Hi Carol Ann, a great start to your pastel journey! And yes, paper next!
I’m glad that you are of the mind to buy the best you can afford. Smaller amounts of good quality are a much better investment than many pastels of lesser quality.
And love that you are PLAYING – that’s peeeeerfect!
Glad to hear the blog posts are helpful 😊

Thanks Joanne! Great to hear you are a keen painter and motivated to get into your studio!

It was a sad day when Wallis was no longer available and we learned how much we relied on it. It sounds like you’ve tried many of the many surfaces now available, ones like UART, Pastel Premier, La Carte, PastelMat and LuxArchival. If non suit you, maybe you can experiment creating your own? Keep us posted!

I am very excited to receive all your inspiration and information. I am an oil painter and have also work with pastels. I do not have any of the difficulties you describe and I am very motivated to get into my studio daily. I am well educated with oil painting yet self taught with pastels. I love all the soft pastes, especially sennelier. I used Wallis paper and I loved it. When Wallis no longer existed my work in pastels also stopped cause I did not like any of the surfaces. So, I need help with my pastel paper and since I am self taught, I would like some direction.

Ahh Melanie, you’re so sweet!
And yes, the thought of using up supplies is, well, dreadful to consider hah hah…but at the same time, how ridiculous to save and hang on to them. It’s in the DOING that we move forward and that means, yes, using our supplies!

What a challenge – use them up? That is a struggle when the budget is in mind. But I do agree that using supplies is education and not waste.
I am drawn to painting animals so I invested in myself and bought Unison Colour Emma Colbert Animal collection which has been a good fit for me. I must say if you can afford a set it helps with colour choices initially.
Another set worth mentioning that is on my wishlist for the future is Unison Colour Gail Sibley paint anything set. What delicious looking bright clean colours.

Hi Betsy, Old sets are wonderful aren’t they? I think the Grumbacher numbers refer to their Catalogue numbering system eg 30 half-sticks or 20 sticks. Grumbacher pastels are lovely but on the harder side. Alphacolour pastels are inexpensive with little pigment. If you want softness, I suggest Unison (I have a set of 36 coming out sooooon!!!) or Sennelier half sticks or Mount Vision. There are also softer pastels but I think these are good pastels to transition you into soooffffft pastel world!

You are so welcome! And Zelda, I can’t wait to see what you do with these colourful jewels that all pastellists love!!