Hi, friends! I have been using Mungyo Gallery Artists’ Soft Pastels long enough to give them a fair review. These are lightfast, artist quality pastels at a budget price. Read on if you want to find out whether they are worth the money!
Since these soft pastel sticks are colour true, I don’t find the need to swatch them. What you see on the stick is what you get.
By the way, Mungyo is made in South Korea, where most of my favourite skincare and cosmetics come from. 🙂
Graytone Review
I just bought this pack recently and used it for the first time.
This 12-piece set includes 2 of each soft pastel in Cool Grey 1, 2, 3 & 5, black and white. Surprisingly, the set does not include Cool Grey 4.
Judging by the look of Cool Grey 4, I suppose they think the shades 3 and 5, with the black and white included, could be mixed to achieve Cool Grey 4. Still, I think I would have liked the Cool Grey 4 instead of 2 blacks.
I sketched Sinead O’Connor with an HB pencil on Pastelmat 7″x9″ paper for the painting. I also painted Sinead in watercolour in my last post.
Performance of Mungyo Soft Pastels
I find that the consistency and texture of Mungyo Artists’ Soft Pastels are the same with the regular colours and the gray tones. They are not anywhere near Sennelier in terms of softness or blendability. In fact, they felt very scratchy on both Canson Mi-Teintes and Pastelmat alike. The sound of the pastels hitting the paper is equivalent to chalk on blackboard.
By the way, I used Conte a Paris pastel pencils in black and white for the small details. The Mungyo soft pastels are actually as firm as these harder pastel pencils. In addition, the Mungyo soft pastels created a lot of dust compared to Sennelier. Since the price difference is so big, it almost felt unreasonable to compare the two.
Despite the scratchy feel, the pastels blended well once I layered enough to cover the surface of the paper.
I completed my painting and I am happy with it. I do find the paper makes more of a difference than pastels in this medium. Even a $10 pack of cheap pastels can make beautiful art when you have the right paper!
Mungyo Soft Pastels in 12 Assorted Colours
I used the 12-piece set when I first started painting with soft pastels. At the time I thought they were good, but that’s before I tried truly soft pastels like Sennelier. However, I still think for the price you are getting lightfast pigments, and you can still create beautiful artwork with them.
Overall Mungyo Soft Pastels Review
Mungyo soft pastels are lightfast, artist quality pastels at an affordable price. While the texture and consistency are not as soft–some are downright scratchy!–they can still be blended easily to create beautiful artwork. If you are starting out and cannot afford Sennelier or other higher priced art supplies, Mungyo provides a good budget option.
4 Comments
Mungyo pastels are the first one’s I every used when I started a few years ago. I still have them, though they are a bit worn down, right next to my Sennelliers, Schminkes, and Mount Vision pastels. I use them regularly.
Yes, they can be scratchy, but so can Rembrandt and Holbein Pastels. This seems to depend on the color and even more expensive brands have some “scratchy” colors. Perhaps it’s the pigment and they way they have to be manufactured.
This was a fantastic review. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, David! You are right about all of this, some colors can be scratchy even at a high price point. To be honest I ended up using Mungyo even more than my Sennelier and Rembrandt because I am too precious with the expensive ones. So in the end I think the cheap ones get used more .
Thank you again for your kind comments. ☺️
How would these mungayo oil pastels compare to The Paul Rubens Haiya oil pastels? Which are easier to combine with colored pencils ( oil or wax based)?
Thanks so much 🙂
Hello Felicia,
These Mungyo soft pastels are not oil pastels, they are more like chalk so they are completely different from the Paul Rubens Haiya oil pastels. If you use the Mungyo soft pastels with coloured pencils you will need to spray your painting with a fixative first; so far I have not found a fixative that works well with Mungyo soft pastels yet…they tend to run and smear with any fixative so far! I hope this helps. 🙂