When people think of pastel, they usually think of soft pastels. Many soft pastel sticks are approximately 3 inches long and vary in thickness (a 12-inch diameter is common). Many have paper wrappers that help hold them together as you work. Some manufacturers offer half sticks of colors that are an economical choice because you get a wide range of colors for a reasonable price.
Because these pastels are made for broad strokes, using soft pastel sticks comes close to a form of painting, but you can also break off pieces or use their edges to do detail work. They're particularly good for both hatching and massing colors. They're also good choices for blocking in initial drawings, but if you are budget conscious, you may want to consider using the hard pastels discussed in the preceding section for these early stages.
A relatively new type of soft pastels is PanPastels, which come in pans similar to those for watercolor. You apply them with a variety of sponge-tipped tools developed for the pastels by the manufacturer. Using them is more like painting than drawing because they are capable of fine transitions of blended color and the strokes have a soft appearance. In essence, you apply and blend the pastel color simultaneously.
As close to working with pure pigment as you can get, soft pastels contain pigment combined with small amounts of kaolin or china clay or chalk and held together with a little gum. Some soft pastels have so little gum in them that they barely hold together as sticks, but others have so much clay in them that they almost qualify as hard pastels. The softest pastels are expensive, break easily, and can be a little frustrating for a beginner, but they provide sublime beauty after you get the hang of them. Their shimmering color comes from light bouncing off pigment unrestricted by lots of binders.
Depending on the hardness of the pastel sticks, you can hatch layers of color, or more often, break off sections and lay in color by using the sides of the pastel. You can use the edges as-is or shape them into points for detail work, or you can shave the sticks with a razor blade and press the dust into the fibers of the paper to achieve a soft, dusted appearance.
