How are pastels named?     Usually in the artist ranges, the individual colours will be given a name and a shade. Depending on the range this can be 5 shades for a certain colour. I'll give you an example:

The shade is named as 179 Cobalt Blue Hue.
The darkest shade is Tint 5 progressing through 4,3,2 and shade 1 is the lightest.

Each brand of pastels has its own method of naming and numbering

Often in books on how to paint with pastels, the brand names of the pastels being used is omitted. This can make it a bit difficult for you if you wanted the same shade as the artist is using. Also you should remember that the paintings in the books are not true colours, because of the print process. If they are named and you are given which particular brand they are, that's great. But the colours you use don't have to be exact, they can be to your own taste.

Your local art shop should be able to provide you with colour charts. Alternatively, you can browse online to find colour charts for each respective brand. The colours online don't necessarily look like the exact colours of the pastels. However, if you choose a range online, all the colours are relative to each other and work well together. For example I chose some colours online for a gift and the recipient says the shades are gorgeous.

back