Derwent Alphacolor Soft Pastels, Charcoal, 3 Pastels per Pack (105C)

A beautiful dense but soft pastel/charcoal stick. Really responsive. i Am looking forward to using it on all paper types.!

I know these are labeled as Soft Pastels, but they behave far more like traditional pressed charcoal, in my opinion. And they do a wonderful job. They provide dark lines with relatively little pressure, and can easily be shaped to a fine point. They blend smoothly and naturally with just your finger or palm, but respond well to work with blending stumps and tortillons. It plays well with the nooks and crannies of heavily textured paper, but also glide with control on Bristol and other smooth surfaces. When laid down on kraft or stonehenge paper, it has a very creamy quality to it. They do not break unintentionally, and are the right thickness for larger works (18x24+), but can be "whittled" down quickly for smaller drawings. I also regularly purchase the white Alphacolor charcoals, which are equally awesome. They are, in fact, my go to white charcoal.

Perfect! Arrived quickly, no broken pieces. I did a German schmear on a faux brick wall a few years ago & now wanted it a bit darker. This worked perfect for the project! Before pic is the lighter one & after adding the black chalk is the pic with the clock on it. Messy but knew it would be. It is a small pkg…you can see it sitting on the bottom left corner of the night stand in before pic. I’m ordering another package to finish other side of wall.

Works perfect for what I’m using it for.

These are my go-to charcoal sticks for creating with. I create large scale and so the size works well for covering large areas and the square shape still allows for small sharp detail lines. Such a great value for the money.

They arrived in pieces