The price of paint

Jackson's Art Pricewatch Scheme is the sort of marketing effort by art supplies companies which impresses me. 

Jackson's Art website page for the Pricewatch Scheme

Pricewatch Scheme

Our dedicated team of price watchers will constantly check our online competitor’s prices for the most popular branded art materials so that we can guarantee that the lowest prices can always be found at Jacksonsart.com

I'm a committed buyer of goods from John Lewis and one of the reasons I do is because they promise to match the price of the same goods on sale somewhere else so that they always offer the lowest price on normal (ie not clearance) stock.

A commitment from art supplies companies to introduce a price watch comparison service has been long overdue.

The Jacksons scheme is not perfect.  They've picked popular products and very reasonably have matched it against "competitor websites chosen on the first search results for the term ‘art supplies’ on Google.co.uk"

Which means it doesn't cover every product and it doesn't cover every competitor - but it's a start.

It could also mean that art supplies companies start to look very carefully at the price they're charging and introduce a bit more competition into the marketplace.

However, one might be forgiven for not being aware that the system actually exists.  They don't exactly shout about it on the front page of their website!

In fact, it's new and if I hadn't read their 24th January blog post Price Watch scheme I wouldn't have known anything about it.

To my mind, the quality of this scheme will depend on reliable reporting and updating of prices across the board. I could imagine other art suppliers becoming very annoyed and even litigious if their prices are misrepresented in anyway - that's if the Trading Standards people don't get there first!

My conclusion is that it's good to see somebody trying this approach - let's see how it works in practice before arriving at any conclusions about the scheme as a whole.

Cost of shipping

My normal caution to individual artists when comparing prices for art materials is 'ALWAYS look at the cost of shipping' because of the scope for suppliers to balance losses on cutprice goods with premiums on shipping costs.  I've certainly spotted suppliers in the past who have operated according to this strategy.

In this instance I note Jackson's Shipping Information indicates all shipping - at UK standard postage rates - is free once you've topped £39.  The usual sort of premiums apply to the Islands and Ireland.

2014 POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels?

The new 2014 POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade soft pastels? is now open to voting - by pastel artists - on my website Pastels - Resources for Artists.

It will run for the whole of 2014 and I'll do a report on the results at the end of the year (eg see
The Top Five Soft Pastels in 2013)

You can also vote in the polls on:

• POLL: Which is your favourite brand of dark pastels?
• POLL: Which is your favourite make of hard pastel?
• POLL: Which brand of pastel paper or other support do you like best for pastels?

Do please also leave any comments as to why you like what you like best.

Below is a photograph of two sets of Henri Roche pastels which somebody won at the last annual exhibition of The Pastel Society which I was reviewing.

The Discovery and Earth set of Henri Roche soft pastels
possibly the most expensive pastels in the world

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)

The Top Five Artists' Watercolour Paints in 2013

Personal preferences were expressed in the product review poll "Which are the best artist-quality watercolour paints? (2012 / 13)" on my website Which is the best brand of watercolour paint for artists?

The chart below records the results of 360 responses.

Derived from
Which are the best artist-quality
watercolour paints? (2012 / 13)

The TOP FIVE WATERCOLOUR PAINTS IN 2013 are:

1. Winsor & Newton - 27%
2. M. Graham Watercolour Paints - 11%
3. Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints - 10%
4. Fine Schminke Horadam Aquarell - 9%
5. Sennelier Aquarelle Extra - 8%

It's basically Winsor & Newton way out in front and then four brands - two American and two European - bringing in the next significant group of artist grade paints.

Those who are unfamiliar with M. Graham Watercolor Paints may be surprised they came second. However you should note:

• Reviews of these paints generally provide high praise for the quality, saturation and lightfastness
• 95% of those buying this paint from Dick Blicks would recommend them to a friend.
• The Wilcox Guide to the Finest Watercolours gave high ratings to these paints across the watercolour range.

Below that most paints got little or no support of significance - although there is a good spread of those that did get votes

The chart below reflects the paints in the poll in alphabetical order - and indicates the percentage of the vote each attracted.

The ranking of different brands of paint - in percentage order - follows the chart

Ranking of Watercolour Paints

This is the final ranking for the 2012-13 Poll to identify

• 27% - Winsor and Newton Artists Watercolours 
• 11% - M. Graham Watercolor Paints
• 10% - Daniel Smith Watercolor Paints 
• 9% - Fine Schminke Horadam Aquarell
• 8% - Sennelier Aquarelle Extra
• 6% - Holbein Artists Watercolor
• 3% - Royal Talens
• Rembrandt
• St. Petersburg Watercolors
• 2%
• Daler Rowney Artists Watercolours 
• Kremer Pigmente Watercolors
• 1% 
• Da Vinci
• Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolor Paints
• Grumbacher Watercolor - Finest
• Lukas Aquarell
• Maimeri Blu
• Mijello Mission Gold Watercolors
• Royal Talens - Van Gogh
• Shin Han Premium Watercolors

The following paints failed to get a vote:

• Art Spectrum Artists Watercolours
• Blockx Extra Fine Watercolors
• Holbein Irodori Antique Watercolor
• Old Holland Classic Watercolours
• Pebeo Fragonard Extra-Fine Artists' Watercolors
• Robert Doak's Concentrated Watercolors
• Stephen Quiller Watercolors
• Utrecht Artists' Watercolors

I'll be posting a new Poll for 2014 in the next few days.

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.

Unison Pastels - Colour Charts

I came across an offer of three handmade laminated colour charts for Unison Pastels made by Unison Colour this morning.  It struck me I'd never done a post about Unison Pastels colour charts - so here it is!

Colour charts - and colour charts for pastels

Colour charts are available in a number of different ways.

• printed - needs to be matched to CMYK colours to get the colours right
• digital file - to be viewed on screen hence needs to be matched to the RGB colours (but then it will be wrong if printed out as it won't be set up for a CMYK colour scheme!)
• handmade - "as is"

See my Colour Theory for Artists site for the RGB (light) and CMYK (print) processes referenced above.

Inevitably, a printed colour chart is easy to produce but does not always match up with real colour.  This is one of the reasons why Old Holland Oil Colours have a hand painted colour strip on each tube of paint - so that the purchaser of an expensive paint can see the real colour when laid down.  It's why some manufacturers produce hand-coloured paint charts.

However when it comes to pastels there's a problem.  A hand-coloured chart cannot be stored either by the retailer or the consumer as the pastel will be rubbed off.  One pinned up in a studio will come to no harm - but these are probably best produced by the artist for the colour range they use.

Unison Pastel Colour Charts

Normally I access colour charts for Unison Pastels by looking at their website.  Unison have colour charts available as a printed chart (which you can obtain by emailing them) and on-screen colour indexed charts.  Both sets of charts are for their:

Unison Pastels - Colour Charts

Colour Sets

• Orange 1-18
• Red 1-18
• Red Earth 1-18
• Yellow 1-18
• Brown Earth 1-18
• Green 1-36
• YGE 1-18
• BGE 1-18
• Blue Green 1-18
• Blue Violet 1-18
• Grey 1-36
• Additional 1 - 18
• Additional 19-54
• Dark 1-18
• Light 1-18
• Special Collection
• Portrait 1-12
• Turquoise 1-6
• Natural Earth 1-18
• Heavenly Shadows

AND for their

Selection Sets

• Starter 8
• Portrait 8
• Landscape 8
• Bright 8
• Light 8
• Dark 8
• Starter 18
• Portrait 18
• Landscape 18
• Starter 36
• Portrait 36
• Landscape 36
• Starter 72
• Landscape 72
• Portrait 72 (UK & EUROPE)

AND for their

Half Stick Sets

• Half Stick 16 Set
• Half Stick 30 Set
• Half Stick 63 Set

Retailers' sets

I never buy retailer's sets unless I can see the index number itemised for every colour in the set - on the basis I've probably already got them!

JACKSON ARTS

A couple of special selection sets are available via Jackson Art where they provide good images of the colours - but no listing as to the index numbers of the colours chosen.

John's Set is apparently a set of the last colours that John Hersey made prior to his death.

The Ann Oram Set of 30 Half Sticks is new and you can read about it here on the Jackson Arts Blog - New Ann Oram Unison Soft Pastels Set.  Ann Oram taught a still life worksop at Unison's in Northumberland in 2012.

Colour Chart by photograph: 
Unison Pastels - Southwest Colors 

DICK BLICK

Dick Blick in the USA are excellent at listing the sets and associated index numbers of all pastels in each set that they stock.  They also list a number of sets which are available in the USA but not in the UK (see below)

Colour charts are available via photographs of the different sets in which the colour index number can be clearly seen. I'm not sure they have photographs for all the sets they retail.

Here, for example is the Southwest Colors set which is one I nearly bought in 2006 when making a trip out to the South Western States of the USA (see USA Sketchbook - Southwestern States (2006))

The sets they list include:

Portrait Colors: African American | Asian | Caucasian | Latino | Mediterranean | Native American | Portrait Eye Colors

Landscape Colors: Desert Sunset | Northern Sunrise | Polar Ocean | Tropical Ocean | Southwest Colors (includes the Turquoise set of 6)

Artists Colors: Brenda Mattson Portrait

JACK RICHESON

Jack Richeson has a printed color chart of all 402 colours (pdf file) that he stocks.  He uses it to relate the Unison names for Colour Sets to the sets he stocks.  On screen it looks like a pretty good match with the colours in the Unison sets.

Glyn Rand Colour Charts

This morning I discovered the existence of the handmade laminated colour charts for Unison Pastels made by Glyn Rand. He emphasises that his  product is neither affiliated to Unison Colour, nor is it endorsed by them.

A handmade chart gets round the difficulties associated with the RGB/CMYK processes which have to translate colour in reality into another medium of vision or print.

By completing the charts using the pastels and then laminating the charts, these should in theory be the best match with various Unison Pastels.

However there is a BUT....

Actually there are two BUTs....

Unison Pastels - Glyn Rand Colour Charts (Size A3 x 3)

The "But" is because my conclusion about this product is essentially "Nice idea, shame about the execution - and the price".

Why?

BUT.... #1

Well, the charts are NOT set up diagrammatically to provide a clear index of each 18 colour set.  Instead of 18 colours in a vertical column Glyn has chosen to go with just 16.  This means that:

• the colour sets are spread across different columns.  
• all the values are mixed up.  If looking for a light tone and colour you can't scan the bottom of the chart and the light set - as the lights are all over the place.

This would personally drive me absolutely potty and I couldn't look at them - I like my colours rigidly organised according to colour and tone because that allows me to work in an effective way.

In fact every pastel artist I've ever known had all their pastels organised on two dimensions - by colour and tone.  I can't think of any reason why any of them would want a colour chart which wasn't organised in the same way.

BUT.... #2

Personally I think the price of £30 for the three charts is a bit steep when one considers that a laminating machine for A3 paper only costs around about £30 on Amazon!  I don't think a product should ever prompt one to think about buying the kit required to produce the end product rather than the product itself!

If you've already got a lot of Unison Pastels - as I have - I'm drawn to conclude that :

• if you're not bothered by tonal values being all mixed up and don't think you'd have any use for a laminating machine - have a think about the charts
• produce your own if:
• you don't like your tonal values mixed up.....
• and/or think you could find a laminating machine useful

More about Pastels

You can read more about Pastels on my websites

• Pastels - Resources for Artists
• Pastel Paper and Pastel Boards
• Unison Pastels - Resources for Artists
• Pastel Societies - Resources for Artists

Derwent announces NEW helical pencil sharpeners

I'm a huge fan of pencil sharpeners with helical blades.  These are the ones which have a helical blade - that's the one where the cutting edge of the blade spirals around a core.  The reason I like them is because they cut cleanly, efficiently and very effectively.  The best points I've ever got have been produced by a pencil sharpener with a helical blade.

Three years ago Derwent produced a battery powered helical pencil sharpener which I did not recommend.  There were just too many problems (see (Product review: Derwent Battery Operated Helical Pencil Sharpener) 

However having been through that experience, I know they were working hard to understand why the problems had occurred.  As a result, although I've not see one yet, I'm confident that this next batch will be much better.  This time they've kept the helical blade but gone for the old fashioned hand crank rather than batter power.

NEW Product - Derwent Helical Pencil Sharpener - Super Point and Super Point Mini
I've not seen one yet.  This is what you need to look out for.

NEW! Derwent Helical Pencil Sharpener - Super Point and Super Point Mini
(note the hand crank i.e. NOT battery powered)

Features and Facts

Features common to both sharpeners

• each sharpener has a durable helical blade.  This SHOULD enable you to sharpens pencils to fine points typically used for fine detail work.
• both sharpeners can take pencils up to 8mm in diameter 
• Shavings are collected in a transparent sliding tray reservoir.  Derwent says this is easy to empty. 
• each sharpener comes with a desk clamp.
• both pencil sharpeners come with a hand crank (the old ones had battery power)

I haven't got a clue what this mean "The extendable front plate has a self feeding mechanism which stops when the pencil has reached a superb point." as there are no photographs to demonstrate.  I think it means it has an auto-stop.

Super Point Manual Helical Sharpener

• made of black metal which makes this both heavier and more robust
• Super Point costs £21.95

Super Point Mini Helical Sharpener

• lighter and a more compact shape
• Super Point Mini costs £14.95

Beware of trying to buying these sharpeners on Amazon.  

• The ones listed at present are the battery powered versions which I covered in my review - which simply are not reliable and do not work well.  
• Look for the date the battery was introduced.  If it's not 2013 then it's one of the old ones.

Product reviews of Pencil Sharpeners

Below you can find my product reviews of pencil sharpeners.  I tend to err towards only reviewing products that I either do or do not recommend.

• Product Review: KUM Automatic Long Point Pencil Sharpener - An excellent manual pencil sharpener for those who like their pencil leads to have a long point.
• Product Review - Round Solid Brass Double-Hole Pencil Sharpener - This is my favourite handheld sharpener. It is well designed, easy to hold, performs double duty and its weight means that it doesn't get lost easily. The compact size also means it fits easily into pencil cases.
• Product review: Derwent Battery Operated Helical Pencil Sharpener - I've tried two and neither have worked properly. I've also heard from a fair few fellow pencil artists of various degrees of experience who have also tried this sharpener and also had problems. I'm not happy and I know Derwent is trying to find out why the problems are happening. This is NOT a recommended purchase.
• Product review: Jakar Electric Pencil Sharpener - a very efficient and effective pencil sharpener which can, with care, be used with coloured pencils. Needs to be fed pure graphite sticks periodically to be kept really happy. It works well with all brands of pencil. I find the oil based brands achieve the best points.

The Best Art Supplies Stores in New York

Yesterday, I added a new section The Best Art Supplies Stores in New York to my 'resoources for artists' website USA: Art Supply Stores & Online Art Supplies

Pearl Paint, 308 Canal Street, TriBeCa, New York NY 10013

I've constructed the section by reviewing what I can find online.  

The thing is - I KNOW I've read excellent reviews by art bloggers in the past about different art materials stores in New York - but I simply can't find them!  It's driving me potty!

Have people stopped writing reviews of art supplies stores in New York or has Google stopped identifying them?  The only ones I've found so far are the Handprint reviews of retailers which include three reviews of stores in NYC.

Anyway I'd like to develop this section to include a poll, links to reviews and a map on the website to help people visiting New York.  However first I'd like to be clearer as to the relative ranking of the top ten stores - so I can construct my top 10 poll!   My initial conclusions to date are:

• Pearl Paint in Lower Manhattan, between Tribeca, SoHo and Chinatown probably gets the most visitors and certainly gets the most reviews - but it also gets quite a lot of dissatisfied customers.  
• Dick Blick in NoHo, Manhattan gets the most favourable reviews and is actually the top art materials store on Yelp.  Plus points are well laid out store makes it easy to find what you want and helpful staff
• New York Central Art Supply between Green Village and the East Village is very much the "go to" store for fine art paper

So I'd like to ask you two questions:

• Which are your top three art supplies stores in New York? Please leave the names and locations of your top three as a comment
• Have you written a review of any of them?  If so please leave a comment with the URL of your blog post and I'll link to it or reference it.

I'll then add in a poll to the website and more links to reviews of the different recommended stores.

The Big Watercolour Debate - Tubes versus Pans

I've added a new section into Which is the best brand of watercolour paint for artists? - my new "resources for artists" website.

Watercolour paints - tubes and pans. 
Brands represented here include
Winsor & Newton, Rembrandt Van Gogh, Schmincke, Maimeri and LeFranc & Bourgeois

The new section Watercolour Paint: Pans versus Tubes (click to review) examines the Pans versus Tubes debate - and I've rounded up all the references I can find.  Here's three of those links examining the pros and cons of tubes versus pans by people who I rate highly - (1) Bruce McEvoy of Handprint and (2) Roz Stendhal of Roz Wound Up

• handprint : tube vs. pan watercolors
• Pans vs. Tubes? Part One - Roz Wound Up
• Pans vs. Tubes? Part Two - Roz Wound Up

If you have a preference one way or the other - or maybe like both - please vote in the Poll also on the blog - see POLL: Watercolour paints - Pans versus tubes?

If you've written online about your preferences for pans versus tubes or have reviewed the different options please let me know and I'll add a link to your blog to the new website.

Which is the best pastel ground?

There are a wide variety of pastel grounds - and I've finally got round to listing them all out in a poll to find out from pastel artists which pastel papers or pastel boards they like the best.

You can find the poll in a new "resources for artists" site I've created - Pastel Papers and Pastel Grounds

This is the link POLL: Which pastel paper or other support do you like best for pastels?

These are the options:

• Ampersand Pastelbord
• Art Spectrum Colourfix Paper
• Art Spectrum Plein Air Painting Board
• Art Spectrum Suede
• Art Spectrum Supertooth
• Canford Black Pastel Paper
• Canson Mi Teintes Pastel Paper
• Canson Mi-Teintes Touch - sanded texture board
• Clairefontaine Pastelmat
• Daler Rowney Murano Pastel Paper
• Fabriano Tiziano Paper
• Fisher 400 Paper
• Hahnemuhle Bugra Paper
• Hahnemuhle Velour Pastel Papers
• Ingres Paper (various)
• Richeson Pastel Paper
• Saint-Armand Sabretooth paper
• Schminke Sansfix
• Sennelier La Carte
• St Cuthberts Mill - Somerset Pastel Paper
• Townsend Pastel Paper
• UART Archival Sanded Pastel Paper
• Wallis Archival Sanded Pastel Paper - Museum Grade
• Wallis Archival Sanded Pastel Paper - Professional Grade
• Watercolour Paper (various)
• Winsor & Newton Tints Pastel Paper
• Other (please comment below)

I'm developing a systematic analysis of the range of pastel grounds on the website according to:

• characteristics
• made of
• colours
• size
• consumer opinion

This should make it easier for people wanting to consult the site to find out which pastel ground might suit them best.

If you are a pastel artist could you please:

• vote in the poll 
• share your personal views as to the pastel ground you like the best - lave a comment below or on the website
• let me know if you've ever reviewed a pastel ground - and let me have a link to the review
• let me know if I've omitted a pastel ground which should be included in the poll!

You can find out more about pastels and other papers and supports in two related websites:

• Pastels - Resources for Artists
• Fine Art Paper and Non-Canvas Supports for Artists

Video - Sennelier Colours by Dominique Sennelier

A fascinating video of Dominique Sennelier talking about the Sennelier colours and products in one of the Sennelier shops in Paris.

Dominique is the grandson of Gustave Sennelier who started his art supply store in 1887 close to the the most famous art school in Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts.  At the beginning he only sold colours made by other manufacturers before deciding that he needed to start making his own.

Various media are discussed in the video.  Mr Sennelier mentions that the soft pastel range has "only 579 colours".  The oil stick they created was originally made for Picasso.  The formulation for egg tempera is very old as this was a very traditional type of paint and was used before oil painting.



See also my post Making a Mark Reviews: Art shop review: Magasin Sennelier, Paris.

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.