I tried them on Canson Velvet paper for details after painting with regular pastels. They were too hard. I couldn't get color to stick on the paper. I am very disappointed in these pastel pencils. I also tried to remove the labels and cannot so far. I lent them to a friend to use, and will try again, but I was not impressed.
Jan Fead04/19/2026 18:49
"Great assortment of portable hard pastels"
These half sticks have an excellent range. They are in two stacking trays in a magnetically closed box, easy and safe to carry. The sticks are hard and brittle but they fill a niche. Good for making faint underlaying sketches. They lift easily with kneaded eraser. When I want crisp marks, I push the sticks, driving color into the surface. Dragging them doesn’t leave as bold a mark. Sanded paper works best.
Timothy Hutchinson04/18/2026 14:42
"Great colors, but a little too hard"
The colors are fantastic, but the pencils are more like a nupastel. More like a crayon. I was hoping to use them to add detail to my soft pastel painting, but they don’t show up very well. Might work better with oil pastels.