Keeping Track

Unison's Albert Handell Landscape Color Chart (sorry for the glare)

In a few weeks I will be teaching my pastel workshop and in preparation, I give my students a list of supplies and things to do prior the event.  Yesterday, one of my students asked a very good question that I thought may be of some helpful insight to those who have ever wondered.

Question:

"If I take the papers off the pastels, I am wondering how on earth you would know what color was what when you are reordering the ones you want.  Should I make little samples of each with the name? Or???

Answer:

Sometimes I create a little "color chart" of my pastels when I purchase a set of pastels.  Some manufacturers will put a blank chart in the box for you to fill in with their palette, and some manufacturers don't.  In the photo above, I had to make my own.

This is Albert Handell's Landscape pastel set that I purchased at one of his workshops.  They are Unisons and I love them!  So when I brought them home from the workshop, I took off the wrappers one by one and marked them on this chart and then later had the sheet laminated so they wouldn't smear over time and use.  Now some of you may think this is silly, and some of you may really want to utilize this method of keeping track of your pastels for reorder.

To tell you the truth, I have never used one of my charts I've put together and that is probably because I usually go into my local art store (a fully stocked one) and just pick pastels like they were candy. It's not a great method, actually it's a pretty sloppy method. This wouldn't work for those who live in a remote area and have to order over the internet. :(  There are a few pastel colors I know darned well I'll be wishing I looked up on my charts because there is always a few favorites you tend to reach for time and time again.  When you've developed your color voice, as I have, then you will begin to know what you really want.  As for now, these are great ways to keep track of your very expensive babies!

So, this is one of those cases where one says "Do what I say, not what I do"  HA!

Hope this helps!