Arrtx 48 Set Of Soft Pastels
Arrtx 48 Set of Soft Pastels
Arrtx reached out to me a few weeks back, perhaps longer, asking me if I would be interested in testing and reviewing their brand new Arrtx 48 Soft Pastels. I have to say this was music to my ears, or whatever the equivalent is when your eyes read something awesome.
I have reviewed and tested quite a few of Arrtx products and I am a huge fan of all the ones I have reviewed thus far, the markers, colored pencils, acrylic markers etc. I had hoped that Arrtx would at some point introduce a set of pastels to their range and so this was why I was excited and eager to get the set and start testing them. I would just like to say if anyone from Arrtx is reading this, you would make my Arrtx world complete if you released a nice set of pastel pencils, that would be a wish list item of mine from Arrtx.
Arrtx 48 Soft Pastels Characteristics
The packaging of the Arrtx Soft Pastels, really makes the product look and feel like a premium item. It is clear from reviewing so many Arrtx products that they take the eye candy theory of packaging serious, but not just the aesthetics, also the practicability and functionality.
For anyone who has used pastels of any brand in the past, you will know that whilst not an entirely delicate medium, if they are not stored correctly during transit, you can indeed end up receiving a powdery mess. Luckily there is no chance of this happening to the Arrtx Soft Pastels you order, the pastels themselves are held tightly and securely in place thanks to the soft foam inlay. On removing the lid of the box, you will also notice a thin foam membrane adding extra protection.
Before you feast your eyes upon the Arrtx Soft Pastels, you are presented with a swatch on paper similar to tracing paper, every color is on the sheet of paper along with information pertaining to each individual pastel. The first thing to note is the color name along with an alpha numerical number corresponding to the color name.
Directly under this is the actual pigment numbers relevant to each pastel, this obviously changes depending on the pastel however there are a lot of professional artists that like to know the exact pigments in their watercolors, oils or in this case pastels. Finally, below this information is a star system depicting the lightfast information for that individual pastel, but I will talk about lightfast information further into the review.
I know the dimensions of the pastels is not really that important, given the fact that many pastel artists will break their pastels up, helping them to create interesting shapes with the various shards of pastels. Nevertheless I have included the dimensions just in case.
In the image above you can see that the Arrtx pastels are cylindrical and sport an approximate diameter of 15.1 mm. The overall length of the pastel is approximately 35.3 mm, again I appreciate this information is not important to everyone, but if there is so much as one artist out there that would like to know this information, I have supplied it and the fact that I have provided valuable information to one person, well that is good enough for me
Every pastel in the set has printed along the side of them, “Arrtx” in black print and below that the same number on the swatch that corresponds to the color name. This printed information along the pastel did pose a slight issue for me and I do mean slight, the only reason I am even highlighting it is because; so long as you know about it, you can avoid making the same mistake I made.
I demonstrate what the problem is over on my YouTube Video review of the Arrtx 48 Soft Pastels, however, when I started my demonstration art, I grabbed the yellow pastel and started to apply it to the Pastelmat, but before doing so I broke the pastel in half. As soon as I touch the paper with the side of the pastel, the black print from the print also came off on the artwork.
the simple remedy to this is to rub the side of the pastel with the print on some scrap paper and this will rub away the black print. Again if you check out my YouTube Video review, I demonstrate how easy this is to do. It is a simple case of knowing about it and preventing any mistakes.
Arrtx Soft Pastel Performance
Throughout the course of my testing and demonstrating of the Arrtx Soft Pastels, I tested them on three different pastel papers. The first paper was the Hahnemuhle Ingres Pastel Paper and on this paper I completed my swatch. Here you can see the full range of colors available in the 48 set of Arrtx Soft Pastels.
For me, when I first opened the set of Arrtx Pastels and seen the beautiful array of colors available, I was immediately draw to the bottom few rows of greens and earth tones. As a botanical artist or landscape artist, I think you will find a wonderful selection of colors in this palette that will certainly aid you in those genres of art.
When completing the swatch, I noticed that there were one or two of the pastels that felt a bit scratchy and certainly not as soft as the others. This is not something that is exclusive to the Arrtx Soft Pastels, I have come across this with every pastel I have reviewed, including the really high end pastels like Unison Color.
Again this is a demonstration that is best viewed on my YouTube Video Review, but I will also explain it here in this written review. With the yellow pastel, I found this to be a little bit harder and scratchy in comparison to the other pastels in the set. If you look at the images provided, the yellow pastel does not leave a smooth even coverage.
However, if you look at the purple pastel coverage, it is much more even and when laying the pastel down, the difference in feel is night and day. The yellow pastel was quite hard and scratchy whereas the purple was like the vast majority of the pastels, soft and buttery. I applied heavy applications of both pastels to show you this as well.
I also completed a simple blending test again on the Ingres Pastel Paper from Hahnemuhle and you can clearly see that the yellow and blue provide a green, the red and yellow provide a nice orange and finally the red and blue provide us with a nice purple.
I next completed a simple still life drawing of some lemons and this was completed on Clairefontaine Pastelmat and for this piece I chose a nice light dove grey color paper. This allowed me to get a feel of how the pastels would perform on a much toothier pastel paper. Ingres paper, regardless of the brand, I feel a very smooth surface and does not allow for too many layers. In order to apply more and more layers using Ingres you really need to be applying a workable fixative after every few layers. With Pastelmat this is not needed and so long as you apply your base layers of pastel with a light hand, you can apply layer after layer.
I added a dark background but I didn’t want it to be just black so I mixed a dark blue with a dark purple to give me this really interesting effect, which I feel contrasted well with the lemons. The reason I wanted to try a botanical piece was because I just couldn’t wait to try those greens and earth tones. If you would like to see more of the artwork, you can check out my YouTube Speed Painting or my still images of the artwork taken throughout the process.
I finally gave a small demonstration of the Arrtx Soft Pastels on some UART Pastel paper, this is more like a sanded paper and grips hold of the pastel really well. One of the really nice things I love about pastel on this type of paper and the Pastelmat is the fact you can work light over dark, in other words, you can apply a dark color and add white highlights to that area very easily.
Arrtx Soft Pastel Colors - Pigments and Lightfast Information
White S001 PW6 * * *
Arylide Yellow S101 PY3 & PY13 * * * *
Chrome Yellow S121. PY13 * * * *
Clear Orange S155. PY83. * * *
Yellow Ochre S177. PY42 * * *
Caramel S188. PY42 * * * *
Pale Apricot S202. PY254 * * *
Apricot S208. PR254 * * *
Candlelight Peach S220. PY254 * * *
Pink S225 PY254 * * *
Orange. S230 PY83 * * *
Pyrrole Orange S235. PY13 * * *
Living Coral S240 PR245 * * *
Cinnabar S245 PO13 & PR254. * * * *
Flame Red S260 PV19 * * *
Pine Green S315 PB150 & PY3. * * *
Azure S325 PB150 & PY3. * * *
Cyan. S330. PB150 & PY3. * * *
Sky S341 PB153 & PB29 * * *
Cobalt Blue S347 PB153 & PB29 * * *
Lake Blue S350 PB29. * * *
Peacock Blue S373 PB150 & PG7 * * * *
Blue. S381. PV150. * * * *
Iron Blue S388. PB150 & PBK7. * * * *
Dark Blue. S390 PG7 & PBK7. * * * *
Mauve. S421. PV19. * * *
Lavender. S433 PB29 & PV23 * * *
Violet. S440 PV23 & PV19 * * * *
Purple S444 PV23. * * * *
Purplish Red S470. PR122 & PV23 * * *
Grape Purple. S480 PV23 & PR122 * * * *
Jade Green. S520 PG7 * * *
Grass S530 PG7 & PY3 * * *
Basil S565 PG7 * * *
Forest S570 PG7 * * *
Olive. S584 PB150 & PY13 * * *
Khaki. S611 PY42 & PBK11 * * * * *
Brown S622 PY42 & PR101 * * * * *
Dark Brown S638 PR101 & PBK11 * * * * *
Camel S679 PY42 & PBK11. * * * *
Rust. S690. PBK7 & PR13 * * * * *
Light Gray S705 PBK7 & PB150. * * * * *
Gray S710 PBK7. * * * * *
Mid Gray S715 PBK7 * * * * *
Army S755 PBK7 & PY42 * * * * *
Dark Gray Green S760 PG7 & PBK7 * * * * *
Charcoal Gray S777 PBK7 & PG7 * * * *
Soot Black S799. PBK11 * * * * *
Arrtx 48 Soft Pastels Pricing
To purchase a set of the Arrtx 48 Soft Pastels here in the UK, you can expect to pay approximately £41.99, that equates to less than a pound per pastel. I hate saying if a product is cheap or expensive, only because what is cheap fo me may not be so for you or someone else. But I can say that I feel the Arrtx Soft Pastels are excellent value for money
To purchase the 48 set of Arrtx Pastel in the US you can expect to pay approximately $37 and the same price for artists in Europe.
Arrtx 48 Soft Pastel Conclusion
I have to say my excitement at getting hold of the Arrtx Soft Pastels was not let down one bit, I really enjoyed using them. The two issues that I highlighted are not what I would call deal breakers as to whether or not you should buy this set.
There is always one or two pastels in a set that will not be as soft as the other and there are a lot of reasons for this, but those one or two scratchy pastels absolutely do not detract from the other 46 incredibly soft and velvety pastels in the set. The Arrtx black print on the actual pastels is yet another issue that is very easily remedied, which I explain and demonstrate in my YouTube Video Review.
I would recommend taking a look at my YouTube Video review as this will enable you to see real time the demonstrations, get to see the pastel lay down etc. I would also recommend taking a look at the YouTube Speed Drawing video I have uploaded, the drawing in all took just over 50 minutes so not very long, but as you will see in the speed drawing, the pastels blended beautifully.
If watching YouTube videos is not your thing you could check out the still images I have added here on The Art Gear Guide. I took photos of the drawing throughout the various stages and added to them onto the website allowing you to inspect them in your own time and enlarge the images.
