The Best Pastel Pencils For Experiments in Blending and Detailing

If you find the dust and residue of pastel sticks unappealing, consider picking up a set of pastel pencils. Basically a thin pastel lead encased in a pencil body, these tools are low in mess but vibrant in color—much more so than colored pencils. Because the core is made of pure pigment with a binder, it is blendable, smudgeable, and compatible with other pastel forms. Artists who do love soft pastel sticks might still choose pastel pencils to render details and smaller drawings that are m