What are pastel pencils?

Pastel pencils are a form of pastel encased in wood (as with most pencils). To give it colour, the pastel core contains pigment and it also contains binders (usually including chalk) for body. This element is what differentiates the pastel pencils from the pencils in our best coloured pencils list. Ordinary pencils use wax with other binders rather than chalk.

What's the best pastel pencil brand?

There are various brands of pastel pencils that we'd recommend, but our top pick for professionals is Caran d'Ache. Our favourite intermediate pick comes from Koh-l-Noor and we also rate Cretacolor, Stablio, Faber Castell and Derwent.

The best pastel pencils

(Image credit: Caran d’Ache / Cretacolor / Koh-I-Noor)

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Best pastel pencils
FAQs
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The best pastel pencils offer the soft, blendable colour of pastels but in a familiar and user-friendly pencil form. This makes them easier to handle and control, both for beginners and more experienced artists, and they're less messy, too.

Below, we've gathered together the best pastel pencils on the market for a variety of uses. To compile this list, we've got hands-on with a wide range of pencils and evaluated them in terms of binding, application, lightfastness, and more. Our testing process is rigorous and involves a variety of drawing techniques, along with a range of different canvas types.

Product shot of some of the best pastel pencils, Caran d’Ache Pastel Pencils Best pro

01. Caran d’Ache Pastel Pencils

Quality: professional
Quantity: 12–84

The 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. The hexagonal barrel means the pencil won’t roll away, and the wood is smooth and easy to cut.

Product shot of some of the best pastel pencils, Cretacolor pastel pencils Best for details

02. Cretacolor Pastel Pencils

Quality: professional
Quantity: 12 – 74

On the firmer side, these have a smooth, chalky feel. They're easy to sharpen to a good point and keep a point for longer than many others, putting them among the best pastel pencils for fine details. The colour intensity is also excellent. They tend not to blend so readily, though they transfer to the surface well. The core is a little fragile.

Product shot of some of the best pastel pencils, Koh-I-Noor Gioconda Artists Soft Pastel Pencil Best soft

03. Koh-I-Noor Gioconda Soft Pastel Pencils

Quality: intermediate
Quantity: 12 – 48

Koh-I-Noor’s are the best soft pastel pencils I’ve used. They're bright and blend readily, though with some loss of intensity. With only 48 pencils, the range is narrow but offers enough for most artists. For the price, the colour is surprisingly intense and most are lightfast. The casing is good and easy to sharpen with a blade but narrow and strong enough for a sharpener.

Product shot of some of the best pastel pencils, Stabilo pastel pencils Best blending

04. Stablio CarbOthello

Quality: intermediate
Quantity: 12 – 63

These have a chalky feel, though I find them quite smooth going down. They blend reasonably well and leave nice, dense colour, putting them among the best pastel pencils to balance intensity and easy blending. Because of their softness, they tend to wear quite quickly and produce a fair bit of dust, so they suit bolder marks (see our full Stablio CarbOthello review for more details).

Product shot of some of the best pastel pencils, Faber Castell pastel pencils Best value

05. Faber Castell Pitt Pastels

Quality: professional
Quantity: 3 – 60

This versatile option performs well for the price point. They feel quite smooth, are well pigmented and lay down colour fairly well – they do need a bit more pressure to produce dense marks, though. This means they can get a bit dusty. In terms of softness, Pitt pastels sit somewhere in the middle: hard enough to hold a reasonable point but soft enough to blend a bit.

Product shot of some of the best pastel pencils, Best combining

06. Derwent Pastel Pencils

Quality: intermediate
Quantity: 6 – 72

This softer option has a slightly chalky feel more like a traditional pastel. They readily transfer pigment on a variety of surfaces and are particularly good at blending. The round wood binding is smooth and easy to cut through. The core may be a bit too brittle to use with the range’s sharpener, so I recommend a blade. It's a versatile, malleable option that feels closer to a pastel block – good to combine with other media.

conte a paris pastel pencils and box Best for thick marks

07. Conté à Paris pastel pencils

Quality: intermediate
Quantity: 84

Conté à Paris pastel pencils are quite a chunky pencil that is roughly in the middle regarding softness and blending. They are particularly useful for the range of marks they can make, as the thicker core can produce broader lines. They also blend quite well. They are a bit tricky to sharpen, though.

pastel pencils and box Best for firm lines

08. General's multipastel chalk pastels

Quality: student
Quantity: 36

General’s multipastel pencils are chalkier than some others, with a much firmer core. The hardness means that they hold their point well and require less sharpening. This makes them capable of producing some really fine details. In terms of colour, these can seem a bit washed out. The hardness also means that these pencils don’t blend much.

What are the benefits of using pastel pencils?

The wooden casing of pastel pencils allows for finer details and sharper lines compared to bulkier soft pastels. They also create less mess and are less prone to breakage. On the downside, pastel pencils may be less vibrant than normal pastels as the pigment concentration is typically slightly lower than soft pastels. Also bear in mind that their core can break if sharpened too aggressively.

Why do my pastel pencils keep breaking?

There are a few reasons why your pastel pencils might be breaking. The most likely is that you're over-sharpening the nibs. So try using a light touch when sharpening your nibs in future and avoid exerting too much pressure on them. Also be aware than standard pencil sharpeners can be too harsh, so use a knife instead, or a specialist sharpener designed for larger cores. Finally, high temperatures can affect the nib's integrity so make sure you store your pencils in a cool, dry place.

Picking the best pastel pencils for you will depend a lot on your working style. You may want to compromise between softness and how much the pencil can blend versus being firm enough to produce crisp lines. If you have a more expressive or painterly drawing style, opt for soft pastel pencils, and if you are more interested in fine details, look for ones on the harder side (note that all pastel pencils tend to be harder than conventional soft pastels and should produce less mess).

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.

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Lancelot Richardson is an artist, painter, and freelance illustrator based in Brighton, UK. He tutors life drawing at independent art school Draw Brighton, and teaches in their online Patreon courses. He is also a freelance writer, producing articles on art and drawing. He works in both traditional and digital mediums.

With contributions from

Rosie Hilder

The best pastel pencils