We have some feedback about Jackson’s Handmade Soft Pastels from pastel artists. They’ve just started using them and more extensive reviews will be coming from some of them soon!
Click Here to see the most up-to-date reviews about Jackson’s Soft Pastels.
Margaret Evans
Margaret Evans is an internationally know artist, tutor and author.
We stock several of her pastel books and DVDs here at Jackson’s.
Margaret Evans website
Margaret Evans blog
The pastels are lovely to work with – consistently soft and creamy, excellent size, and simply and clearly marked.
I actually like the slimline boxes of 14 for buying, by the way, as they could easily fit into a larger wooden box for carrying. (editor’s note: we have designed a wooden box that fits the set boxes, but it will sill be some months before it arrives with us).
The colour selection seems comprehensive but, maybe the colour chart is not laid out particularly clearly to show grades of tones. Listing the colour names and any subsequent tints up or down the tonal scale would be really helpful, and creating some special selections would go down well such as warm darks, cool darks, neutral tints, “14 Shades of Grey” would go down well, etc. Its not yet clear whether you have done this already. (editor’s note: Margaret got an early view before we had finished uploading our full range – we have just uploaded the photos of our graded sets and our proper pastel chart is just arriving back from the printer).
However as a product, and using what I have seen, it is an excellent product, and pricing is excellent. With the introductory deal, it’s a great time to stock up and buy the whole set! I would definitely think this product will do well for Jackson’s and appeal to the pastel community.
Diane Sinclair
Diane Sinclair is an artist who specialises in pet portraits in pastel.
I have been using Jackson’s Handmade Pastels for a horse portrait and am very impressed. They are brilliant to work with in terms of blending and layering and are remarkable smooth – they ‘glide’. I would like to try them out on two more portraits which will make use of the range of colours in my set of 14 and also give an opportunity to try them on Pastelmat, as well as velour paper, which I am currently working with.
Holly the beautiful grey mare
pastel painting work in progress
Jacksons Handmade Pastels on grey velour paper 18×12 inches
Having rendered the sky, by looking out from the easel in the early evening last night and arming myself with the new range of Jackson’s Handmade Soft Pastels, the next stage was the landscape and a few basic layers have put been put down and I will return to that, as I couldn’t wait to start on Holly! Just started on her lovely kind eye and the upper neck and ears.
The sky is rendered in White 1 and 2, Powder Blue and Light Ultramarine. These pastels are fabulous to use and I will be doing a more detailed review soon. Must say they are of excellent quality and glide like silk.
Christina Bennett
Christina Bennett is an artist/illustrator and tutor.
Work in Progress
The first comment I have to make is that I love the range of colours you’re doing – so hard to choose from 200! But it’s nice to be able to see an accurate colour likeness from your photos for once, rather than choosing from printed swatches which aren’t always very accurate. Also, I love that you give them all descriptive names which makes it so much easier when coming to replace pastel stock – brilliant!
This is a work-in-progress of my latest pet portrait for which I chose my 14 colours to try. I have used them in combination with pastels I already have and find them to be quite creamy and a pleasure to use. I am working on Sennelier Pastel Card which holds a lot of pastel so I should be able to build up layers of colour successfully as I go. I will send you a shot of the finished work when I’m done.
Niall O’Neill
Niall is an artist and blogger with two pastel blogs.
Artists In Pastel
Pastel Progress
The pastels are luscious, and very desirable.
They are ideal for “painting” as the pastels glide smoothly onto paper.
I have trialled the beige/khaki set (one can choose from a wide array of themed selection sets as well as buying individual sticks). The colours (in his set above), from left, are: Yellow Beige TJH177, Beige TJH174, Olive Beige TJH176, Green Beige TJH178, Pale Bister TJH195, Olive Ochre TJH175, Beige Ochre TJH143, Dark Ochre TJH183, Khaki TJH574, Dark Khaki TJH573, Dark Sienna TJH307, Van Dyke Brown TJH243, Burnt Sienna TJH305, Dark Umber TJH649.
Read the full review on his blog.
Susie Home
Susie Home is an artist and tutor who runs art workshops in France at Le Perchoir des Paons.
Lovely new pastels.
For this quick sketch I just had to add 2 other colours to complete this picture on black Canson pastel paper.
Update:
Our soft pastels continue to inspire and excite artists. Here you can find recent reviews to show what some of our customers think about them:
‘Delightful pastels to work with. Glide over the paper like a dream.’
‘Lovely and soft, beautiful intense colour. Also good to have the wrapper in the middle, so that each end can be used.’
‘These pastels are wonderful – beautiful colours and lovely and soft without too much dust.’
‘Excellent quality, great depth of colour, lovely soft texture (very similar to Unison pastels but MUCH cheaper!) and don’t fall to pieces.’
‘Lovely quality soft pastels and amazing colour range. Excellent communication and quick post out.’
‘Good combination of hardness/softness.’
‘A very beautiful, soft shade of pink. Lighter than I expected but that’s not a negative thing.’ – Review of our Light Pink
‘It’s so hard to get this shade of soft lilac. This pastel is exactly what I’m looking for.’ – Review of our Light Lilac Pink
‘Perfect. Lovely shade for colouring lips.’ – Review of our Salmon Orange
‘Lovely shade. Soft, yet vibrant.’
‘Very smooth and blends easy.’ – Review of our Smalt Blue
Click here to go to the pastels on the Jackson’s Art Supplies website.
Jackson’s Handmade Soft Pastels
