Faber-Castell 72 Soft Pastel

These pastels are good starter or beginner/intermediate pastels. They have high pigmentation, which is nice, but there are differences between these and top brands. One is the texture, which is softer than hard pastels, but not as workable as really soft pastels, and not the same as expensive pastels. Expensive pastels also have more muted colors, custom colors, and more dark-to-light value ranges of colors in their sets. These are messy like other student brands of pastels; that’s unavoidable unless you use unpleasantly hard pastels, but the pigmentation is notably superior compared to other student brands. Compared to the expensive pastels, these don’t have delicacy of softness or the touch of the best quality. For the price, they’re quite a good choice for students and for those who are not needing the subtleties of more expensive pastels.

Beautiful colors! I learned thru trial and error to use a cotton ball or baby wipe (dryed) to apply this chalk as a soft background. If you draw on the paper and then try to rub it in for a soft effect you still have lines. And no matter how much I rubbed I could not get them out. This product is fabulous as well as all faber-castell products.

GREAT STARTER for BEGINNER ONLY. A Lot of colours to try your hand at pastel painting without the cost of "artist grade" and good coverage. It allowes you to get to know how pastels work and if it is waht you want to paint/draw in. I also have pastel pencils, "artist grade" but that is only because I got them at sale for 1/3 to 1/2 the actual cost. I loooove the pencil and really like this way of painting with pastels so once I get reasonably good will try my hand at the artist grade, if I ever get there as they are super, super expensive, like a box can run $300 to $2,000!!! And when I say paint, you actually hold the pastel in your hand as if you are drawing, but the principles are the same as if you are painting in oil paints. Also bought Munguyen but will not buy those again.I also bought "Rembrandt", which were much more expensive, and I could tell the difference.Rembrandt Soft Pastels: Starter Set, 15 Half Pastels

loved the color variety

very good item

These pastels looked beautiful in the box. Vibrant and beautiful selection. However, these are toxic and they crumble and fall apart when you work with them. What a mess!

This is a very good set of student-grade soft pastels. It has amazing color selection, and really good packaging - padding on both sides. The fact that they're half-pastels makes sure that they won't break during transportation or use. To keep fingers tidy from pigment, I wrapped the center of each of them with a thin strip of paper + tape.I am into mixed media art, thus I do not use these pastels by themselves. I apply them on top of acrylic painting, and they work great with one little exception - if the acrylic background is dark (i.e. darker than shade of pastel you plan to use on top of it), then ONLY the darker shades of pastels will be visible on top of it; while all lighter shades make no difference whatsoever. Btw, rubbing the red pastel into cheeks of dolls makes an amazing blush effect.

Very small! Nice color assortment. Pieces are 1 and quarter inch long by one quarter inch square, very small. Box they came in was about 7 by 9. Came bubble wrapped in a plastic bag type envelope. Pieces where all intact! Cannot wait to try them on pastel paper,