I use Townsend bright/florescent for underpainting. The colors seem to have the most pigment. That said, they can crumble in the Hawaiian humidity. Take care with storage. Value studies do not have to be gray scale. I can see the composition with these vibrant colors. There's a delicious unexpected color peaking through the overlay. Terages are also fun and effective.

These pastels are smooth on the paper, are consistent in color and texture. I love working with them.

Honestly, I was quite disappointed in my selection of individual Diane Townsend pastels. This isn’t a review of the pastels themselves. I love DT pastels. I was looking for a lovely assortment of lights. The colors swatches on the website showed some lovely pale and distinguishable colors. I ordered 10 sticks that I thought would be perfect for my needs. What I got was basically 9 sticks of white and a pale green. Only the green matched the color swatch. I have looked and compared and I see no barely no color difference in the other 9. It’s hard to order from a website but that is really the only choice we have for quality pastels. This isn’t even a color monitor issue. The color just isn’t there.