Best Soft Pastels for Portraits and Landscapes in Canada

Soft pastels are the secret weapon for artists who want rich, velvety colour and seamless blending. Unlike hard pastels or oil pastels, soft pastels contain minimal binder, giving you pure pigment that goes down smoothly and builds beautifully. For portrait work, this means you can capture subtle skin tones and gentle transitions between light and shadow. The ability to blend directly on paper makes it easier to achieve realistic flesh tones and soft hair textures. Landscape artists love soft pastels for their ability to capture atmospheric effects, think misty mornings, golden hour light, or the soft edges of distant mountains. You can layer colours to build depth, use the side of the pastel for broad sky washes, or work with the tip for fine details like grass or tree branches. The immediate, painterly quality of soft pastels makes them perfect for plein air work too, since there's no drying time to worry about. Whether you're a beginner exploring portraiture or an experienced artist looking to add landscapes to your repertoire, soft pastels offer an intuitive, forgiving medium that rewards experimentation.

The key to good soft pastels lies in pigment quality and consistency. Professional-grade pastels contain higher concentrations of pure pigment with minimal chalk filler, resulting in more vibrant colours and better lightfastness. Look for pastels that feel smooth and creamy rather than gritty or crumbly. They should lay down colour easily without excessive pressure, and the colour you see on the stick should match what appears on your paper. For portraits, you'll want a good selection of earth tones, warm and cool greys, and flesh tones. Many manufacturers offer portrait sets, but you can also build your own palette. Landscape work benefits from a broader colour range including various blues for skies and water, greens for foliage, and warm tones for earth and rocks. Consider the paper you'll be using too, soft pastels work best on textured surfaces that can grip the pigment. Brands matter, but don't feel you need to start with the most expensive option. Many student-grade pastels offer excellent value and performance.

For beginners or budget-conscious artists, Faber-Castell Creative Studio soft pastels offer solid performance at an accessible price point. These pastels have decent pigment loading and blend well, making them perfect for learning techniques without a big investment. They're available in sets or individual sticks, and as you can see from our Faber-Castell selection, they provide excellent value for students and creative enthusiasts. For those seeking better quality, Rembrandt soft pastels strike an excellent balance between quality and price. Made in the Netherlands, these pastels have rich pigmentation and smooth application, particularly good for portrait work with their comprehensive range of flesh tones and earth colours. At the professional level, Sennelier and Schmincke pastels offer the finest pigment quality and creamiest texture, though they come at a premium price. These brands are favoured by serious landscape artists who need the highest lightfastness ratings and most nuanced colour mixing capabilities.

Start with a basic set of 24 to 48 colours that includes a good range of values from light to dark in key colour families. You'll want at least three values each of blues, greens, earth tones, and greys, plus a selection of warm and cool colours for mixing. As you develop your skills, add individual pastels to fill gaps in your palette rather than buying another complete set. Keep your pastels organized in a box or case that prevents them from knocking against each other and creating dust. Soft pastels are quite fragile and benefit from individual compartments or foam padding. Don't forget about paper, quality drawing paper makes a huge difference in how your pastels perform. Look for papers with enough tooth to grip the pigment but not so rough that they tear the pastels. Pastel papers, sanded papers, or even quality watercolour papers can work well. Finally, invest in some blending tools like tortillons, blending stumps, or soft brushes to help you achieve smooth transitions and refined details in your work.