Review: Jack Richeson Signature Soft Pastels 120 Half Stick

This is my latest painting - a kookaburra, albeit a psychedelic one. Soft pastels on UArt 600.

It came about because I'd been dabbling in landscape and nature for the past couple of weeks and realised that I missed painting wildlife. So I searched Paint My Photo for a reference photo and this one caught my eye.

Photo: Brisguy52

I started this painting with the usual Panpastel underpainting (which I always call the ugly stage).

Then I pulled out my Sennelier and Schmincke greens and yellows to paint the background. This part is usually a hit or miss. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Don't ask me why. This time, it looked like it did.

I'd left the painting overnight and what happened the next day was that my Amazon package arrived with this: the Jack Richeson Soft Pastel Half Stick set of 120.

Some background info: I first saw this set on Amazon Singapore about two months back, and had zero intention of buying it. I already had plenty of soft pastels and from reading the reviews, I didn't think I would like them much as the set seemed to contain mostly mid-tones and was lacking in darks and lights. I really didn't need any more mid-tone shades. So even though it was cheap at about S$55 (around US$39), it didn't tempt me. 

But then, the price kept steadily dropping (yes, I monitor Amazon prices, it's an illness). From S$55, it dropped to $40, then to $30. I was incredulous. This set sells in the US for at least US$110, how could the price possibly drop further? I told myself, ok if it drops to S$20, I'll buy it, thinking there's no way that could happen. 

Well, it did. On Tuesday, the set dropped to S$20.84, upon which I added the set in my cart. (Incidentally, it has since dropped further to S$17.53, which is utterly ridiculous). I figured that at that price, it was certainly worth a try.

The set looks very, very luxe. It comes in a heavyweight cardboard box with two trays. The pastels are individually cushioned in firm foam padding and each pastel has a paper wrapping, which is very unusual for half sticks.

Here's a closeup look at the colours. I rearranged the sticks because the original arrangement made no sense, with random yellows scattered all over the box. The sticks are quite small - smaller than Sennelier half sticks, but I don't mind this at all, for two reasons: 1) I don't think I'll ever finish anything, at the rate I'm buying art supplies, so small is good! 2) The compact size means the two trays don't take up a lot of space. I can display both on my side table when painting, which makes it very convenient.

As for the colours, the reviews on Amazon were right. I don't understand why such a large set would have so many similar mid-tone colours and be so stingy on the tints and darks (darks especially). I did swatches of some of the yellows and the greens below. As you can see, some of them are so alike, I can barely tell them apart. On the bottom row are the darkest shades of green, blue, brown, purple and red in the set. Totally not dark enough, in my opinion. It would be difficult to get good contrasting values with those colours.

Anyway, back to the painting. I was eager to try out these pastels and since I was halfway through the kookaburra picture, I thought I would complete the rest of the painting using the Richeson pastels. Instead of trying to attempt realism, I decided I would go the psychedelic route, much like how I drew the elephant and zebra. 

When I'd completed the head, I thought I went a little too far and hated the effect. For some reason, it reminded me of Beetlejuice. It was the kookaburra from your nightmares. But by the time I finished the body and feathers, it grew on me. My daughter said, "it's Queen Kookaburra and she's fabulous." 😆

And then it was simply splashing more colour onto the fence, and here's the final painting. Y'all know me by now, I love me some colour and this one was dripping with it.

My verdict on the Jack Richeson Signature Soft Pastels

First, do note that these are not the handrolled pastels. Jack Richeson has a few different ranges, these are the Signature range which are harder than the handrolled range. I would say their hardness is very similar to Rembrandts, which are on the medium soft range of soft pastels. Harder than Unisons, softer than NuPastels. 

I enjoyed using them much more than I thought I would. Even though they're not very soft, they go on very smoothly. It's refreshing to have sticks that don't crumble so easily, and because of their small flat tops, I could draw details with their edges, which was really nice. And considering these pastels aren't as soft as Sennelier or Schmincke, their colour payoff is fantastic. The oranges and reds I used for the fence were practically neon, and a light swipe resulted in bright, unadulterated colour.

For this reason, I feel the Jack Richeson is a very good alternative to Rembrandt, if you can get them at a good price. For the price I paid, I would only have been able to buy a set of 12 Rembrandt half sticks. So value-wise, the Jack Richeson wins hands down.

However, the biggest drawback of this set, as mentioned, is the dearth of tints and darks. All pastel artists know that these are hugely important, otherwise you can't get the contrasts that make your painting pop. The tints aren't so bad - there are a few light greys, yellows and a pink that work well as highlights. But the darks are simply dismal. I had to supplement with my dark Carbothello pencils for the deepest shadows.

Hence, if you're unable to get the Jack Richeson set for a good price, I wouldn't recommend them because in reality, the set can't stand alone and you'll still need to shell out cash to get another set with better darks. They're certainly not worth US$110, in my opinion. I'm not complaining because, remember, I paid less than US$15 for them. Even if half the colours didn't work, it would still be a crazy good deal. So I guess you'll need to decide for yourself how much they're worth.