The best pastel pencils are a great choice for artists seeking versatility. They can be combined with traditional pastels, they're brilliant for drawing in colour and they can be great to use with mixed media. Some are even water-soluble. On this page, we've gathered the best pastel pencils on the market based on our own reviews, in which we tested them in a range of different styles of art.
In our tests, we evaluated the pencils below in terms of binding, application and lightfastness, considering how they compare to each other. For more traditional pastels, see ourThe best pastel pencils for professionals are pricey but deservedly so. Richly pigmented, nearly all 84 colours have high lightfastness ratings. Smooth going down, they leave dense colour. Harder than a soft pastel, the core is quite thick.
Another thing to consider is how easy the pencils are to sharpen. The core of a pastel pencil tends to be quite fragile, and it may be necessary to use a blade to sharpen it. Also, more expensive pastel pencil ranges generally contain more pigment, meaning the colours are brighter, and they are more likely to be lightfast, so they won’t fade over time. This is important for professional work but might be sacrificed for beginners in favour of value.
Note that one challenge of pastel pencils is the dust they produce. To stop this lingering on the page, it's a good idea to draw using one of theTo test these pencils we used them in a range of different art projects. We tested them in terms of binding application and lightfastness as well as number of colours and overall value. We also evaluated whether they'd be best suited for beginners, intermediate users or professionals.