The NEW 2011 Pastels Opinion Polls

This is an invitation to pastel artists to vote for their favourite brand of pastels in 2011.   

You can find two BRAND NEW 2011 Opinion Polls about artists' grade pastels for 2011 on Pastels - Resources for Artists.

• Artists have already started to vote - see 2011 Poll: Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? This poll focuses on artist grade soft pastels which are available at the beginning of January 2011.   This is the second of my annual polls and the third poll I've run which has sked this question.  See the end for links to previous polls.
• My resources for pastel artists site also has a second poll on hard pastels further down - see 2011 POLL: Which is your favourite make of hard pastel?  This includes some additional brands compared to the poll I ran last year.

Pastels in the Sennelier Shop
(across the Seine from the Louvre) in Paris

The purpose of having an Annual Opinion Poll is to identify which are the most popular pastels in 2011.  This nables:

• new brands to be reflected in the poll
• people who have experimented with more brands and new brands since voting to change their preference if they want to

All past votes which applied to choices available in the past no longer apply. You can now vote again.  Don't forget to check all the options before you vote. The pastels are listed in alphabetical order.

The Annual Poll can also provide feedback to the manufacturers about preferences which will hopefully provide an some incentive to continue with a good selection in the marketplace and products which continue to improve in both quality and lightfastness over time.

If any of the marketing people from the different pastel manufacturers are reading this and note that their new brands in the pipeline are NOT included please contact me with the date your product is due to be in the marketplace AND on your website.

Previous posts:

• Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? (2010 Poll Results)
• The NEW 2010 Soft Pastels Opinion Poll
• Opinion Poll: Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? This analysed my poll on my website Pastels - Resources for Artists. This ran from 2006 through to the end of 2009 and excluded newer pastels

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

2010 POLL: Which is your favourite make of hard pastel?
on Pastels - Resources for Artists.

310 people voted in the 2010 Poll: What is your favourite make of hard pastels?

This poll shows which particular make of artist grade hard pastels was most liked by most pastel artists in 2010.  The pastels included were artist grade hard pastels available in 2010.  Some may be listed as soft - but in terms of the gradations of pastels overall - these are all the ones up at the harder end of the spectrum.  All pastels were listed in alphabetical order.

The four brands of HARD PASTELS were ranked as follows by the 310 people who voted in poll

1. Prismacolor Nupastel 51.9%
2. Conte a Paris 23.5%
3. Faber Castell Polychromos hard pastels 19.4%
4. Cretacolor Carre 5.2%

The poll has now been cleared and the image is of the results as at the beginning of January 2011

Sketchbook Pro - bargain price in new Mac Apps store

Cosmo Catnapping #11 (on 11.01.11)
drawn using Sketchbook Pro and a mouse!

For the sketchers amongst us.......

If you've got a Mac, there's a rather good offer in the new Apps store for Macs which succeeded in generating over a million downloads in one day last week.

The main purpose of this post is to alert you to this fact and to show off my very first sketch using a mouse and Sketchbook Pro - which is the drawing of my boy cat Cosmo (above)

I'm interested in apps for artists so have been investigating what's available in the Apps stores for the iPad and as of last week the new Mac Apps store.

I've decided to try Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk.

• I started by buying Sketchbook Pro for my ipad via iTunes which cost me the grand sum of £4.99 ($7.99).  For this all I need is a finger!

Autodesk SketchBook® Pro for iPad is a professional-grade paint and drawing application. Using the same paint engine as its desktop counterpart, SketchBook Pro delivers a complete set of sketching & painting tools through a streamlined and intuitive user interface designed exclusively for the iPad experience.

Whether you are an occasional doodler or a professional illustrator, SketchBook Pro transforms your iPad into the ultimate digital SketchBook.

• Sketchbook Pro is available on the new Mac Apps store at an introductory price for a limited period only.  
• It costs $29.99 (which is just under £20).  
• To download SketchBook Pro from the Mac App Store, you need a Mac with Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later. Learn More.  
• I doubt I've ever had a bit of software load so fast and in such an accessible way.  I clicked the link to buy and it zipped across the screen and into the dock!

***Introductory Price! Limited-time only*** Autodesk SketchBook® Pro for Mac is a professional-grade paint and drawing application. Using the same paint engine as its mobile counterpart, SketchBook Pro delivers a complete set of sketching & painting tools through a streamlined and intuitive user interface. 

• If I was buying via Amazon the software would be Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 (PC/Mac) and it would cost £88.33.  I'm assuming the latest version is available at full price and that the Mac versionis maybe not be the latest whizzbang model?

SketchBook Pro is, essentially, your virtual sketchbook. Designed specifically for pen-based interaction, transform your desktop computer, laptop, or Tablet PC into a digital sketch pad. The intuitive interface makes it easy to access a host of tools and state-of-the-art features, including pencils, markers, brushes, colors, guides, layers and blending effects.

Now all I have to do is work out how to use this!

The iMac version really needs a digital tablet and pen - however I got started by using my mouse.  Hence the drawing of my cat Cosmo at the top of this post.  Drawn using the pencil in 2B mode.

I've been titivating about digital tablets for quite some time so this is partly about me getting my head around on what make to get and what size to get.

Any suggestions re digital tablets are most welcome!

I'll be back with a review of Apps for artists in the future when I've played around some more.

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.

Coloured Pencils: two NEW polls for artists in 2011

Two NEW 2011 POLLS to identify which brand of coloured pencils and watercolour pencils are favoured by coloured pencil artists can be found on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists

These are the links - where you can VOTE NOW for your favourite brand of artist grade coloured pencil and/or watercolour pencil:

• 2011 POLL: Which is the best brand of artist grade coloured pencil? 
• 2011 POLL: What's your favourite watercolour pencil? 

You also find information about each brand of pencil as follows:

• Artist Grade Coloured Pencils - Brand Information
• Watercolour Pencils - Brand Information

There's a section for each brand, with links to both the manufacturers sites and also to news and reviews of each brand of coloured pencil   

In January next year there will be a review of the poll results.  For the 2010 results see:

• The Favourite Coloured Pencil Awards! (2010 Brand Poll Results)
• The Favourite Watercolour Pencils Awards! (2010 Brand Poll Results)

Coloured Pencils - Resource for Artists

The Polls are:

• wholly independent of each manufacturer.  
• on a site which gets very significant year-round traffic from people wanting to find our more about coloured pencils and how to use them for art.

Resources for Artists - constantly updated

My main information site - Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists is very popular with coloured pencil artists who know that new links to reputable information are being added all the time. 

If you know of a site which you think ought to be linked to from my site please contact me - on this site or the resources for artists site - and let me know what it is and why it ought to be included.

You can also find information about coloured pencils on my main website: MAKING A MARK - Coloured Pencils - information, advice and resources for artists

The Favourite Watercolour Pencils Awards! (2010 Brand Poll Results)

2010:  Which is your favourite brand of watercolour pencil?

In 2010 I introduced a new Opinion Poll to determine the best brand of Watercolour Pencil on the market at the beginning of 2010.

144 people voted during 2010 in the 2010 POLL: Which is the best watercolour pencil? on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artist to determine the best brand of watercolour pencil.

(For details of the best artist grade coloured pencils see The Favourite Coloured Pencil Awards! (2010 Brand Poll Results)

The poll is now closed and below you can find the results.  When considering the results, it needs to be remembered that

• this is a new poll and generally more reliable results are generated as more people get to hear about the poll (which is now repeated annually with a new poll starting January each year)
• not all brands are easily available in local art shops.  However all are available from online suppliers (see below for links to Art Suppliers in the UK and USA)

Having studied the results I've split the favourites into three different categories

• The Favourite Watercolour Pencil in 2010 - Faber Castell Albrecht Durer
• The Favourite Woodless Watercolour Pencil in 2010 - Joint Winner Caran d'Ache Neocolor and Derwent Aquatone
• The Favourite brand of Watercolour Media in 2010 - Joint Winners: Derwent and Faber Castell

Faber Castell's Albrecht Durer is the pencil of choice with 34% of respondents choosing this pencil over the next most popular pencil the Derwent Inktense (20%).  This means that Faber Castell - by focusing on a single pencil for both artist grade and watercolour pencils - has won both both polls.

However while Faber Castell tends to offer just one brand of pencils, Derwent manufacture a range.  Derwent tied with Faber Castell for the manufacturer producing the most popular watercolour media in pencil form.  Each attracted 34% of respondents choosing their brand of watersoluble media.  (see the table below which totals the results by manufacturer).

Watercolour Pencil Manufacturers	2010
(all brands)	%
Caran d’Ache (all brands)	20.9
Cretacolor	1.4
Derwent ( all brands)	34
Faber Castell Polychromos	34
Lyra Rembrandt	4.9
Sanford Prismacolor	4.9
Royal Talens van Gogh	0
	100.1

Table: Total of % of all respondents
per manufacturer of water soluble coloured pencil media

Essentially the marketplace for watercolour pencils is a three horse race with Caran d'Ache putting in a very respecetable showing in 3rd place with over 20% of market share.

The results also indicate that wood pencils are more popular than woodless pencils.

There is a tie for the most popular woodless pencil between the Cretacolor Aqua Monolith and the Derwent Aquatone - both of which had 4.2@ of the vote.

The most noticeable result of the Poll is how much more popular artist grade pencils are over the watercolour versions.  I wonder if this is because it's possible to dilute all artist grade pencils using solvent?

Those using watercolour pencils will be interested to know that the CPSA test the lightfastness of all watercolor pencils and provide the results in their CPSA - Lightfastness Test Result Workbook Version 6

Links:

• Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists - WATERCOLOUR PENCILS - BRAND INFORMATION
• Making A Mark - The Favourite Coloured Pencil Awards! (2010 Brand Poll Results)
• Art Supplies in the USA - Resources for Artists 
• Art Supplies in the UK - Resources for Artists 

The Favourite Coloured Pencil Awards! (2010 Brand Poll Results)

760 people voted during 2010 in the 2010 POLL: Which is the best brand of artist grade coloured pencil? to determine which is the best brand of artist grade coloured pencil? on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artist.

The poll is now closed and below you can find the results

Having studied the results I've split the favourites into three different categories

• The Favourite Coloured Pencil in 2010 - Faber Castell Polychromos
• The Favourite Lightfast (6901) Coloured Pencil  in 2010 - Caran d'Ache Luminance
• The Favourite brand of Coloured Pencil Media in 2010 - Sanford Prismacolor

Which is your current favourite brand of artist grade coloured pencil?
2010 Opinion Poll from Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists

Key points:

• 760 artists voted during  2010 compared to 792 in 2009
• in 2010 the different brands of pencil were disaggregated under each manufacturer
• Prismacolor appears to be ahead of Faber Castell as a brand leader - however 10% of that lead is accounted for by the woodless coloured pencils Art Stix (which are also marketed to pastel artists)
• the favourite brand of coloured pencil is Faber Castell Polychromos
• the favourite brand of Lightfast coloured pencil is Caran d'Ache Luminance

You can see the 2009 results below and in Two new coloured pencil opinion polls for 2010 which has a chart for the previous poll

Coloured Pencil Manufacturers (all brands)	2009	2010	Increase / (decrease)
	%	%
Bruynzeel	1.1	0.0	-1.1
Blick Studio Artists	0.0	2.0	2
Caran d’Ache (all brands)	10.4	10.7	0.3
Derwent ( all brands)	22.5	21.3	-1.2
Faber Castell Polychromos	27.3	26.4	-0.9
Lyra Rembrandt	7.2	4.2	-3
Sanford Prismacolor (all brands)	29.4	32.6	3.2
Royal Talens van Gogh	2.0	2.8	0.8
	99.9	100.0	0.1

 
Note:  There's a rounding error in the 2009 total

Commentary

Most of the percentage changes are minor apart from those relating to the smaller brands.

I'm hoping nothing happens to Lyra Rembrandt which is one of my favourite brands of pencils.  They mix extremely well with Faber Castell Polychromos

Caran d'Ache Luminance (6901) appear to have succeeded in capturing significant market share where previous brands of lightfast pencils to the ASTM 6901 standard have not.  This is despite being the most expensive coloured pencil on the planet!

I'm guessing here - but I do wonder whether the significant presence of Art Stix in the 2010 Poll may be due to one or more of four factors and significant changes in the way coloured pencil media is laid down

• easier to use for those wanting to use solvents with their coloured pencil media
• easier to use for those wanting to use heat with their coloured pencil media
• easier to use for those working on larger pictures
• multiple marketing - they are also bought by pastel artist

Do let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Do SUBSCRIBE if you'd like to be kept informed about the other Poll results for 2010 

and reviews of art products and art books in 2011.  

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