When you’re shopping for pastels, look for the ones that give you rich colours to bring your creative ideas to life. Focus on getting soft pastels for broader colour coverage on the paper and for blending colours to create different shades. Get hard pastels for creating fine lines and working on more detailed images. If you’re looking to add different kinds of colour to your artwork, we have a great selection of art tools, paint supplies and art markers to browse through.

Pastels can refer to both an art medium and a colour palette. As a medium, pastels are chalk-like sticks that come in two main categories. Soft pastels are high-pigment options that are smooth to work with, while oil pastels are pigments mixed with a non-drying oil and wax binder. As a colour palette, pastels are typically soft or light-coloured shades like powder blue, lavender or soft yellow that are normally associated with relaxation and harmony. They differ from other colouring tools like crayons or pencil crayons because they are softer and easier to blend.

Art chalk is a drawing tool made from natural, soft stone or earth like calcium carbonate (white), iron oxide (red), or carbon (black). It is typically used for blended drawings and sketches because it can create both fine lines and soft, smudged tones on paper, chalkboard, sidewalks or canvas. Art chalk offers a lighter range of colours compared to colours found in pastels.

The three main types of pastels are soft pastels, hard pastels and oil pastels. The main difference between them comes down to the ratio between pigment and binder used in each one. Soft pastels are powdery and have vibrant colours, making them better for broad strokes and colouring. Hard pastels have more binder and less pigment, making them better for fine lines and adding details to artwork. Oil pastels are mixed with oil and wax, creating a cream-like texture that doesn’t fully dry. They have vibrant colours and blend differently from soft and hard pastels.