Pastels – finest, extra-soft artists’ pastels, series 17
400 silky-soft, handmade pastels
The art of pastel painting has been popular for centuries as it combines drawing skills with an intense, velvety colour effect. Schmincke's extra-fine pastel pastels are as delicate as velvet and silk thanks to their unique formulation and handcrafted production, and enable a particularly soft and intensive application of colour. The broad range of 400 brilliant colours opens up limitless artistic possibilities, whether on special pastel paper, in mixed media techniques or even on canvas when used on the special Schmincke primers. A professional range of fixative sprays ensures that the unique results are retained in the long term.
The special features of Schmincke pastels:
Each stick is individually handmade – colours that are as soft as velvet and silk
At the source of colour - best artist pigments with minimal binder
Working with Schmincke pastels leads you back to the origin of colour. Our round sticks consists only of the finest artists’ pigments (without chalk!) and a minimum amount of binder. The binder content is so small that the medium-find ground pigments only just achieve a stable bond.
Pastels from the manufacture
The unusual formulation which guarantees a unique strong colour application, also requires an equally unique production process: traditional craftsmanship. In this traditional and time-consuming process, screw presses are used first to shape the pre-kneaded dough into round strands which are afterwards removed by hand and cut into the right length in wire-strung frames. The sticks are still damp and are left to air dry for 8 days before they are individually labelled by hand. Due to the particularly fine formulas, machine production of our pastels is not possible - the precious sticks could break.
The assortment – Unlimited variety of colours from light to dark
Our colour range includes a total of 400 intense shades. There are 5 shades in each of the 75 selected colours: In addition to the solid colour (D), there is a black graduation (B) and 3 grades of white (H+, M++, O+++). In addition to this balanced range we offer a 10-step neutral grey series, 5 unusual dark shades, gold, silver, 2 black shades, white and 5 special pearlescent shades for special effects.
Trusted quality - carefully refined
Schmincke represents the highest quality and well-proven formulations that are appreciated by artists worldwide. Nevertheless, occasional adjustments may be necessary - whether due to the further development of our products or the availability of pigments and raw materials. Our claim remains unchanged: To continuously offer you the best artists' colours.
Information on current product adjustments are available here.
