What Pastel is Right for me???? Hard VS Soft Pastels

Learn why and how pastels are graded from soft to hard pastels. Pastel artist and professional Avon Waters goes through the various pastel hardnesses and shows some of the many shapes and sizes that pastels come in.
Here's a link to the Dakota Pastel guide I mention and is a good starting point for any beginning pastel artists. www.dakotapastels.com/files/p...
While many pastels are sold with labels, Hard and Soft, they actually fall into more than these two categories; some are semi hard or soft.
Avon Explains why for one artist a pastel listed on the Dakota list might be semi soft for one artist and not semi soft for another.

[@nestormairena_0331]

THANK YOU AVON FOR YOUR INFORMING WORDS BECAUSE I USE MY PASTELS HASLF STICKS WHEN I WANT TO DO NATURE LANDSCAPES

[@PastelWithAvon]

Thank you for watching and commenting

[@kimlanoue2033]

Terry Ludwig has become my number favorite Avon since I purchased the gray set! They are the perfect balance between soft and hard!!!! Btw. I am completely out of my black-green 😂

[@PastelWithAvon]

I love them too...the Terrage, it has pumice in it and works well on drawing paper en plein air

[@LisaBliss1]

Good info! I have a variety of brands, but Unison is my favorite, but also very much like Townsend.

[@PastelWithAvon]

That’s about my order of preference too.

[@Artmumdjs]

Good job!!!

[@PastelWithAvon]

Thanks…. Lots of work to do to on camera presentation.

[@jameshuntley9674]

Super, Avon! Great to see you on here.

[@PastelWithAvon]

Thank you! 😊

[@PastelWithAvon]

Thanks….hopefully One of these will benefit some newbies. Lol

[@nicoleperron3315]

Your hard pastels look like conte sticks, when I tried pastels there was only oil and chalk that I knew of.
I hated oil but I loved chalk and I had bought some conte sticks which were hard as a rock. Even charcoal now seems to be available in a powder form, we used to make our own dust.
I use watercolors now, less mess but I do miss the rich creamy feeling of the pastels and the glow that was possible.
Curious what is wet pastels?

[@PastelWithAvon]

They do resemble conte, but way softer than Conte. Prismacolor sticks are used by the majority of pastelist as the go to for hard pastels. Arch 'd cran pastels are hard as a rock like conte but also look like these. I hope you'll continue checking back for my how-to vids and find things that will help you and friend. This summer I will be doing free paint alongs for everyone, like a painting party online

[@nicoleperron3315]

@@PastelWithAvon sounds interesting for this summer, still really curious about wet pastels 😂

[@judyferguson3185]

It is pronounced like care ‘n dash.

[@PastelWithAvon]

Thanks!!! So much!!! I've never heard it spoken aloud before. I have a video launching in a couple weeks that again mis-pronounces it as "Cran- de Arch" so don't be alarmed but now I know for future vids. thank you thank you thank you.