2013 POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels?

I'm monitoring your favoured brands of pastel and I'd appreciate it if all pastel artists click this link 2013 POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels? to visit my website Pastels - Resources for Artists and vote on the BRAND NEW POLL for your current favourite make of soft pastel.

Is it the same as in previous years or have you switched allegiance recently?

Kremer Soft Pastels

I've edited the choice of soft pastels this year to those which are currently available in open stock and rated as artist grade soft pastels. That means:

PASTELS ADDED

• Blue Earth (available from Dakota Pastels) and 
• Kremer Pastels (available from Kremer Pigmente - and Jackson Art in UK)

PASTELS DROPPED

• Blick (student grade), and 
• Winsor & Newton (no longer listed as an available product as per 2013 website)

PASTELS AMALGAMATED

• I've amalgamated all the different Diane Townsend Pastels into one category

You can see the trends in terms of the popularity of different makes of soft pastels in yesterday's post Unison is still favourite artist grade soft pastel.

Unison certainly take some beating - they've been top in each one of the four polls I've run to date - however the ranking of the top five pastels changes on a regular basis.

Unison is still favourite artist grade soft pastel

Unison Colour's Soft Pastels are still pastel artists' favourite brand of soft pastels.  The image below is of the poll results after 445 people voted between January 2011 and May 2013.

The chart comes from the opinion poll which asked this question in a poll held on my Pastels - Resources for Artists website.  Only soft pastels available at the beginning of January 2011 were listed (alphabetically) in the poll.

The top three brands of soft pastels are all made in Europe.  They were:

• Unison (18%)
• Sennelier (13%)
• Schminke (9%)

Others which did well included Talens Rembrandt (8%); Terry Ludwig (6%); Winsor & Newton (6%) and Girault (5%).

As in previous polls a lot of smaller brands have carved out a niche and have some support - generally around 2-3%

Soft Pastels Popularity - Trend analysis

Here's what the trends in terms of poll results have looked like over the last 4 times I've reported on which are the favourite brands of soft pastel.

• As you can see Unison has averaged c.20% +/- 2% and has consistently topped the poll for the last 6 years.  
• Sennelier has continues to maintain its lead over Schminke
• Talens Rembrandt continues to challenge for third place - but isn't achieving at the moment
• Terry Ludwig continues to lead the USA 'pack' of artisan pastel makers

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

Notes:

1. the 2006-09 poll was run continuously for three years and had 
2. the 2010 Poll ran for a year and had 361 responses
3. the 2011 Poll was checked in February 2012 and had 252 responses - so the poll was left to run until the end of 2012.  
4. The 2011-12 Poll was not various reasons led to the final tot-up to this poll not happening until now (mid-May 2013)
5. The 2013 Poll will not be a full year and may run until the end of 2014.

Previous Polls

• Soft Pastels: What's your favourite make? (2011 results)
• Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? (2010 Poll Results)
• Opinion Poll: Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? (200609 results)

Unison Pastels

Unison Pastels - Resources for Pastel Artists is the website I created after Unison came top of the first three polls.  It provides more links to information about the pastels and the products available.  You can see pictures of the shades available - and what I've produced while using them.