Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

I have always loved NuPastel. However, Dick Blick's price was fantastic.

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

I'm new to pastel painting. These NuPastels work well with softer pastels, such as Terry Ludwig's or others.

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

These Prismacolor Nupastels have been my go-to soft/medium pastels for years now. I have several other brand names of soft pastels, but these Nupastels are like my right hand, I can't do much without them!

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

These pastel sticks add a lot of life and value to one's art. The pigmentation is very rich and fills space nicely. The sticks are easy to handle. I especially like the wrapping around the sticks (could be for marketing purposes, but keeps fingers dust free while handling). The chalk dust is my only caveat since it irritates my sinus cavities. I noticed that I'm always coughing when I handle this product.

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

This product has been used in my classroom and personal studio for 20 years.They are very good for base layers, sketching, details, and so forth. The rectangular shape is great for my young students ( round ones roll off of tables and break ). They last longer than softer pastels. Beautiful and rich velvety colors.
I purchase between 50-75 sets of 36 and 48 colors per year.
The problem, and it's serious:
Two of the colors are always super hard and scratchy: #236 and #256
Randomly, one to three other colors will also be hard and scratchy, and it changes from batch to batch that I order. This really throws off my students as I then have to go digging through older sets to find the softer version of the same color. This wastes time and adds frustration. I feel bad for my students and parents. Often I will throw out the scratchy pastel stick and replace with an older one if I can find one in an old set. Again, time consuming.
With so many NuPastel sets sold per year by Prismacolor, it is shocking that quality control is so lacking. My classroom cannot be the only one experiencing this issue. I hope that Prismacolor will resolve this problem and ensure that all colors are consistenly useable. The scratchy pastels will only work on sanded pastel papers which are impractical and expensive for students.It would be great for my students if the pastels all worked properly. I'm hopeful and will continue to work with NuPastels.

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

I have recommended these to my pastellist friends. Excellent value.

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

I was glad I had ordered a pack of this line's pastels for my college figure drawing class.
The quality in the pastels is top of the line and fantastic!

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

I make my own soft pastels but I needed something firmer for times I needed lines to show or make distinct angles. This fits the bill perfectly. The sticks are firm without being hard and the color goes down easily. You can also lay down a broad stroke easily with its rectangular shape. Open stock is always a plus in my book for obvious reasons.
I got a good price on the 96 piece set which is well packed against breakage. It does not include a color chart for the purpose of identifying the sticks as to what they say they are and as to what's included and what isn't but you can find some online. Not all the charts I found match the #'s I had stamped into my sticks and so were useless. It's a shame to mess up a quality product with shabby packaging. There were 4 colors they offer that weren't included in this set but the color selection is good and the quality is at the top with few others.

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

These pastels are great for sketching, blocking-in and underpainting in any media used dry or wet on an appropriated surface.
Some use them for details in soft pastels paintings.

Comments about Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks:

Can't do my preliminary pastel work without Nupastels.