You'll love this book if you want to know just about everything there is to know about all the types & brands of pastels available to you and if you would like to know what artists are using out there and what can be achieved with all these products. It's all here for you to explore for yourself through Mr. Creevy's thorough "walk-through" of materials, supports & tools. The excitement comes from his step by step demonstrations using many products, such as soft pastels, hard pastels, and oil pastels of many types, and the effects achieved with mixed media. If this book doesn't get you motivated, nothing will! I carried this book around with me for weeks and I am still referring to it. I enjoyed Mr. Creevy's "out of the box" techniques and subject matter. His knowledge & talent are obvious and we are fortunate that he chose to share with us.

Very good technical details but the book need to be updated with current materials. There is no coverage of Unison or Ludwig pastel sets and paper coverage is outdated.

If I had to buy just one book on pastels it would NOT be this book.

I recently took a pastel workshop and this book was recommended. It is thorough and offers advice that you can easily impliment. It is a good reference when I have a trouble spot. The author's solutions are worth remembering.

Very very helpful book to browse if you are getting started. It helps one better understand which types of pastels do what, oil, soft, hard etc.

I found this book to be a terrific reference for any artist beginning to explore pastels. There are lots of charming paintings by the author, and demo photos of how the paintings came into being. There is also a WONDERFUL section on supplies: what and where to get them, how they're priced, and if they're worth it. Yet, I do wish that the author had spent a little more time on showing and explaining works that were JUST done in pastels and less on mixed media with pastels. But that's just my opinion. It's a great book and worth buying, regardless of how much of a purist you may be.