Tyra L. Smith Cloud9@netnet.net
I've had time to do some more playing with those PanPastels. They are just so darn fantastic!!! I worked a scenic piece and let me tell you, all you need do is BARELY touch the PanPastel cake to get enough color to apply. It is SO smooth and luscious. One thing I found which really surprised me is that the PanPastels seem to "glow" on the paper/cardstock after you apply them. I don't know what it is, but they are just georgous. If I had to describe it accurately, I would say the PanPastels glow in the same way a very happy pregnant woman glows...its just there and so pretty. Its that "WOW Factor"...you know???

And I love the way the colors move and blend on the cardstock/paper. I'm "background challenged", making backgrounds often gets me in a situation where I have a totally muddy mess instead of a pretty background. But the PanPastels don't muddy at all. I was just swishing and sponging colors on some matte cardstock, just to see what would happen. I ended up with a really cool background, no muddying of colors, just really pretty and beautifully blended colors. It was just that easy...swish, swish....rub rub....one color here, another there....rubba dub dub...and wallah...beautiful background. Really..it WAS that easy.

When there were times I would accidentally "color outside the lines" of a stamped image with the PanPastels, I just used a white eraser (or one of those kneadable gray erasers) and whish...it was gone. Even the darker colors like Red and Ultramarine Blue erased beautifully. It was just amazing. :-)

I did a marbled looking background using about 4 or 5 colors of the PanPastels, just sponged them all over a regular piece of cheap text weight printer paper. It was very pretty, but I wanted some texture. So I wadded up the paper into a ball, then unfolded and just smoothed it out a little with my hands. I lightly sponged various colors of PanPastels on the top just so it caught those folded creases and gave it an "aged/worn" look. The PanPastels caught the very top of the crease and brought out those crease lines without covering up or muddying the background colors. It really was too darn easy!!!!

1) The PP comes in larger containers than I had anticipated (good!). The downside if you buy the sets is that the colors are stacked by family. So you don't get *lids* for each color. You also don't get that many tools.

2) The pigment load is comparable to Sennelier. The binder in PP is MUCH softer...so very little goes a long way and only one or two swipes of an applicator will load you up for quite a few strokes.

3) The consistency of PP reminds me of very expensive eyeshadow.

4) There is low dust if you don't go 'wacko' and overload your tools.

5) The colors are easily blended and fully erasable. This is a boon for those of us that like to color in stamped images with pastels/chalks. These will blow your mind if you like coloring this way because the color load is intense and it doesn't take much pressure to apply such rich color. And since you can erase it, you can clean up any booboos rather nicely.

6) Because you can apply them with the sofft tools palette knives, you have much more control over application and can achieve finer lines, broader strokes and more painterly effects.

7) The colors can be used as a wash when used with water. Instructions for this come with the set.