On the far right, back to front, there’s a stack of Tints with a round two inch sponge on it, the Paynes Gray pan with a pointed sponge, and a big oval sponge that I used to paint the sky in a recent painting. Lying across the knives is a used mini-applicator. The micropore material has a dense, soft texture that picks up more color, too, and handling them is very different from other sponges I’ve used.įrom left to right there’s my oval knife cover, then the bare oval knife, the flat knife with a used cover on it, a triangle knife with a fresh cover, a round-tip knife recently used. a few of them look like women’s makeup applicators, but artists who’ve tried cheaper makeup applicators found that they wear out faster. In the next photo you’ll see some of my tools. Stacking pans leaves such a small footprint that I find them more convenient. I found it easier just to stack and unstack pans according to color groups, spreading out only while a painting’s in progress. Extra lids are available for $2.99 per eight-pack if you prefer to spread out your Pan Pastels to see all the colors at once and still keep your cat from treading in them. Since PanPastels come in stacks, they don’t include a separate lid per pan. Here’s a photo showing an open pan of Paynes Gray on the right, an open storage jar with the tools that came with it, and a short stack of Tints with Orange Tint on top. In addition, every speck of it can be scraped out onto a painting, and the amount of dust from the process is negligible-this makes PanPastels a good choice for both the frugal artist and anyone concerned about toxic pigments getting into the environment. Each pan contains about a third more pigment than the average size pastel stick, so even if the open stock runs a little high (over $5 a pan) you’re definitely getting your money’s worth.
You can purchase PanPastels in sets of 5, 10, 20 and full range, as well as open stock. Colors come neatly stacked in clear little jars 2 3/8″ diameter with additional taller storage jars to hold various tools, including the Sofft painting knives, the short handle mini-applicators and the smaller sponges.
Those colors includes 21 mass tones (pure colors plus white and black) and one tint and one shade for each mass tone.
Click here to learn more and get a simple art website of your own! Quick announcement - EmptyEasel has created a quicker, easier way for artists to have their own art website. Years of research went into developing the PanPastel formula, culminating in a pastel medium that is softer than the super-soft Schminke or Sennelier sticks, velvety smooth, and so easily mixed that the range of 60 colors feels like more than enough colors for anyone. Instead of a traditional pastel stick, PanPastels are simply pans of color meant to be scooped, spread, and smoothed using specially-made Sofft painting knives and sponges. PanPastel is a fairly new brand of artist pastels created by inventor and artist Ladd Forsline in 2007. By Robert Sloan in Research > Art Products