Colored Pencils & Pastels

Colored Pencil’s are constructed of a narrow, pigmented core encased in a wooden cylindrical case. Unlike graphite and charcoal pencils, colored pencils’ cores are wax or oil-based and contain varying proportions of pigments, additives, and binding agents. Water-soluble (watercolor) pencils and pastel pencils are also manufactured as well as colored leads for mechanical pencils. Colored pencils vary greatly in terms of quality and usability; concentration of pigments in the core, lightfastness of the pigments, durability of the colored pencil, and softness of the lead are some indicators of a brand’s quality and, consequently, its market price. Lightfastness is an important term when referring to color pencils because it describes how resistant to fading it is when exposed to light. This is important for the longevity of the art piece and may even effect how it should be framed.

Caran D’Ache

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Pablo
Pablo permanent pencils match the superior quality required for color drawings, while the precision of Pablo leads is ideally suited to realist drawing. Pablo’s 3.8 mm diameter leads are based on a formula ensuring exceptionally high covering power and creating no powder whatsoever, offer one of the widest existing color ranges with its 120 nuances. Artists, technical designers and professional teachers can rely on the exemplary lightfastness of the leads, as well as their perfect opacity. The covering power of Pablo color pencils enables easy usage on a large number of backgrounds, ranging from variously textured paper and cardboard to wooden panels. Shaded, mixed and layered colors express themselves through the thick, velvety matter of permanent pencils. The bodies of the pencils are completely varnished and sealed with a shiny color that corresponds to the color of the lead.
Supracolor
Supracolor Soft Aquarelle pencils offer a huge range of water-soluble color leads in 120 finely nuanced shades. Designed for every creative profession, the Supracolor Soft range offers a wide variety of applications thanks to intensely luminous colors and excellent covering power. While designed for large, broad works, the soft, large-diameter 3.8 mm leads are nevertheless extremely robust and display exemplary lightfastness, while their color opacity and pigment quality ensures long-lasting use. Pencil drawings can thus be faded out, blended with fingertips, textured by rubbing the lead on a piece of sandpaper or used as watercolors. The body of the pencils is completely varnished and sheathed in a glossy color corresponding to the color of the lead.

 

Derwent

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Aquatone
Derwent Aquatone is a solid stick of pure watercolor that contains 4 times more usable material than a conventional watercolor pencil. Just peel off the wrapper and use the whole stick to paint big blocks of color, or break it in to smaller pieces to create different effects. Add water and create washes for a beautiful watercolor effect in your paintings. Available in 24 colors which can also be found in the Derwent Watercolor pencil range.
Colorsoft
Derwent Colorsoft is an exciting range of 72 colored pencils. The soft, velvety strip allows you to quickly add lots of bold, vibrant color to your drawing and they’re great for coloring in! They’re also blendable so you can create a variety of subtly different tones and shades.
Inktense
Derwent Inktense pencils are Derwent’s best watercolor pencil. They can be used dry but can also be mixed with water and the color turns into vibrant ink. Once it’s dry the color is fixed and you can work over the top of it, and, because it permanent it’s great for using on fabric such as silk and cotton!
Studio
Derwent Studio color pencils are perfect for detailing. The hexagonal barrel and blendable color strip makes them great for detailed pencil drawings, particularly illustrations and botanical art. They come in a full range of 72 different colors which are all great for making the detail in your drawing pop.
Watercolor
Watercolors pencils are great because they offer the control of a colored pencil and can be mixed with water to create interesting color flows. Although they are not as bright as Inktense pencils and blocks so they’re perfect for those who like to do more subtle watercolor paintings. The soft texture of the core makes them easy to blend and layer and you can create a variety of effects by adding water, from bold images to delicate washes. Watercolour pencils are not permanent so once the color is dry you can re-wet it and move it about again.
Faber-Castell

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Faber-Castell Polychromos
Faber-Castell’s Polychromos still stands as top class quality in unsurpassed lightfast pigments, 120 vibrant colors, break resistant tips, waterproof, non-smudge, and color matched to all other Faber-Castell color lines. They are highly valued internationally by professionals and semi-professionals for their unsurpassed quality. The high standards of the Polychromos colored pencils shine through, whether they are used for graphics, artistic free style or for the exact rendition of plans. They are favored by our local Bronx Botanical Garden classes as the best color pencils to work with.
Prismacolor

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Art Stix
Prismacolor’s Art Stix is the same rich, creamy leads of the Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils but without wood casing to hold you back. There is no need to sharpen, so you can use any side of the stick at any angle you may choose. The soft core is fully exposed so you can lay it on even thicker in a single stroke. To the expert, it’s an essential and to the novice it’s a good place to start. The high quality pigments can be sharpened to a point or used blunt, perfect for small projects and larger areas of coverage.
Lightfast
Prismacolor Lightfast color pencils have the ability to retain its original characteristics and/or withstand the effects of light over time. Prismacolor tested lightfastness in accordance with ASTM D6901-06, and has established this lightfastness rating. They range in various colors but unfortunately this line of pencils have been discontinued.
Watercolor
Prismacolor Watercolor pencils are high-quality, water-soluble colored pencils can be used with a brush to achieve a watercolor effect that is unique. The color pencils can be laid down dry onto a watercolor paper or any paper that can hold watercolors. These pencils are great for beginners who are starting out in watercolor. They can be used with brush pens and paint brushes for a nice smooth watercolor look.
Verithin
Verithin color pencils a great for the burgeoning artist to the seasoned pro, these hard, thin leads make an impact on the more intricate details of your vision. Verithin pencils make edges cleaner, outlines bolder and lettering pristine with extremely fine points that define a unique point of view. The thin lead in the Verithins allows for the artist to press harder without breaking the lead leading to bold and dark lines to compliment the color pencil drawing.

 

Pastels is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation. The color effect of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process. Pastels come in several different forms:     

Soft pastels: This is the most widely used form of pastel. The sticks have a higher portion of pigment and less binder, resulting in brighter colors. The drawing can be readily smudged and blended, but it results in a higher proportion of dust. Finished drawings made with soft pastels require protecting, either framing under glass or spraying with a fixative to prevent smudging; hairspray also works, although caution should be taken, as fixatives may affect the color or texture of the drawing. White chalk may be used as a filler in producing pale and bright hues with greater luminosity.     

Pan Pastels: These are formulated with a minimum of binder in flat compacts (similar to some makeup) and applied with special soft micropore sponge tools. No liquid is involved.     Hard pastels: have a higher portion of binder and less pigment, producing a sharp drawing material that is useful for fine details. These can be used with other pastels for drawing outlines and adding accents. Hard pastels are traditionally used to create the preliminary sketching out of a composition. However, the colors are less brilliant and are available in a restricted range in contrast to soft pastels.     

Pastel pencils: These are pencils with a pastel lead. They are useful for adding fine details.     

Oil pastels: These have a soft, buttery consistency and intense colors. They are dense and fill the grain of paper and are slightly more difficult to blend than soft pastels, but do not require a fixative. They may be spread across the work surface by thinning with turpentine.     

Water-soluble pastels: These are similar to soft pastels, but contain a water-soluble component, such as Polyethylene glycol. This allows the colors to be thinned out to an even, semi-transparent consistency using a water wash. Water-soluble pastels are made in a restricted range of hues in strong colors. They have the advantages of enabling easy blending and mixing of the hues, given their fluidity, as well as allowing a range of color tint effects depending upon the amount of water applied with a brush to the working surface.

Caran D’ Ache

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NeoArt Aquarella
Neoart Aquarelle water-soluble wax pastels are designed for professionals and amateurs of artistic design well acquainted with the expertise of the Maison Caran d’Ache in the realm of water-soluble mediums. Their smooth texture is exceptionally soft, while their extra-large diameter is combined with very high-density pigmentation for luminous, semi-opaque colors. Offering great freedom of use, Neoart Aquarelle pastels are ideal for lively artistic effects. They can be used dry or moist, they enable blending and wet drawing, sponge techniques or rainbow applications. A variety of backgrounds and materials are suited to works created with Neoart Aquarelle, ranging from textured paper and cardboard to glass and metallic surfaces. The 60 vibrant colors composing the complete range are distinguished by their purity and excellent lightfastness.
 Neo Pastel
With its soft, velvety texture and high pigment content, the Neopastel oil pastels offer artists, Fine Art teachers and students a flexible medium with strong colors. Neopastel has a huge range of 96 luminous hues, incorporating a wide selection of grey, warm and cold tones. Neopastel offers excellent coverage making it suitable for a wealth of applications and artistic combinations: from lines to flat-wash, blending to stencilling, or batik effect to sgrafitto in multiple layers. Its wide 10mm diameter, refined texture, water resistance and excellent lightfastness make it ideally suited for use on diverse materials, be they tinted or dark. Non-drying, non-oxidisable and heat resistant, Neopastel is also soluble in turpentine and can be used with ease for oil painting on canvas.
NeoColor II Watersoluble
Neocolor II water-soluble wax oil pastels highlight the enormous innovative capabilities of the Maison Caran d’Ache. Neocolor II offers boundless creative possibilities for artists and beginners alike. Basing their work on the existing excellent qualities exceptional coverage, smoothness and extreme lightfastness, it is perfect for all manners of artistic fields and from school age upwards. Neocolor II can be used for all forms of creativity, ranging from drawings on dry or wet materials, monotypes, impregnation, wet drawing, glazing or rainbow gradation. With 84 colours, the entire range offers almost unlimited scope for the imagination.
Conte A Paris

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Conte A Paris
Conte A Paris pastel pencil are the perfect pencil companion to soft pastel because its lead is slightly harder with less pigment. It is preferable to Conté soft pastels and crayons when details is required for small and medium sized formats. In contrast with soft pastels, pastel pencil should not be added in successive layers of colors, but used as pure colors laid out in patchwork fashion side by side (so as not to dull the shades).

 

Cray-Pas

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Cray-Pas
Cray-Pas Expressionist oil pastels are the standard by which all other pastels are measured. From dramatic to muted, flamboyant to quiet, the Expressionist color range allows students, hobbyists, and artists to achieve a range of painterly effects. Expressionist oil pastels are extremely smooth to apply, can create broad strokes, and allow the user to blend colors to build texture and depth. The unique Cray-Pas Extender is a colorless oil pastel, further extending any Expressionist color for the continuation of hues. Cray-Pas comes in up to 48 colors in varying sets as well as individual pastels.
Derwent

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Art Bar
Triangular bars with a beautiful creamy consistency and highly pigmented color. They feel luxuriously smooth as they release consistently deep, rich color. The wax based bars can be used dry or wet to paint expressive marks and beautiful pieces of art. Use a brush to add water and the dry marks melt away before your eyes.
Pastel Pencils
Derwent Pastel Pencils are best for keeping hands clean while working with a normally chalky medium. The wide color strip is powdery and soft so mixing and blending is really easy and because it’s encased in wood you get the pastel effect without the mess. Derwent Pastel Pencils come in 72 different colors which gives a wide range so mixing and blending colors is not always necessary.
Pentel Artist

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Pentel Artist Pastel 
Pentel’s Artist Pastel line has brilliant color pastels that can be applied smoothly and blend easily for subtle shades, tints and color mixtures. They are great for entry level pastel artists and are perfect for all ages. These acid-free pastels are ideal for use on paper, board or canvas, they are more vivid than chalk pastels and more resistant to the effects of humidity for longer-lasting drawings. Pentel Artists Pastels are ACMI Certified and are available in sets of 16,25,36 and 50. Its excellent color range is perfect for pastel painters.
Prismacolor

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Nupastel
Prismacolor Nupastel’s are tougher than traditional soft pastels, but maintain the same rich, creamy pigments needed for superior blending and shading. Artists of all expertise levels can benefit from these pastels, especially those interested in illustration or tightly rendered drawings. Nupastel’s can be used wet or dry, mix them with water or odorless mineral spirits to create cool effects.
Reeves

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Reeves
Reeves has a line of soft pastels that are square-shaped and made with high quality pigments to give you excellent lightfastness and strong vibrant colors. Extremely soft and easy to apply, they are perfect for color blending and are suitable for use on textured paper or card. Reeves Soft Pastels come in 12,24, and 36 color sets. They also have a convenient set of 32 half pastel set that provide 32 colors in a small pastel shape.
Rembrandt

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Rembrandt
Rembrandt Soft Pastels are aimed at the very high standards of the professional artist and the amateur aspiring to perfection. The pastels are made from the purest pigments mixed with the finest quality kaolin. Rembrandt Soft Pastels have for years been the most popular artists’ pastels in the world. These pastels have a number of characteristics and unique features including the perfect degree of softness. They are so soft that a large amount of color is immediately released, and yet hard enough not to powder quickly. The very high color intensity and purity ensure that each piece of work has a brilliant finish.
Sennelier

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Oil Pastels
The Sennelier oil pastel makes use of the components used in all Sennelier colours: top quality pigments, an extremely pure synthetic binding medium and mineral wax. The balance of this mix provides Sennelier oil pastels with a unique unctuousness and a creamy texture that allows for a great deal of freedom in pictorial expression. The Sennelier oil pastels possess an extraordinarily high pigment content, thus providing them with a high coloring and covering potential, excellent brightness and a high degree of light stability (with the exception of metallic and fluorescent shades).
Soft Pastels
It took over three years to formulate the Sennelier’s range of Extra Soft Pastels thus creating one of the largest chromatic range of pastels. Their comfortable handling and large contact surface allow large areas to be covered with a high degree of regularity. They are highly concentrated in pigment so much so that a single stroke delivers a single solid line of brilliant color. These pastels are sold individually or in sets, some of the sets are specific to landscapes, portrait colors or half sticks.