Dark 8 Small Stick Soft Pastel Set

Name: Dark 8 Small Stick Soft Pastel Set
Brand: Unison Colour
SKU: DARK8SET
Price: 51.59 GBP
Availability: InStock

A powerful collection of deep, rich tones designed to create contrast, shadow, and dramatic depth in your artwork. Handmade with artist-quality pigments and a soft, blendable texture, this set is ideal for landscapes, portraits, and tonal studies.

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£51.59

Description

Add drama, contrast, and depth to your artwork with this powerful collection of rich, deep tones.

The Dark 8 Half Stick Soft Pastel Set is designed to provide the essential deep values every artist needs to create strong contrast, depth, and visual impact. Featuring a carefully selected range of dark hues, this palette is ideal for shadow work, night scenes, dramatic landscapes, and building tonal structure within compositions.

Each pastel is handcrafted using premium-quality pigments to ensure bold colour strength and dependable performance. The soft, velvety texture allows for smooth blending and seamless layering, making it easy to develop rich shadows and enhance contrast without harsh edges.

Whether you’re strengthening shadows, defining form, or adding dramatic mood to your work, this compact set delivers the dark tones that bring balance and dimension to your artwork.

Why Artists Love This Set

Essential dark-value palette
A carefully balanced range of deep tones perfect for shadows, contrast, and dramatic compositions.
Handmade with artist-quality pigments
Crafted using traditional techniques to produce strong, consistent colour depth.
Soft, velvety texture
Blends smoothly and layers effortlessly to create rich shadows and tonal depth.
Compact half-stick format
Ideal for portability and expanding your tonal range without adding bulk.
Perfect for building contrast
Excellent for landscapes, portraits, night scenes, and creating dramatic lighting effects.

Have you seen these?

Earth 8 Half Stick Soft Pastel Set

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Contrast 8 Small Stick Soft Pastel Set

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Light 8 Small Stick Soft Pastel Set

£51.59

Midnight 8 Small Stick Soft Pastel Set

£51.59

Safety Information

Additional 37, Dark 15

WARNING: MAY BE HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED. EXPOSURE MAY CAUSE HARM TO THE DEVELOPING FETUS, OR NERVOUS SYSTEM, KIDNEY, OR BONE MARROW DAMAGE. Contains: LEAD. PRECAUTIONS: Do not spray apply. AVOID USING IF PREGNANT OR CONTEMPLATING PREGNANCY. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. FIRST AID TREATMENT: If swallowed, get prompt medical attention.

WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Cadmium, Cobalt and Lead which is known to the State of California to cause cancer and reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.

Blendable
Our pastels have superior blending capabilities, whether combining colours or layering.
Lightfast
Your paintings will shine for years to come with the best rated pigments.
Mixed Media
Use our pastels in conjunction with watercolour and acrylic, or in any other creative ways.
Soft and Smooth
‘Just like butter’ – Our pastels need no encouragement to leave their mark.
Highly Pigmented
Using the best pigments to provide the deepest colouration for your work.
Flexible
Use wet or dry on the broadest range of surface types.

Colour Chart Guidance

Unison Colour

4.9

Based on 553 reviews

review us on

Ann V.

18:37 22 Oct 25

Recently ordered the Autumn Rains set. Rec’d fairly quickly and was packaged well. Just started using the set, and really like them. Very easy to work with, nicely blendable, good coverage. Colors in the set are just beautiful. Am enjoying using them!

Erla H.

10:34 20 Oct 25

My first order online of Unison, love the personal assist, Oliver and Dan, thank you. And of course loved the colours :)
I am fairly new to pastels, and have tried few, but when I tried Unison, that was it! The pigment is so good, and to work with them really good. So I am now a Unison fan :)

Mike S.

20:00 17 Aug 25

I ordered the hand made colour charts from Unison. What arrived was a wonderful set of hand made colour charts for each of the colour ranges each coated in a clear covering to preserve the pastel. Each chart is titled with the colour range (e.g. blue violet, red earth) and each colour is numbered. The set comes in a box which also helps to preserve the charts.

davit A.

15:07 15 Jun 25

I m very grateful to have found the Unison Pastel online store because in our country, Georgia, there is a limited selection of pastels. The quality of there pastels is outstanding, with soft gradations. it is convenient to be able to order individually and also in interesting combinations. The delivery is also of high quality. Thank you for helping artists in this way.

Susan W.

17:42 25 May 25

So I've bought, the mini sets Centenary, Drawing Spring, Winter and Summer Dazzle and some pastel paper. Unison's website very easy to manage/navigate. One thing went wrong, but they were on it and dealt with it very very quickly - thank you Oliver. I've always wanted Unison pastels as they get such good write ups. I haven't been disappointed. Every set is brilliant, so well curated but Summer Dazzle is just sublime. Before this I'd bought Autumn mini set, 36 stick Landscape and Midnight. Midnight is just gorgeous, especially the blue sticks. I haven't tried the paper yet but I'm so glad it's in conjunction with Two Rivers, my favourite paper company. Anyway, playtime now...sorry I meant pastel painting time.

Donna H.

15:17 19 May 25

I reunited with Unison a few years ago. I have them stored beside my easel and many of my pastel paintings are 70% and up done with Unison. They have become my favorites.

I had been working on the painting below and I just was not able to achieve the brightness in the center of the painting that I wanted. I wanted something with a some sparkle to it. I received an email from Unison and saw Summer Sparkle Mini set and there was my color with the sparkle.! When they arrived I went to the easel and finished my painting."Blue Bells On Campus". And the packaging with this mini set tops the set off with a glittering band. I love this set.
Art always makes me happy but this mini set really made my day. Thank you so much. Donna Housel

Mark S.

08:55 14 Apr 25

Hoping to do 5 day challenge! Yet to start!
However the people at unison could not do enough to support me! Above & beyond!🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️

rosalien N.

23:30 13 Apr 25

Edith K.

15:02 11 Apr 25

Unison Color soft pastels are the Rolls-Royce among the different pastel brands I know. Some qualifiers: good hold of the chalks, tenderness of the powder, intensity and brightness of the colors. A real joy to work with.
The family business is very professional. Recently I ordered their color chart and a box of colors and I was served quickly and efficiently.

Lorraine B.

17:19 30 Mar 25

Beautiful pastel set, I have a set of hard pastels which I enjoy working with so I'm going to look into the Unison pastel training to make the most of these soft sticks.

Rob J.

20:40 23 Feb 25

Dan and the team at Unison are absolutely fabulous and the soft pastels are THE most incredible vibrant colours and a dream to work with. I cannot recommend them highly enough……..absolutely splendid!

Carol Y.

19:33 23 Feb 25

Loved the colours of pastels shosen by Stephen for this challenge. Really good teaching and Q & A was extemely helpful. Would certainly recommend Unison challenges.

Rhona H.

08:35 16 Feb 25

Unison pastels are just beautiful. I am in love with this product. Shopping was easy. Delivery fast and item is fabulous.

margaret F.

18:22 02 Feb 25

I bought a gift voucher for a relative who works in your pastels

Debbie D.

18:10 10 Nov 24

I recently bought both the Autumn and Winter Mini Sets from Unison Colour. The colours are absolutely stunning in both Sets. Although, I haven't used the Winter set, yet, I have used the Autumn set in the Autumn landscape image. The pastels are perfect in colour, size, their smoothness and are just beautiful. Quality at its best. I can highly recommend Unison Colour, overall.

Susan. C.

12:44 05 Oct 24

5 day pastel challenge was a well designed forum for skill refresher, opportunity to receive helpful feedback and discussion. Stephen Fuller conducted the series beautifully, gave helpful tips, listed the specific tools and pastels he used (while encouraging use of substitutes if you were lacking those).

Amanda

09:16 05 Oct 24

The Unison 'Autumn Rains' pastel challenge with artist Stephen Fuller was just excellent. The piece was beautiful, the tuition well-delivered and well-paced, and the feedback was amazing. Stephen generously took the time to do live questions each evening and, incredibly, put an encouraging comment on each picture that participants posted in the Facebook group. He's a lovely man to learn from, and his art is gorgeous. Thanks Stephen and thanks Unison for arranging this. I love your pastels and your associated artists!

Kaliunis F.

19:38 02 Sep 24

These soft pastels came to me expertly sustainably packed.
The pigment and binding medium are very high quality and represent all-round good value. I liked the presentation .. boxes that are strong and nicely designed quite adequate for fieldwork.
My choice of pastel reflects my style and personal preference. The pastel are a joy to use thanks.

Julie H.

18:13 25 Aug 24

Purchased a couple of single colour pastels to supplement the set I had previously bought. I love unison pastels as they are very soft and blendable but also have fantastic depth of colour. The pastels arrived quickly and were very well packaged. Communication with Unison is great - they really care about the products and their customers.

Ann K.

08:35 18 Nov 22

Unison pastels come in such a huge range of vibrant colours. I chose them initially because they are British made having previously tried other brands originating elsewhere. I soon fell in love with them. I am a beginner but I find them easy to use and their layering qualities are much greater than others I have tried. Turn round time on orders is quick and the products are well packaged.

The Unison community of users and artists is very friendly and so helpful and supportive of a beginner like me. The pictures below show the vibrancy of the colours.

Unisons 5 day challenges are amazing. They are hosted by unison associate artists and are completely free. I have completed several. You learn lots of new techniques and get to be part of an amazing community of artists. Thank you Unison.

Jenny H.

10:58 09 Mar 22

I initially purchased the hand drawn colour chart so that I could try and match my pastels (of varying makes) already having a few unison pastels I decided to also purchase the set for The Haven 1 day course after completing the 5 day Durdle Door challenge, which I really enjoyed. Just love these pastels as they are so soft and creamy and blend really well. A great course with excellent tutor Nina Squires and Dan and the Unison team. Very professional with excellent handouts and all questions answered in the Q&A's.
Can't recommend them enough to anyone to try these courses they are brilliant and with unison and the fb community with you all the way encouraging each other, it really gives everyone a boost.

Pat P.

07:30 06 Feb 21

I've just completed my first Unison colour 5 day pastel challenge which was 'Old Harry Rocks' with Nina Squires. I loved the subject, and the support, which felt personal and was amazing. I dabbled a little with oils, watercolour, oil pastels and soft pastels, with a beginner artist set during lockdown last year, and liked soft pastels the least!! After this week, I love them! Thank you so much Unison colour and Nina, can't wait for the next workshop. I thoroughly recommend anyone with an interest in painting to give this a try!