Nu Pastel by Prismacolor

[Greg]

Has anyone ever used the Nu Pastels? If so, how do they compare with soft pastels? Do they lay down smoothly? How about the dust level? Can they mix with Colored Pencil, or soft pastels? Or should they be used by themselves?

[artfulscribe]

I don't really use them much (or pastels, in general), but they are a bit harder than soft pastels (I like this aspect...hold an edge really well), and yes, they can be used with both colored pencils and soft pastels. You can also drag a wet brush through it for some neat effects. They're very versatile! I don't find that they produce a ton of dust...no more than any other pastel, anyway.

Roxana

[Rose]

Greg,

I have a box of 12 I have never used... if you'd like them, I'll send them to you.. just give me your addy! There is one broken one, the black one... but I promise I'll wrap the package real good so none of the others break. It came like that to me. :-) Consider it an early Christmas/belated birthday present! :-) :D

[christine]

Hi Greg,

I have used Nu Pastels -- I use them under my rembrandt (soft) pastels, as the good soft pastels are so expensive. I found the dust level to be just as high as most pastels -- other than oil pastels that is -- it was recommended to me as a "student grade" and provided a nice introduction for pastels. I had a difficult time getting that nice buttery effect, so use them only under the soft ones. I have tried softer pastels under colored pencils, but was unhappy with the results for my work. Guess we are all different!

Good luck with them,

Christine

[Greg]

Thanks Christine. I may give them a shot. I can't see pastels as ever becoming my major medium, but I do enjoy changing up a bit now and then and doing different things. I'm also becoming increasingly interested in mixed medium type works..... such as pastel and CP - and also watercolor Pencils and CP

[Toni]

Hey Greg,

I found the same thing Christine did. They are a "harder" soft pastel, same dust, not quite as rich color as I get from my expensive pastels. You can get a sharper line from them, and the size is nice to work with.

I don't know that they've ever been discribed as student grade for me, but thats a good description. I bought a small box set.. but I know they have them avail in open stock here too. That makes them nice.

A true quality soft pastel is rather expensive and so buttery (yeah i know what the h*** does that really mean anyway...well it's a phrase unlike any other to describe how the pastels glide onto the paper & layers. I know, as a pencil artist I thought there has to be better way to say this.. but NOPE, I was wrong.. buttery works the best! No other description comes close) that it's a sheer joy just to work with them.

No reason you can't mix your pastels and your cp..or your cp and watercolor or cp and whatever.... the only limit is your imagination. And of course.. learning the techniques to make the mixed medias a success. :D

good luck

TJ

[Greg]

Hey Greg,

I found the same thing Christine did. They are a "harder" soft pastel, same dust, not quite as rich color as I get from my expensive pastels. You can get a sharper line from them, and the size is nice to work with.

I don't know that they've ever been discribed as student grade for me, but thats a good description. I bought a small box set.. but I know they have them avail in open stock here too. That makes them nice.

A true quality soft pastel is rather expensive and so buttery (yeah i know what the h*** does that really mean anyway...well it's a phrase unlike any other to describe how the pastels glide onto the paper & layers. I know, as a pencil artist I thought there has to be better way to say this.. but NOPE, I was wrong.. buttery works the best! No other description comes close) that it's a sheer joy just to work with them.

No reason you can't mix your pastels and your cp..or your cp and watercolor or cp and whatever.... the only limit is your imagination. And of course.. learning the techniques to make the mixed medias a success. :D

good luck

TJ

Hi TJ. Thanks for the input. I bought a cheap set of pastels at Hobby Lobby a few months ago. They were made by Gallery. Have you ever heard of them? Anyway, I hated them. They were ALL dust. Yeah, I'm more interested in effects that I can get from pastel, rather than doing pure pastel. Buttery..... hmmmm.... that's a good description. The Gallery's went on hard and scratchy.

[gail]

Hey Greg, I use Nu Pastels for their dust! I grind them up and rub into the paper (Stonedhenge) with tissues, then remove the loose dust. They kind of "stain" the paper yet let the texture show through. After a light coat of fixative I then work in Prisma Pencil. I like the fact that the colors are the same as Prismas and the dust seems a little less messy to me than other pastels.

It might be true that the color isn't as rich, but in this case I'm not going for that reflective quailty that pastels usually have, so it ends up looking more like CP. (Plus it's kind of fun making a mess and covering large areas!)

Gail

[Greg]

You know, I never would have thought of that Gail. Thanks. I've got some cheapie pastels also at home that I may be able to use for the same thing too. I'd rather use the Nu-Pastels though.

[Nancy]

Hey Greg!!

I bought some nupastels recently. I bought 12 of them through open stock. I knew they were harder pastels, but I wanted to try them anyway. I used them on a horse painting I am currently working on. I'm in the process of posting it in this forum.

I like these pastels very much. I used them on suede board, so the dust level is way down. I like that I can get a good edge with them for more detail work. I tried using some prismas with them once, but it didn't work very well. What works with them is pastel pencils. I use Conte and Faber-Castell pastel pencils. These pencils allow you to get the details into your picture beautifully, yet they blend right into the nu-pastels very well. I think the kind of pastels you tried were probably chalk pastels. The cheaps ones often are that kind. Maybe it was Alphacolors that you tried. I have a cheapo set of Reeves pastel sticks. They're okay I guess, but not great. I'm planning on getting a 15 half-stick set of Rembrandts as soon as I have the money. Rembrandts are really too soft for what I want to do with them, but I can't afford the ones I really want. :(

I think the dust level of pastels kind of depends on what surface you're putting them on. I tend to use velour and suede, which eats up the pastel. I haven't yet used them on Mi-Tientes, which I plan on doing soon. I expect the dust level to increase significantly then.

You should give pastels a try Greg. They are fun to use, but I have found that I need to force myself to go back and concentrate on my cp artwork so I can learn more about them. I want to master cp's. THEN I can master pastels. In the meantime, I figure I can work with both, but primarily cp's.

[artsee-fartsee]

Ditto to all of the above Greg. I like them and also use them on suede mat board, which, by the way you can by at Ziegler's Frames in Tulsa and also on velour paper. No dust that way. I actually use them to enhance colored pencil. I bought some cheapies at Hobby Lobby too, they are Mungo's, and actually really like them. Some of the colors are really neat and haven't found them with the more expensive brands.
Sheila :bye1:

[Greg]

Thanks Nancy and Sheila. I'm going to give them a shot. I'm excited to try them.


And, Thank you Rose for sending me a box of Nu-Pastels, as well as pastel pencils!! I got them in the mail today. That was very nice of you!!!!!

[Rose]

You're most welcome Greg!!! Please post a pic when you have tried them out! :-) :D

[Greg]

You're most welcome Greg!!! Please post a pic when you have tried them out! :-) :D

I posted the pic My Piece of Heaven using the Nu Pastels. I really like them. I used it for background and it helped me in getting better saturation. I've noticed something though. Both pieces I've done using some pastel seemed to have trouble with the scan. They came out very dark. Would that be because you lose some of the transparent nature of CP?

Thanks again for sending them Rose. :)

[Fern]

Greg,

I have a full set of NuPastels and use them all the time, mainly on my first layers. I find them very pleasant to work with; neither too hard or too soft and not as dusty as my Senneliers or Rembrandts. They are also reasonably priced and a good place to start for someone who isn't sure about buying a full set of pastels. Many professional pastellists use them.

[Greg]

Greg,

I have a full set of NuPastels and use them all the time, mainly on my first layers. I find them very pleasant to work with; neither too hard or too soft and not as dusty as my Senneliers or Rembrandts. They are also reasonably priced and a good place to start for someone who isn't sure about buying a full set of pastels. Many professional pastellists use them.

Hi Fern. I apologize that I have just now seen your post. I really liked the effect that I got with NuPastels on my first try. I am going to try to get some more colors in Open Stock.