Where to Shop for Pastels

My favorite art store is Mona Lisa in Calgary. They have a wide supply of pastels and a huge selection of papers. It is always an adventure to shop there. It is one of my favorite places to wile away time especially if I have a few dollars to invest in supplies. My purchases are always wrapped securely and the staff is very knowledgable. http://www.monalisa-artmat.com/store.htm 

Online there are many excellent art suppliers. http://www.dakotapastels.com/pages/orderingonline.aspx http://www.cheapjoes.com/art-supplies/23343_pastel-supplies.asp For premium buttery soft pastels that are handmade contact http://www.terryludwig.com/policies.html

For a beginning pastel artist I would advise buying a set of pastels in a range of colors.  Later you can chose individual sticks to fill any colors you need. A pad of pastel paper and some sheets of rough watercolor paper would give you a starting supply of paper.

Personally, I have a wide range of soft pastels, conte (hard pastel) sticks in a landscape and a portrait set and also a set of basic pastel pencils. I have on hand watercolor rough paper, low tooth pastel paper in a range of colors, velor paper, suede board and sanded paper. I use a large drawing board to clip my paper to when working. I use q-tips, paper towels and fingers for blending. I use two types of fixatives; the first is a workable fixative spray I use between layers of pastels and the second is a final fixative spray I use when a work is finished.