Caran d’Ache has been an expert manufacturer of pastels since 1952 and it was more than 30 years ago that the craftsmen in its Geneva workshops developed the Neopastel™ to fully satisfy the needs of professional and amateur pastel artists. With its range of 96 professional-quality colours, this soft oil pastel encourages unlimited creativity through the wide variety of techniques it makes possible.

100% Swiss Made, each Caran d’Ache Neopastel™ Oil Pastel stick is round, water-resistant and completely dust-free, made from extra-fine pigments and inert oil for maximum covering power and excellent lightfastness. The soft, creamy texture glides smoothly over the surface without crumbling, yet remains stable over time and can be easily thinned with white spirit or turpentine to create painterly washes and glazes.

These Caran d’Ache Neopastel™ Oil Pastels are perfect for a huge range of techniques: bold opaque layers, delicate shading, smooth blending, finger-smudging, scumbling and sgraffito. Use the point for crisp lines, the side for broad strokes or carve back through multiple layers to reveal underlying colour. Neopastel™ Oil Pastels performs beautifully on paper, card, canvas, wood and other primed surfaces, making it ideal for expressive landscapes, portraits, abstracts and mixed-media work.

Stick size 10mm x 68mm

A lightfast rating for each coloured pastel is indicated on the label based on the Blue Wool Scale that measures the resistance of the colour when exposed to light. 93 colours out of 96 in the range have an Excellent (***) lightfast rating where the colour will remain unaltered for up to 100 years.