Prismacolor Premier NuPastel Color Sticks

Prismacolor’s Premier NuPastel sticks were developed to bring an end to the common problems shared among every common pastel, like being too soft and breaking too easily, causing inconsistent lines. The NuPastel manages to be significantly harder, while still retaining the pastel characteristics that are loved by artists, like the rich and creamy texture required for a smooth and superior color blending and shading result.

NuPastel features a rectangular shape, allowing for better grip as well as better precision when in need to draw finer lines and details. Moreover, they can be used both as wet and dry for an extensive range of achievable effects. Prismacolor aims this product towards illustrators and artists who perform tightly rendered drawings, but they should be perfect for everyone who wants a high-quality pastel.

The available color sets count 12, 24, 48, and 96 plaster sticks, covering a ready wide color saturation and tonal spectrum. All NuPastels are non-toxic as the contained pigments are in conformance with the ASTM D 4236 standard. This makes them a great gift choice for very young artists as well.

Medium Tips and Techniques

Most artists use these pastels to draw the outline or main frame of their creation during the first stages. However, and since these pastels are perfectly suitable for use with water, some artists are dissolving them to draw soft backgrounds with a paintbrush.

Product Pros and Cons

Artist Likes

• Harder pastel body which doesn’t brake easily
• Good lay-down rates
• Non-toxic materials
• Rectangular shape provides good grip
• Easy to clean out

Artists Dislikes

• Glued on wraps
• Colors fade quickly
• Poor packaging

These high-grade pastels from Prismacolor boast good lay-down rates, offering the ability to draw continuous and consistent lines without having to apply much pressure. Contrary to the softer pastels, the NuPastel won’t break as easily and is much easier to clean. Thanks to its unique shape, it is very easy to hold it steady and firmly enough. The price of this product is so good that it appeals to hobbyists as well. Many users also point out the terrific blending ability of these pastels which is of key importance for many artists out there.

The main drawback of this product is the relatively prompt fading of the colors, so if you need to create something that will last long and stay unaffected maybe you should look at some other pastel brand. However, this exact drawback is what makes them suitable for the drawing of layouts. A few other customer complaints include bad wrapping methods (glued) and poor packaging quality. Prismacolor has already acknowledged the fact, and they will start  shipping new pastels with more user-friendly wrapping. For now, you can choose the sets instead of buying individual plasters in order to avoid the extra labeling.

Final Considerations

The NuPastels are a high-quality choice at a fair price to say the least. Their name implies that they are a “new” approach to something as classic as a pastel, and they certainly are, with their rectangular shape and their increased hardness. The only thing to consider before buying is the color life expectancy which isn’t very large. If you’re planning to use them for practice/training courses, outlines, underlying, or framing, you don’t have to think twice.