Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Pastel Box ... New Toy!


This lovely pastel box arrived yesterday. Pastels can be stored in the bottom and the lid, and the box opens flat so the pastels in both areas are available. My collection of the softest pastels needs only one section for now.

These are my softest pastels: Great American (nice but lots of hard spots), Schmincke (love 'em!), Sennelier (darn things crumble easily), and Unison (very nice!). I broke all of my sticks in half, and the others halves, most with wrappers, are stored elsewhere. If you think they look unused, it's true. I've just started learning to use pastels.

There is a smaller box of Rembrandts and Grumbachers (both medium-soft). They could be added to this set, but I haven't used pastels enough to tell them apart by feel. Those, too, are 99.9% pristine.

There is a cigar box for the NuPastels (hard).

The colors in all of the boxes are arranged more or less by value and color.

Yeah, there's a tin of 48 pastel pencils too.

Simply arranging and rearranging the colors has taught me a lot about colors and values. The nice thing about pastels is one can see the colors and values without having to mix them as with oils and watercolors, though mixing and blending can also be done with the pastels.

It's time to stop playing and to start using my pastels, and I shouldn't buy more until I learn to use what I have. Hmmm ... it would be nice to have more purples ... maybe more blues ....

6 comments:

Nancy said...

Where did you get your box! Beautiful work arranging in values! Hop right into the pastel world..it's alot of fun!

Jenny said...

The box is here:
http://store.artsupplysource.com/42987.html

The panels covering the pastels are held in place with Velcro. I suspected they would be since another brand, more expensive, uses the same. I had scissors, glue, and my heavy-duty stapler ready. There's too much Velcro at first, though with time I will add some back.

Foam attached to bases of the two sections as well as the covering panels.

Comes with a shoulder strap.

I measured the boxes I was using and also noted the square inches for my decision.

Both sections would hold all of my pastels plus a few more now, but I'm keeping the separated by hardness for now.

Nancy said...

Thank you Jenny! I've been looking for a carrying case like this! Enjoy your new box and pastels! It's going to be spring out soon...get out and paint!

Thank you again!

Nancy

caseytoussaint said...

Lucky you - that is a great box of colors!

Sarah Ketelaars said...

Beautifully arranged. looking forward to seeing what you do with them!

IMI said...

THANK YOU! I have been looking and looking for a pastel box under $100 since I'm just starting out and I would rather plunk my money into quality pastels. Your box looks very different from the standard picture I've seen and MUCH better!!!

I have tried making my own pastel carrier 4 times now and I'd really rather be painting.