If you have ever used pastels before or wanted to try pastels, pastel pencils are an appealing alternative. They offer the same feel as regular pastels, but they’re encased in a standard pencil shell to create fine tips for detail work and to reduce the pastel’s messiness. Artists usually develop a preference for a specific feel in the pencil, whether soft and creamy or fine and hard.
While all of the brands listed here meet the basic standards for high quality best pastel pencils in 2022, they reflect the full spectrum of pencil leads available. We’ve noted which brands tend to be harder and which are a bit softer, so if you are new to pastel pencils, you might want both types to find out which feels better to you. All of these brands, though, were selected based on the wide range of colors they offer, the overall strength of the pencil leads, and their artist-quality ratings for lightfast, fade-resistant colors.