Hi,
so sorry for being all over the place at the moment, I’m trying to figure out which courses I can take with the stuff I have but at the same time everything looks so interesting that I just can’t settle for one thing only! Having said this I started to do the guide to graphite and so far I really try to stick to graphite only.
Still: I’m browsing the material videos of the other courses and in pastel I found nupastel. Apart from being pretty pricey most sets seem out of stock (I blame black friday for this, I’m sure they will reappear soon enough) but are there any alternatives to look at?
Good morning! I have Nu Pastels, BUT they have been discontinued by Prismacolor. An alternative might be Conte “crayons.” A google search for alternatives to Nu Pastel turned up several options. Nu Pastels are hard pastel sticks.
Actually, NuPastels have not been discountinued. Only the ability to purchase individual sticks has stopped. You can get a really good price on sets of them right now on Blick:
They are the harder pastels, but are quite popular, especially for using as an underpainting layer or for some details. You might want to consider Rembrandts (medium hard) or one of the many softer pastels as well. I recently purchased a set of Unison half sticks and really like them a lot.
Thank you, I didn’t know they got discontinued. Then again, yesterday I didn’t even know they existed in the first place.
I’m rubbish at google search, I literally only found soft pastels in all colours and sizes but not the ones you mentioned. I will see if I got better luck with getting them.
@gweinstein thanks for the alternatives I will look into them as well.
Funny thing is, years ago I had some lovely harder pastel sticks but the only one left is one green (very versatile that one) Unfortunately they were bought like 25 years ago, so I can’t remember the brand or where we got them. I will browse my local store to see what options I have for the harder brands, as I’d prefer to buy open stock and more importantly locally given that Christmas is ahead. I already got some pastel pencils (landscape Derwent, pretty old pretty short by now, but they’ll do) and my go to set of soft pastels - well-used set of 72 Koh-i-noor, which I absolutely love!
Hi @Jennilein I don’t have nupastels myself and have never tried them. I substitute soft pastels for them, the set that I have is quite inexpensive. I got them from Amazon UK https://amzn.eu/d/0tqx1rC or https://amzn.eu/d/hycaf8w same product, different branding. In addition I use a few pastel pencils. As I’ve never used the nupastels I don’t know if they are a direct/good substitute.
Thanks, they seem worth looking into. Maybe one can get away without harder pastels with just some pencils for detail. I love my soft pastels, I can’t wait to start the course (and all the other courses )
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