COLOUR PASTEL PENCILS

Professional art materials! Well made and packaged. Pure pigments make for fantastic artwork!

These work like a pastel stick, with the neatness of using a pencil. They blend beautifully.

These pencils are larger than most, so keep that you'll require a larger sharpener, unless you sharpen with a blade. I find they break more easily in a sharpener than my other pastel pencils. They are highly pigmented, like the more expensive Caran D'Ache, but that means they tend to have rough spots or a grittiness like them, too, and they aren't quite as vibrant. Because of their larger size, they are good to use for larger coverage areas and putting down a base layer of pigment, but not as good for fine details. If you are looking to add to your pastel pencil assortment, these would make a nice addition because of the different selection of colors. If this is your first set of pastel pencils, I would not recommend these because of their grittiness and inability to gain a sharp point for details. For a first set, I'd recommend the Stabilo Carbothello brand.

The product is of excellent quality but a few pencils were broken due to Amazon not adding any packing materials to the shipping box. The 48 Conte A' Paris Pastel Pencils bounced around freely in the larger shipping box during transit. It was sad to open and find tips broken off beautiful brand new pastel pencils. Hopefully Amazon Shipping will be advised of this less than adequate packing of a fragile item and change the way they pack pastels and pastel pencils in the future.

Conté crayons are my favorite, especially the various sanguine variations. These, however, are true pastels, so if you know pastels, then you will know what you are getting. If you do not know how pastels act, then you may be puzzled at first by the granulation and the sharpening. Be patient. Conté is the best.

The core is made of chalk. Its twice as tick as most other color pencils! The lead seems to be better than the generals chalk pencils I’ve used but either one doesn’t break if you sharpen them with a knife….

I love these pencils so much that this is my second set. However I will not mail order them from Amazon again. When I opened these they were all mixed up in the box with multiple broken tips of At least 10 Which is more than 20% damage and unacceptable wastage. It could have been prevented with better attention to securing them tighter in the larger shipping box. I decided to just use them and not begin a return, but I've since had issues sharpening them with breakage inside the pencils due to rough handling during shipping. Frustrating...I also purchased the set of conte sticks at the same time and they came in the same shipment. several of those were broken and the set mixed up in the original packaging as well. But I usually use them in smaller pieces anyway. Although it's preferable to be the one deciding on where I break them! Do not let this review of Amazon's shipping deter you from this product. Because they are a favorite of mine. Do try them! They are smooth and make lovely marks.

Wow -- these are the super pastel pencils that you always wished for. Pricey, but worth it. They are a bit fatter than other pastel pencils, so you need a larger pencil sharpener -- or just use a knife. They put down the color very well, are smooth, and really nice to handle.