Choosing soft pastels is less about picking the prettiest box and more about matching the sticks to your subject, surface, and working style.
The right set can improve blending, layering, and color accuracy immediately.
What Soft Pastels Are and Why They Feel Different
Soft pastels are dry drawing media made from pigment, binder, and filler, pressed into sticks with a high pigment load and low binder content.
Compared with oil pastels or hard pastels, they usually produce richer marks, more immediate color payoff, and easier blending.
Because they are highly pigmented, soft pastels are popular in landscape painting, portrait work, still life, and expressive mark-making.
They also vary widely by manufacturer, which is why learning how to choose soft pastels matters before you buy a full set.
Start With Your Main Use
The best pastel set depends on what you plan to make most often.
A landscape artist may prioritize greens, earth tones, and a strong value range, while a portrait artist needs skin tones, neutrals, and subtle warm-cool variations.
- Portraits: look for a balanced selection of warm neutrals, muted reds, ochres, blues, and grays.
- Landscapes: prioritize natural greens, blues, browns, and a broad range of light and dark values.
- Urban sketching: choose compact sets with strong tonal contrast and reliable mid-tone colors.
- Expressive work: consider vibrant, highly saturated sets with a wide color temperature range.
If you are a beginner, a general-purpose set is usually more useful than a highly specialized collection.
You can expand later once your preferences become clear.
Look at Hardness and Texture
Soft pastels are not equally soft.
Some brands are velvety and crumbly, while others feel slightly firmer and hold a sharper edge longer.
This difference affects both control and coverage.
Very soft pastels deposit more pigment and blend easily, which is useful for rich color layers and painterly effects.
Firmer soft pastels are often easier to control for detail, sharper lines, and underpainting.
- Very soft pastels: ideal for blending, glazing, and fast coverage.
- Medium-soft pastels: a versatile choice for most artists.
- Firmer pastels: better for sketching, detail, and layering beneath softer sticks.
Many artists use a combination of harder and softer pastels rather than one type alone.
This gives more flexibility and helps preserve detail in the early layers.
Why Pigment Quality Matters
Pigment quality affects color intensity, lightfastness, and how closely the pastel matches its label color.
Artist-grade pastels often contain more pure pigment and fewer fillers, which can create cleaner mixtures and stronger coverage.
When comparing brands, look for information on lightfastness ratings and pigment transparency or opacity.
Lightfast pigments resist fading over time, which is especially important for finished work meant to be displayed or sold.
Lower-cost student pastels can still be useful, but they may have weaker saturation, less consistent textures, and a narrower color range.
If you are choosing for professional work, pigment performance should carry more weight than packaging or set size.
Choose the Right Color Range
A large set is not automatically a better set.
What matters is whether the colors cover the values and temperatures you actually use.
A thoughtful 30-stick set can be more practical than a 120-stick box full of near-duplicates.
Look for a range that includes:
- High-key lights for highlights and atmosphere
- Mid-tones for general modeling and transitions
- Dark values for contrast and structure
- Warm and cool versions of key hues
- Neutral grays and earth tones for shadow work and color balancing
If you are building a palette, start with a limited set that covers values more than hue variety.
Value control is often more important than sheer color count in pastel painting.
Understand Surface and Paper Compatibility
Soft pastels perform best on paper or panels with tooth, which helps hold multiple layers of pigment.
Smooth surfaces can still work, but they may limit layering and require more precision.
Common pastel surfaces include pastel paper, sanded paper, suede-like boards, and textured panels.
Each surface changes how the pastel releases pigment and how many layers it can support.
- Pastel paper: widely available and suitable for many techniques.
- Sanded paper: holds more layers and works well for heavy blending.
- Textured board: durable and useful for detailed, layered work.
If you already have a preferred surface, test pastel brands on that surface before buying a large set.
A pastel that feels excellent on one paper may feel too dusty or too hard on another.
Check Lightfastness and Archival Performance
Lightfastness is the ability of a pigment to resist fading when exposed to light.
For artists who sell, exhibit, or archive work, this should be a priority rather than an afterthought.
Many brands use ASTM or equivalent lightfastness ratings.
When possible, choose pastels with clearly published ratings and avoid relying only on color appearance in the store.
Bright colors are especially worth checking, since some vivid pigments fade faster than earth tones and muted hues.
Archival performance also depends on proper framing with UV-protective glazing and good storage practices.
Even excellent pastels can degrade if the finished piece is not protected correctly.
Decide Between Sets and Open Stock
Buying a set is convenient, but open stock gives you more control.
The best choice depends on your budget and how specific your palette needs are.
Sets are helpful if you want a coordinated range and lower upfront cost per stick.
They are also a good way to explore a brand’s overall feel.
Open stock is better when you already know which colors you use most or need replacements for favorites.
It also lets you build a custom palette over time.
A practical approach is to buy a small set first, then add open-stock colors that fill gaps in value, temperature, or neutrals.
Compare Dust, Blendability, and Handling
Soft pastels produce different amounts of dust depending on pigment load, binder, and hardness.
Some artists like a powdery surface for seamless blends, while others prefer cleaner handling and sharper edges.
Blendability is not just about softness; it also depends on the pigment’s particle behavior and how it interacts with the paper tooth.
If possible, test how the pastel layers over itself, how easily it smudges, and whether it maintains clarity after blending.
Handling matters too.
Square pastels, round sticks, and half-sticks each offer different grip and edge control.
If you draw detail often, shapes that allow both broad strokes and fine lines can be very useful.
Set a Budget Without Sacrificing the Essentials
Soft pastel prices vary by brand tier, set size, and pigment quality.
A modest budget can still go far if you focus on essential colors and reliable performance rather than maximum quantity.
For beginners, a mid-range set often provides the best balance of quality and affordability.
For advanced users, a smaller artist-grade set plus select open-stock replacements may outperform a large student-grade box.
When comparing value, consider:
- number of usable colors rather than total stick count
- pigment strength and color consistency
- lightfastness ratings
- availability of open stock
- durability of packaging and storage trays
Test Before You Commit
If you can, try single sticks, sample sets, or store swatches before buying a major set.
Testing reveals more than product descriptions, especially if you are comparing brands such as Sennelier, Unison Colour, Schmincke, Rembrandt, General’s, or Cretacolor.
During testing, pay attention to how each pastel feels on your usual paper, how well it layers, and whether the colors stay clean when mixed.
Make a simple swatch chart with labels so you can compare brands side by side later.
Quick checklist for testing
- Does the pastel match your preferred hardness?
- Does it cover the paper evenly?
- Can you layer without mud?
- Are the values useful for your subject matter?
- Is the color range balanced or repetitive?
What Beginners Should Prioritize
If you are new to pastels, focus on control, not volume.
A smaller set with a sensible range of values and a few strong neutrals is easier to learn from than a huge rainbow of sticks.
Beginners usually benefit most from pastels that are:
- easy to grip and handle
- consistent in texture
- reasonably dust-controlled
- clearly labeled with color names or numbers
- available in replacement open stock
Once you understand your workflow, you can add softer, more specialized, or more saturated colors to expand your range.
How to Choose Soft Pastels for Your Style
The best answer to how to choose soft pastels is to align the medium with your subject, surface, and goals.
Prioritize pigment quality, value range, and compatibility with your paper before chasing the largest set or the brightest display.
A balanced first purchase usually includes a manageable color range, reliable lightfastness, and a texture that matches how you like to draw.
That combination will give you more usable results than a random assortment of colors that do not fit your workflow.
