Staedtler Design Journey Pastel Pencils 12-Set Review: An Easy Way Into Pastels

Introduction

Pastels are a bit of a divisive medium. Many artists love the finished look but are put off by the powder, the mess, and that chalky feeling on the fingers. Pastel pencils offer a cleaner way in, and this 12-set from the Staedtler Design Journey range is one of the most approachable ways to try them.

The Design Journey line sits at Staedtler’s student, entry-level tier, and so far the quality across that range has been genuinely impressive for the price point. These pastel pencils follow that pattern, though they come with one significant limitation: there is only a 12-color set, with no larger option in pencil form.

Who This Product Is For

If you have ever looked at premium pastel pencil sets and hesitated at the cost of committing to a medium you might not enjoy, this set is exactly what you need. It lets you dip your toe into pastel pencils without spending much, and the tin is inexpensive in any case, with a cheaper cardboard box option also available.

Because the set is student grade and limited to 12 colors, it is not aimed at artists who already know they love pastels and want a full palette. It is a trial set, and a very good one at that.

Design and Build Quality

Some pastel pencils feel light and flimsy, while others have a heftier, more premium feel. The Staedtler pencils sit firmly in the second camp. They feel genuinely nice in the hand, despite being student grade.

The barrels are plain wood grain with a slim silver print along one side carrying the Staedtler branding and the word “pastel”. The barrel is hexagonal and 7.5mm across, with a 4.3mm core. That thick core is standard for pastel pencils because the medium is brittle and needs the support.

Each pencil end has a small pigment identifier, though it is so subtle it is barely useful. In practice it does not matter much: the core is visible through the plain barrel, so color selection stays easy. One small gap is that there are no pigment names on the barrels, the tin, or the website. With only 12 colors that is forgivable, but it is worth knowing.

Color Range and Swatching

The palette is rich and vibrant, which came as a pleasant surprise at this grade level. The set covers yellow, orange, a coral red, a red leaning toward pink, lavender, a dark Prussian-style blue, a light cerulean-style blue, a lime or grass green, a viridian-type green, brown, black, and white.

Tested on Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper, the colors came off strong and saturated. The black even reads faintly on black mixed media paper, though it is far easier to judge on white or light surfaces.

Two gripes stand out. First, the viridian-style green is very blue-leaning and unnatural for subjects like botanical work, where olive-based greens are more useful. Second, because the red leans pink, mixing it with yellow does not produce a convincing traditional orange. Twelve colors is workable, but a 24- or 36-set would make life much easier, and Staedtler already offers a 48 pastel block set, so the demand clearly exists in the wider range.

Sharpening and Handling

Sharpening is the classic pain point with pastel pencils. Most electric sharpeners warn against using them with pastels because the brittle core can shatter. The safest route is a craft knife to remove the wood, followed by a small sharpener or scraper to refine the point, and a touch of sandpaper for a fine tip.

These cores are, as expected, fragile. In testing, two pencils (the yellow and the blue) suffered shattered cores during sharpening after being dropped, while the other ten sharpened without issue. That fragility is inherent to the medium rather than a defect, but it reinforces the need for careful handling and gentle sharpening.

Blending and Mixing

One real advantage pastels have over colored pencils is that you can apply dark values first and bring lights on top, the reverse of the light-to-dark discipline colored pencil artists live by. Highlights over dark backgrounds work beautifully.

Blending behaves much like colored pencil work but with an easier hand. Mixing yellow with the dark blue produces a convincing green, and layering the grass green over the dark blue and the cerulean blue yields useful tonal variations. The brown can be lightened with the white pencil to shift its value, though yellow does little for it. Mixing and blending is absolutely achievable, but with only 12 pencils you will lean on it heavily, which again argues for a larger set.

Expect some dust. Even in pencil form, pastels generate a fair amount, which is exactly why many artists avoid stick pastels. If the texture on your hands bothers you, pastel pencils are a much more tolerable route into the medium.

Paper Choice Matters

Surface choice makes a bigger difference with pastels than with almost any other dry medium. Ordinary sketch or mixed media paper will not grip the pigment properly and will give you a false impression of what the medium can do.

Clairefontaine Pastelmat is the standout recommendation. It is sturdy, close to a light Bristol-style board, grips the pastel well, and supports layer after layer without falling apart when lifted. Ton selenium-style grey paper works for some artists but is smoother and flimsier, so pigment can flake off when the sheet flexes. Velour paper produces stunning results in experienced hands but is hard to control for beginners. If you do continue with pastels, fixatives will eventually become part of your kit for protecting finished work.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The core limitation is the range: a 12-set only, where the pastel block line goes up to 48. Bigger sets from brands like Stabilo, Caran d’Ache, and Conté cost considerably more, which is precisely why this set works as an entry point, but you may quickly want more colors.

Sharpening demands care and patience, the cores are brittle, and there is no pigment naming anywhere in the packaging or online. None of these are dealbreakers for a trial set, but they matter if you expect a long-term studio staple.

Buying Advice

The Staedtler Design Journey Pastel Pencils 12-set is a genuinely well-made, pleasant-to-use student-grade set that removes most of the cost barrier from trying pastel pencils. If you are curious about the medium, start here rather than with an expensive premium set.

Pair it with a small pad or a couple of sheets of pastel mat paper so your first experience reflects what the medium can really do. And if Staedtler extended this line to a 36-set to match the ambition of its pastel block range, it would be an easy recommendation for a much wider audience. As it stands, this is a superb sampler with clear limits.

Conclusion

For a low-risk introduction to pastel pencils, this set is hard to beat: pleasant heft, vibrant color, and a friendly price. Just go in knowing it is a starter set, sharpen gently, and use the right paper.