there are many brands similar to the softness of the Unisons. Mount Vision, Art Spectrum, Terry Ludwig (a tad softer maybe) Richeson. If you're in the US, try Dakota Pastels online as they stock a great range of brands. They have a chart of soft to hard at www.dakotapastels.com/files/pdfs/hardness2021-chart.pdf I would disagree about Sennelier and avoid those if you find the Schminckes too soft. Hope that helps!

[@leerag]

@EmmaColbertArt thank you for reply. Iam in New Zealand

[@marimaf6561]

Nice demonstration! I know they are not chalk, but do dry pastels feel like it? I've neve tried this media and I don't know if it's just the video audio or the pastels themselves, but they sound kinda scrachy 😅. Kudos from Brazil

[@EmmaColbertArt]

They can remind you a bit of chalk. They will sound scratchy if you use a rough surface. The softer the pastel, the less scratchy and use a smooth surface.

[@KustomMade88]

Thank you very much for the pastel lesson also you have very beautiful eyes so gorgeous!

[@reelynn77]

Would you ever use a bit harder sticks like conte, faber castel, or nupastel instead of the softer unison type pastels.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Yes I do use some Faber Castell harder sticks, mainly black in my lower layers when adding large areas of darkness. But then it's more the softer sticks built up in layers.

[@pegwat5516]

Love your work. Making my way through every tutorial. Is the hard black stick you refer to actually hard compressed charcoal? Can't find reference to anything else on Jackson's

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Here is a link to them on Jacksons. I should really start calling them what they're called on their site! I think they refer to them as crayons. www.jacksonsart.com/faber-castell-pitt-monochrome-crayon-burnt-black-soft?___store=jacksonsart_en&acc=087408522c31eeb1f982bc0eaf81d35f

[@katrikinnunen8969]

Is that vibrancy between soft pastel and pencils also cus the way that the soft pastel just fills up the microscopical cracks on the paper faster and almost immidiately, whereas you have to fill those cracks slowly and directly with pencils? Like with panpastels

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Yes I think so. The harder the pigment is the less vibrance it will have and the longer it takes to fill the paper.

[@ossi2635]

So caran d'ache pencils will also be weak with vibrance ? i like my pitt pastels... but i always wondered what's wrong with the yellows...

[@ossi2635]

but if i think about it... it's not the lack of vibrance that bothers me... the pitt pastels are all more on the earth side and i really like that... but the yellows can't even cover the pastelmat fully... you always see some paper through... ....maybe i should use white paper... 🤔

[@EmmaColbertArt]

You're just never going to get yellow pastel pencil to look really vibrant in comparison to soft pastel no matter what the brand. Caran d'Ache might be a bit better than FC as they're slightly softer. But the yellow comparison in this video shows the difference when compared to soft pastel. White paper will help your yellow pencil look brighter though.

[@dianefuchs7567]

Do you use Conté sticks? If so, what is the difference between them and pastels?

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Contés are harder than the bigger sticks. Somewhere in between the pencils and the soft sticks. So yes they're useful too, but I still love the softness of the bigger sticks for my strength of colour.

[@dianefuchs7567]

Emma Colbert Art Thanks so much for your insight! I love your passion and clear explanations!

[@deeman524]

I use the Pencils more than the sticks. I can control smudge and mess better, but I have both

[@jumanas4012]

is pastels same as charcoal colours long time ago ?

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Charcoal is a bit different. Soft pastel is pigment like what is used in wet paint, only it's mixed with a little binder and rolled into a stick. The colours are really pure and vibrant

[@Humble.Genius1]

I like to eat soft pastels (since kindergarten), they're good for the health right?🖍🍴

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Well I'm presuming you're joking but just in case haha...kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXSlhWWFqdF-e7M I think in this video I actually say that they're safe unless you eat them...but hey if you're here to tell us about it maybe they're not so bad!

[@Humble.Genius1]

Oh yah, I love them. Yellow tastes like lemon, blue tastes like sky, green like grass, white tastes like clouds, and orange well... like orange.🍊

[@jorgecofre5706]

Hi Emma, ​​how are you? What is the name of the paper you use for your magnificent works of art? Chile.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Hi Jorge, I use both Hahnemuhle Velour and Pastelmat. You can learn a little about the velour I use at kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKLcmZlqd7OZaNU

[@jorgecofre5706]

@@EmmaColbertArt Thank you very much Emma for your time in responding. I love your drawings. That is good. Thank you....

[@zuheyr1]

How do you fix? Thank you. ❤

[@MinimiKnitDesign]

It isn't fair to compare a student grade pastel pencils with artist grade soft pastels. I wonder if the same applies to artist grade pastel pencils.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

That's a fair point as Faber Castell are not the highest in quality, but they are what I had at the time. But everything I said in this video is still true. I have more of a range of pastel pencils now including some of the softest Carbothello and Caran d'Ache. They're better than Faber Castell but the nature of the harder pigment in the pencils and the small point to apply it with is still the same. This video isn't to call pastel pencils bad. It's just answering the question of why I prefer to create as much of the detail as possible using the sticks rather than pencils. The answer is still that the sticks are more vibrant and opaque. If you prefer to use the pencils that is also totally fine. And I think many of us use a varying mixture of both together.

[@MinimiKnitDesign]

​@EmmaColbertArt Thank you. That's super helpful. I was thinking of trying the Caran d'Ache. But now that I know, I'll just stick with soft pastels.

[@SuperEden24]

Sorry for my ignorace in the field of Art ..but can anybody explain me ..what is dry pastels ?? ...i mean is there wet pastels to or what ???

[@EmmaColbertArt]

I replied on another video but I will paste it here also :-) Your English is great. This is quite confusing to everyone. Soft pastel is the medium I use. There is 'soft pastel' and 'oil pastel'. The soft pastels don't contain any oil, they are mostly pigment and a binder. The better quality soft pastels have high pigment content. The soft pastels feel dry to use while the oil pastels are sticky. But within the 'soft pastel' range they go from quite hard sticks to really soft sticks. I hope that makes sense!

[@jumanas4012]

Why the pastel pencil dose not show up on the stick ?

[@marygraydon6522]

What pastel pencils are they please

[@EmmaColbertArt]

I use mostly Faber Castell Pitt pencils but also like Caran d'Ache and Carbothellos

[@zuheyr1]

Which paper ? Thank you! ❤

[@kygkyg8971]

I like her tone of voice Other youtube art supply reviewers are loudmouths and completely peek the mic, then I'll click off. But she is good 👍.

[@CintaurSA]

Can soft pastels come in pencils ✏️?

[@juul7737]

Did you ever tried the pan pastels?

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Yes I have tried them and do make use of them sometimes in lower layers. Personally I just love using the sticks and turn to them for most of what I need when it comes to blocking in. But I can definitely recommend them in combination with the rest.

[@slagroom2009]

But you cant use pastel pencils over pastel sticks right?

[@EmmaColbertArt]

You can but it depends on what paper you're using as to how well they apply. I use them on top of the softer pastel marks to shape and add definition.

[@flickaJay]

@LoveRescectHappiness In this video she uses the pencils on top of both kinds of sticks - the semi-soft Faber and the fatter, super soft Unison. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnqYh39vhrdrarM

[@jekaterinanemeth3052]

Mersi!🤩😊🤗🥳🌲

[@postyourscore75]

Just found your channel😊 Northern Ireland accent? Am I right😍?

[@EmmaColbertArt]

How could you tell?? haha

[@alikaudjdhdhr23]

The product name please?….

[@csabadobrei8959]

danke! and You are beautiful female! I like use drawing and painting my favorite chalk pastels - oldies (1960y) pannoncolor.... God blessing you

[@davejones732]

Hi Emma. First off, Thank you, for your collection of Videos. I'm new to SCP but hungry to learn. Have you Posted about Toxic and Non-toxic Pastels? And how often do you wash your hands? I found one Video where you mentioned having a well ventilated studio as to breathing the extra fine dust. Thanks Soon to join yer Patreon Page Big Foot Dave.

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Hi Dave, that's a topic I haven't covered. May be one to think about doing discussing the toxicity of pastels. Some good ideas there thank you!

[@joshuatorres2483]

❤️

[@garypostell5268]

Looks like the soft pastel one would use it up very quickly!

[@Lavzart]

nice ..

[@jasonwest9425]

I hate my pastel pencils (Faber Pitt). On pastelmat even without any other pastel they don't show up much. If i am layering they are completely useless as they don't stick to other pastel at all. The most frustrating product I've evver tried.

[@sankarbordoloi2691]

👍👍👌

[@jkkater]

Excellent video !!! and your your beautiful EYES ♥‿♥

[@cliffdariff74]

Irish huh

[@comicblock]

ayo who's snoring

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Probably one of my little oldies who have since passed. Their presence was always in my earlier videos. Miss them in my studio snoring and all!

[@TheRealMycanthrope]

It's obvious, the sticks cover your fingers in pigment so people know you're a real artist ;)

[@EmmaColbertArt]

Haha! Dirty hands = busy person. People also know you're a real artist in the local shop when you don't realise you've rubbed it down your face before washing your hands to go to the shop.

[@sufitara4229]

Ossum...

[@michep.169]

thank you