High pastel prices
 

Hi folks,

You have probably all gotten your Jerry's catalogue and are having sticker shock at the very high (for Jerry's anyway) prices. This is of course due to the devaluation of the dollar.

Some pastels are not even being carried in open stock, like my favorite Great Americans.

May I suggest, www.dakotapastels.com. They may be a bit more but they only charge a flat fee of $8.95 for shipping.

The difference for example is Jerry's $2.99 for a Sennelier to Dakotas' $3.10. The Great Americans are $3.10, 11 cents more than a Sennelier, and in my opinion, which you ALL KNOW IS FABULOUS, is a MUCH BETTER PASTEL. It is an especially useful pastel for the portrait artist as it has a range of wonderful and subtle skin tones. They are also evenly sequenced so if you need one lighter or darker they do not shift color and say, become redder or yellower. They DO NOT crumble and fall to the floor like Senneliers. I don't know if you have had this experience with Senneliers, that they sometimes disintegrate when taking off the wrapper. Great Americans do not do that and can hold quite a fine edge.

Dakota Pastels are a wonderful and professional company to deal with. You get the pastels you ordered plus a knowledgeable and efficient staff.

They are always adding new items . One of interest to the portrait artist are the samplers at $25 ea. They are made up of pastels from different manufactures, so you can try out some new ones you may not be familiar with. One is dedicated simply to flesh tones .

Another REALLY USEFUL item they carry is their handmade color charts.They are really handy when you want to find that perfect peach color for a cheek and don't know what manufacturer has it. The printed and web charts are so innacurate.

Thanks for the tip Sharon.

You have created a monster over here with these pastels. And you are SO RIGHT, those Great Americans are luscious!! They are by far my favorite. I wish I had the money to buy the complete set, I find with every portrait I do, I never seem to have just the right color at some point.

I also wanted to add the link to the Fine Art Store . They have the best online color charts for all the pastels I have ever seen.

Mary

I have used them also. They are a fine and responsive company.
I am trying to ween myself from Jerrys' as they really are becoming the Wal-Mart of art suppliers. There is a reason why Great American is no longer selling open stock to them but I am not at liberty to say.

From what I understand Jerrys' apparently puts a lot of pressure on their suppliers to keep their prices low, not unlike some of the practices of Wal-Mart vis-a-vis their suppliers.

Mary,

With the significant improvements you have made in the last year in your portraits, you should be able to raise your rates and be able to afford a whole set of Great Americans.

I find myself reordering and reordering their earth/skin tones.

Thank you Sharon. I am working in that direction. But I just blew my first wad of cash on new lighting and photo equipment. Next stop is the pastel aisle.

I just got off the phone with Dakota Pastels. Wow, I've never spoken to someone with a "I could care less" attitude in my life. I called to see if they could match prices with ASW, which must be Jerry's in disguise.

First, it did'nt even sound like I reached their offices. I asked if they could match prices, and she answered "I could anything I want", but in a way that sounded like she was gonna follow it with a seductive "big boy." I heard a dog barking in the background which makes me think the call was fowarded to her home.

I told her the Polychromos were $129, $30 less than Dakota's. She was willing to go down to $140, which is ASW's regular price. Then I asked about the pencil set which is $49 in ASW, compare to $69 for Dakota. She went down to $58, again the regular price at ASW. With shipping, Dakota was $7 more, shipping is $8.95 at Dakota compared to $19.95 at ASW. Her attitude was terrible with a "well, what do you want to do" thing about it. The whole call was very unprofessional. I've never had this problem with Dakota before. Unless they have a HUGE sale, I would not order from them again.

Ended up ordering from DickBlick, they were very nice over the phone, and they have free shipping for orders over $200.

Sharon, honestly I felt bad about the whole thing. Like I said, I never had a problem with Dakota's before, but this was just too rude on her part. I fully understand the smaller companies having to charge more, but $30 more for a set of small pastels is too much. Even with the cheaper shipping, it would have been about $40 more for the order. After the price break, it was only $7 more than ASW, and I would have ordered it if she had been polite. I've had pleasant experiences with them in the past, but if this call had actually been "recorded for quality assurance", she'd probably get fired.

The lady I spoke to at Dick Blick was very helpful and professional. They were also more than Jerry's, the free shipping helped. I might sound corny, but when I got off the phone with her, I actually felt better.

You have already sold me on them. While I really like some of the color Sennelier gives, they crumble to easily. The Great Americans are so smooth and buttery and a bigger stick.

Sharon, do you use any pastel pencils for detail work? I find for tight areas I like to use them to move the pastel around a bit but can't find any that have nice rich darks. The nu pastel is the same way. Any thoughts on a hard stick or pencil for the darks? Or do you just rely on the soft?

Based on your comments, Sharon, I just ordered the Girault 25-stick portrait set to see how they work for me. I've been venturing into pastels in a plein air format to try to get the hang of them. I admire them so much but had been wondering how you all get those fine details with those thick sticks. Maybe the Giraults will help. Thanks for the information!

I use various sized tortillions, or stumps as they are sometimes called, when the clunky chunks of pastel or charcoal just won't do. Those rolled up pieces of paper can come down to a pretty fine point. I take the color stick in one hand and the tort in the other and I rub the tort into, onto, the pigment. I then apply the pigment to the surface with the tort. You can take it down to a pretty fine detail using this method. As I move out to less detail I go back to the direct application.

Thanks, Sharon! I'll let you know. I have quite a few Unisons, some Rembrandts, and two different types of pastel pencils and I've been playing with them. I haven't actually tried to do anything figurative with pastels yet, except during some life classes. It's hard to leave the comfort zone of oils. But I love the way pastels look and am hoping to be able to move into them. You are one of the pastellists on this forum who is inspiring me to try them, by the way. Your work is so lovely!

Here's the piece Sharon was refering to from Daniel Greene. It's my favorite of his also.

I have a small set of Giraults also, probably the same one Leslie ordered. It's a nice set, wish I could get the full set. I think I like them so much because they make me feel like I'm still using pencils. The Unison's feel good too, another small set, but I would have to get used to those more being fatter.

I just got in the Poloychromos set, similar to Nupastels, but softer. I've only played with them a bit, so I can't judge how good they are yet. I'm struggling with the pastel piece I'm doing now, if I don't ruin it, I'll post it and let you guys know how the Polychromos were.

Wish I could say this was the piece I was having trouble with.

I've looked at that painting thousands of times. I didnt even realize it was pastel. Wow.

I wish I could see close ups of that!

Sharon, I'm up way to early for a Saturday morning, so I am window shopping the pastel section of the fine art store. Since you seem to have tried everything I was curious to know if you have the Great American pearlescent pastels and what they are like? I assume these are a new addition to the line and wouldn't be in the full monte set or am I wrong?

Mary,

They came with my "Full Monte". I have used one in a drawing, but I have not used them as part of a larger effort. The iridescent colors are unusual and fun to play with.

While were on the subject of D.G.

I too have admired the portrait of the girl above, I have starred at it long and often. This is a beautiful girl in a beautiful dress posed very thoughtfully with wonderful light.


What I admire equally is the one that follows. Juxtapose this image with the one above. I can only imagine the discussion that went on between D.G. and the subject regarding light and pose, and the tricks that could have been employed. This is purely supposition on my part, but I can imagine that after hearing of the possibilities from the artist, Mr. Steinberg said no, show me chin up in profile. I have a hard time figuring out which of the two is more beautiful.