Blenders

So you’ve got two individual soft pastel colours next to each other, say red and yellow, and somehow you want to get an orange in there between them. 

If you’re reaching for the orange pastel, then put it back!  A blender is the answer!  Blenders are fairly simple little drawing accessories that take the shape of a pencil, but are actually made of thin paper that has been rolled up into a tight cylinder and sharpened to a point.

The resulting soft point of the blender is perfect for rubbing into soft pastel, charcoal and other soft drawing materials to blend colours together and soften tonal values.

You can sharpen blenders just like regular pencils, and because they are fairly cheap they give you an economical way of not getting your fingers dirty by rubbing them into your drawing!