At my suggestion, ASTM is now looking into pastels as regards lightfastness, and we will be writing a lighfastness standard for them. I conducted some tests of some of the more popular brands of pastels, though not complete sets, and more testing was done by my ASTM colleagues Joy Turner Luke and Mark Gottsegen. Gottsegen, Chairman of the ASTM Subcommittee on Artists' Paints and Materials D01.57 and author of
The Painter's Handbook, is currently conducting tests on a wider range of pastels using state-of-the art scientific testing equipment. It may be possible to find or put together a set of reliably lightfast pastels after the tests currently under way have yielded their results, but until then, it can only be a guessing game for anyone who has not tested his or her entire set of pastels to see what holds up and what does not. Golden Artist Colors sells a lightfastness test kit, which I recommend highly for that purpose.
Once our tests have covered the field completely, I hope it will be possible to assemble a full set of lightfast colors, with which I can work with confidence. At this point, I am not ready to say that it is possible, and until I can, I will not work in pastel again. One of the things I want to accomplish with this is to give the manufacturers good reasons to improve their products. Until pastel artists demand it, the manufacturers will not change anything.
Virgil Elliott