Rembrandt Professional Soft Pastel Set General Colour Selection | 30 Half Pastels

These are a dream to use. I like to use them to lay down a base layer and do under painting before coming in with Pitt pastels for details. You get a lot of colors and the way I use them they will last a long time.

As a keen amateur, I had tried oil and soft pastels in the past but found both mediums-compared to my usual oil and watercolours, uninspiring. I wanted a medium that was portable and easy to work with so after recently watching oodles of YouTube tutorials, I was inspired to give soft pastels another try. From the recommended soft pastel brands suggested in the tutorials, these Rembrandt soft pastels fitted into my budget. The box of 1/2 sized pastels arrived well packed. The set has a good range of colours for begginers, while the pastels are not overly soft/crumbly, instead they do blend beautifully-depending on the the pastel paper you are using. I was surprised to find that the ultimate outcome depended not only on the quality of pastels but also the paper you choose. As good quality art media is expensive, and even as beginners we aim for the best results, the types and ranges of pastels are as varied as pastel pads and blocks therefore, I would highly recommend researching the fit between pastels and papers before purchasing. I found these soft pastels work beautifully with Clairefontaine's Pastelmat pastel pad but not as well with the Fabriano Tiziano pastel pad.

Why did you choose this product over others?: excellent set of colours. Well packaged in sturdy box. Rembrandt pastels are a good balance between too soft and too hard pastel sticks.

Lovely set of creamy pastels that blend well.

I had high expectations of these because I've seen many artists saying they're really good but I was a bit disappointed. The tubular shape can leave harsh lines if you use the tip and the sides have a filmy coating so you have to waste quite a lot of pastel rubbing this off before using them. Maybe it's just the way I work but I actually prefer some of the cheaper brands such as Faber Castell.

Blend well, good colour range, good starter soft pastel set.

Great quality. Perfect size and beautiful colours.

These are labelled as soft, but they a firm as opposed to the really soft brand sennelier. I daresay they will last longer though! Great saturation of Pigment and good value for money.