The Top Five Soft Pastels in 2013

This post reviews my poll Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels? which ran on my website Pastels - Resources for Artists during 2013.

Here's the chart of the results for 2013

It's the same Top 5 Pastels again - plus a tweak!

The top Five Soft Pastels, according to people who responded to the poll, were as follows.  Links to more information about the pastels are embedded in the name

1. Unison Soft Pastels (British) - repeating the pattern of all previous polls - Unison consistently come top.  At the end of the day, pastel artists recognise very high quality products and vote with their wallets!
2. Sennelier Extra Soft Pastels (French) One of the oldest and possibly the smallest pastels with one of the largest chromatic range of pastels - now offered in 525 shades
3. Schminke Soft Pastels (German) - Some of the smoothest pastels in existence. As I indicate on my website I've bought this very popular pastel in four different countries on three different continents!
4. Talens Rembrandt (Dutch) A very popular range which comes midway between soft and hard and one which many people start with - I know I did!
5. Joint 5th place
• Terry Ludwig (American) I always think of Terry Ludwig as being very like Unison in the sense of being an independent artisan supplier of soft pastels - who started small and has got bigger through the patronage of very many pastel artists.
• Girault (French) 
6. Girault got into the "top five" by virtue of Terry Ludwig having slipped slightly. 

Here you can see a table which gives the relative percentage share over the last few years - according to the poll.

BRAND OF PASTEL	2013	2011-2013	2011	2010	2006-2009
Unison	23%	18%	22.1%	21.9%	19.6%
Sennelier	17%	13%	14.7%	13.3%	15.9%
Schminke	13%	9%	6.6%	15.2%	11.7%
Talens Rembrandt	10%	8%	11.2%	9.4%	9.4%
Terry Ludwig	5%	6%	6.6%	6.1%	11.7%
Winsor & Newton	-	6%		4.7%	6%
Girault	5%	5%		5%	3.1%

As you can see the top four brands are now beginning to pull away from the rest of the pastel brands. I'm guessing this in part relates to the demise of the Winsor & Newton Pastel which can now only be obtained as discounted pastel sets.

Unison has had its best ever year and Schminke is regaining some of the ground it lost in 2011 and 2012.

Of the remainder PanPastels is growing a loyal band of followers and is doing well to achieve 3% of the vote.

Girault crept into Joint 5th place as a result of a slightly worse result by Terry Ludwig.

I've now posted a new Poll for 2014 - but will also be announcing it in a separate post tomorrow.

Past Polls about Soft Pastels

I've been running this poll for a while

• Unison is still favourite artist grade soft pastel (2012 results)
• Soft Pastels: What's your favourite make? (2011 results)
• Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? (2010 Poll Results)

Soft Pastels: What's your favourite make? (2011 results)

Opinion Poll 2011:  What is your favourite make of soft pastel?
Source: Pastels - Resources for Artists

Which was your favourite brand of soft pastels in 2011? 

On the right you can see the chart which presents the results of my opinion poll which asked this question in a year long poll held in 2011 on my Pastels - Resources for Artists website.

Favourite Soft Pastel - Poll Results

The top five soft pastels favoured by the 258 people voting in the poll in 2011 are as follows.  (The figures in brackets underneath are the results from the polls held in 2010 and 2006-2009 respectively)

Unison - 22.1% 
(21.9%, 19.6%)

Sennelier - 14.7% 
(13.3%, 15.9%)

Talens Rembrandt 11.2%
(9.4%, 9.4%)

Schminke - 6.6% 
(15.2%, 11.7%)

Terry Ludwig 6.6% 
(6.1%, 13.5%)

(Links are to the manufacturers websites)

As last year the results mean that it's same top five again - and again it's a slightly different order

• Unison remained way out in front of all other brands and even grew its market share.  
• Sennelier, Talens Rembrandt and Terry Ludwig all saw small increases in their popularity.
• The major loser was Schminke with a dramatic drop in its popularity

It's interesting to also note that PanPastels have done well for a new product - recording just 0.8% in 2010, they've now grown to 2.7%.

Art Spectrum Pastels also saw a similar increase from 0.8% in 2010 to 3.1% in 2011.

Just in case anybody thinks there is any sort of European bias going on here, both this blog and my pastel resources site get at least half their visitors from the USA and a good representation from Australasia as well!

258 people responded to the poll in 2011 compared to the 361 voting in the 2010 Poll.  However given the numbers responding, and the generally consistent pattern of responses it's reasonably certain that this poll indicates the pattern of overall preferences although minor changes year on year might be to do with sample size.

I'm guessing here but I think it's very likely that maybe the lower number of respondents reflects fewer people buying pastels in the current economic climate.  That's because my pastels website has remained as popular as ever (with much increased traffic!)

Previous poll results

This follows on from the two previous polls I've held on my website Pastels - Resources for Artists. You can find their results reported in:

• Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? (2010 Poll Results)
• Opinion Poll: Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? - which analysed my poll which ran from 2006 through to the end of 2009

Unison Pastels

If you want to know more about Unison Soft Pastels try consulting my resource site below

Unison Pastels - Resources for Artists

Unison produce a really great range of highly pigmented sets of Soft Pastels in colour values which are completely addictive. Recently Unison topped a poll to find artists' favourite brand of soft pastels.

Which dark soft pastels are the best?

Soft pastels in very dark colours present a challenge which some manufacturers have tried to address.  This post is about soft pastels in dark colours, shades and tints - and a new opinion poll.

Common problems are:

• Some brands can feel abrasive and scratchy.  Dark shades and tints of soft pastels have a reputation for not being the softest of soft pastels.
• Other brands are 'too hard' and fail to release their pigment load easily
• It can also be very difficult to get hold of good rich colour in dark shades.  Dark should not mean that colour disappears.

Some manufacturers have addressed these problems by creating specific dark sets of soft pastels. These aim to balance the quality of pigment colour (ie colour not black!) with softness and the effective release of the pigment onto the support while also offering a good range of dark colours.

Many a pastel artist has developed a quest for set of pastels which are both soft and dark

I started out with a set of Rembrandt Pastels and found the dark shades to be a tad too hard for my liking.  I addedin Daler Rowney Soft Pastels and liked those - but they disappeared a bit too fast for my liking

I then got a set of Unison Darks and was smitten.  These are very dark and yet have good pigment colour - but are also not abrasive or "too hard".

My set of Unison Darks - photographed when still relatively pristine!

I've also tried out some dark Terry Ludwig pastels in a pastel workshop.  Some pastel artists comment that these work better on abrasive supports rather than paper where to some they feel a little too greasy.  There are two sets of dark Ludwig Pastels:

• Intense Darks #1 set is red/sienna/ochre/brown oriented
• Intense Darks #2 set is blue/grey/purple/mauve oriented

You can also get a set of 60 Intense Darks

Terry Ludwig - 60 Intense Darks

Diane Townsend has a set of 12 dark soft form pastels. she also lists the individual colours whcih means they could be bought singly.  These are Deborah Secor's favourite dark pastels and she says they cover Wallis paper really fast.  She recommends the dark green for those doing landscapes.

Diane Townsend - soft form.  Dark 12 piece set

Sennelier have a set of 24 dark tones.

Sennelier Pastels - Set of 24 dark tones

Pan Pastels have a set of extra dark colours available as 3 sets of 5 colours each - extra dark shades, shadows and earth colours


Daler Rowney now have a dark set - 8 Set Dark Selection Code 153 902 008 - you can see a picture of them here

Girault are said to have a dark set but I've never seen one and can't find one on their website.  Others may have developed specific dark sets and if so I'd love to hear about them.

Which dark pastels do you like best - and how do you buy them?  

Please vote in the NEW OPINION POLL Which is your favourite brand of dark soft pastels? in  Pastels - Resources for Artists

I'd also love to hear about your favourite brands of dark pastels either in connection with the poll or by commenting below.

ALSO How do you like to buy your dark pastels?

• as a specific set of dark pastels (which can be quite expensive) 
• or in singles from open stock

Do please let me know what you think by commenting below

More information

Links to dark sets

• UNISON COLOUR | Pastels - Unison Dark Set
• Terry Ludwig Pastels: 30 Intense darks #1
• Terry Ludwig Pastels: 30 Intense Darks #2
• Diane Townsend - set of 12 dark soft form pastels
• Mount Vision - dark sets of pastels

Links to reviews

• (Review) Making a Mark: Unison Pastels: the Darks and the Lights
• Wetcanvas Pastels - Recommendations for darks - sets or individuals

Links to more information about pastels:

• Pastels - Resources for Artists
• Unison Pastels - Resources for Artists 

Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? (2010 Poll Results)

Which is your favourite brand of soft pastels? Below I detail what  are the results of my opinion poll which asked this question in a year long poll held in 2010.

Back in January of this year I had a couple of posts

• Opinion Poll: Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? - which analysed my poll on my website Pastels - Resources for Artists.  This ran from 2006 through to the end of 2009
  
• The NEW 2010 Soft Pastels Opinion Poll - which announced a new survey.

2010 Poll: What is your favourite make of soft pastels?
on Pastels - Resources for Artists.

I can now tell you that a total of 361 people voted in the 2010 Poll: What is your favourite make of soft pastels? on Pastels - Resources for Artists.

You can see the results on the right.

The top five soft pastels favoured by those voting in the poll are as follows:

1. Unison - 21.9%
2. Schminke - 15.2%
3. Sennelier - 13.3%
4. Talens Rembrandt 9.4%
5. Terry Ludwig 6.1%

(Links are to the manufacurers websites)

Just in case anybody thinks there is any sort of European bias going on here, both this blog and my pastel resources site get most of their vissitors from the USA!

This compares to the 2006-2009 poll results which indicated that the top five soft pastels are

• Unison 19.6%
• Sennelier 15.9%
• Terry Ludwig 13.5%
• Schminke 11.7%
• Talens Rembrandt 8.2%

This means it's the samw top five - just a slightly different order.

• Unison retains its top spot and has apparently increased its market share over other pastel brands (in terms of expressed preferences) through an increase from 19.6% to 21.9%.
• Schminke have had the best result in terms of moving from #4 spot to the #2 spot 
• Terry Ludwig appears to have lost the most ground falling from #3 to # 5 (13.5% to 6.1%)

If you want to know more about Unison Soft Pastels try consulting my resource site below

Unison Pastels - Resources for Artists

Unison produce a really great range of highly pigmented sets of Soft Pastels in colour values which are completely addictive. Recently Unison topped a poll to find artists' favourite brand of soft pastels.