“I love the gorgeous colours in your Unison Colour set but I’m not sure if they will work for me.”
I’ve heard this from a couple of people recently. So I poked a bit further and asked why they think this. Their answers:
- “I paint animals and I don’t see any browns and greys in the set”
- “They are so pretty but what happens when I want to paint grey overcast scenes?”
- “I’m not sure the colours are right for painting dark skin tones”
- “I want to paint with more colour and yes, here’s the set to do that, but I’m scared of colour”
And my responses?
You can paint animals with this set…
You can paint grey overcast skies and more muted scenes …
I wanted this set to be able to paint all skin colours….
And this set will help you get over your fear of using colour! The colours are sorted into values and you have a great selection of hues to start with. Just step in and go!
But don’t just take my word!
Let’s have a look at what some new fans of the set have done and what they say about it!
First, there’s Jean Sullivan who was one of the main prodders for me to get the set done! (Thanks Jean!) Once she got her Unison Colour set, she immediately went about rearranging them. And I’m delighted as this is how I’d like to arrange the set in easily grabbable values and colours. (The arrangement in the set from HQ is to show families of colours, each with their own riff of values.)
She had time before I published this post to do a quick piece to try them out. Here’s what lovely things she has to say about the set:
“This is a dream set; as I discovered when I decided to rearrange the colors before starting to paint, the set is perfectly balanced for values and temperature, using only 36 pastels. Wow!! I usually struggle when I’m traveling to pick a small number of pastels appropriate for whatever I come across to paint. And I never get my choices balanced. Gail has taken all the guess work out of those choices. And in a very lightweight portable set. I’ve only done one painting with them, but loved the colors that I had to choose from and can see that it will serve me well. And of course, I’ve been watching her working to choose this set for almost two years and have admired the variety of options that are available.”
Speaking of animals, next up is a piece by Janet Ellison. This is so made me smile!
And Janet shared this: “I love Gail’s new Unison Colour set. The rich colours are perfect for creating glowing tones in every value!”
Lucia Stout grabbed a sketchbook and started right in with this landscape scene:
Lucia said, “The pastel selection is a delight.”
Krysia Eade immediately made a colour chart. She made the grid on the computer, entered the pastel codes, then printed it onto mixed media paper. She then applied the colours to that. Finally, to protect it, she laminated it. And best of all, it fits neatly inside the box on top of the foam.
Such a cool idea to be able to know which colours are in the set for when you need to replace them. Laminating keeps everything from smudging. This means you can also compare colour swatches to it if you find the need to do so.
Krysia painted this piece of her friend absorbed by a Sorolla painting!
Krysia had this to say about the set: “I was very excited about this set as I generally have trouble deciding what colours to use and use too many! I was looking forward to being limited to only 36. I love this set and think the little pieces will fit well in my pochade box. Thanks Gail!”
Tünde Varga went to town with four pieces! Check them out!
Tünde Varga, “Sunday autumn afternoon in Bern,” Unison Colour pastels on Pastelmat, 30x24cm 
Tünde Varga, “Green Pepper,” Unison Colour pastels on Pastelmat, 24x25cm
Tünde Varga, “Ferrero Rocher Chocolates,” Unison Colour pastels on Pastelmat, 15x15cm 
Tünde Varga, “Aubergine,” Unison Colour pastels on Pastelmat, 12x15cm
Tünde had this to say about the set: “I love my first Unison Colour set which arrived one day before my birthday, such an amazing gift. I love their brightness, the richness of the colours, the contrasts I can realize with them. I love the orange hues and the dark purple in the set.”
And finally, we have a still life by Martyne Bailey. You can see how she has colourful areas and more muted areas in this piece. She had this to say: “I love the idea of having the colors that you have narrowed down to be vital for painting…I very much appreciate the thought, trial-and-error and range that has gone into the palette, allowing me to focus on learning!”
WOW!! I hope these pieces inspire you to start exploring what YOU can do with this Unison Colour set! I want to hear if you’re excited about the possibilities so be sure to comment below.
If you want to read more about how I developed the Unison Colour set of 36 soft pastels, click HERE.
You can purchase the set directly from Unison Colour HQ. Or, if you’re in the US, you can buy it from Dakota Art Pastels. In Canada, King’s Framing say they will carry it (ask them for it!) and Dragonfly Art Supplies on Salt Spring Island already do (give them a call and support this small local shop!). If you patronize a retailer that carries Unison Colour pastels already and you’re interested in the set, make sure you ask them, “When are you getting the Gail Sibley Unison Colour set in?!” Let’s get the market demand up for them 😁
And by the way, I don’t get any commission from promoting the set. I’m just excited about it and what it can do for you!
AND, before I sign off, I recently did an “Unboxing” video which explains a bit of my rationale around the creation of the set. Watch it below.
And that’s it for now!
A big thank you to the artists who allowed me to share their artwork!!
You know how much I love hearing from you so please do leave a comment below.
Until next time,
~ Gail
PS. A number of the artists above are members of IGNITE! my art-making membership! It reopens 19th-22nd November 2021 to those on the Waitlist. You can get on the list by CLICKING HERE
14 thoughts on “My Unison Colour Set and What Others Have Painted With It!”
It certainly looks like a versatile set–love the examples from you as well as from the others. Good luck with it!
Thanks Wendy!! I do hope it will serve well as a kind of workhorse set. Of course, we pastellists always need more!!
This is a great blog for showing the versatility of your new set Gail. It has inspired me! Thank you for including my painting of Sandra Nunes admiring Sorolla. One thing I have learnt from this blog is to take more care when photographing my paintings as the original of mine was much more vibrant than it looks in my photo!
So glad you are inspired Kyrsia and thank you for permission to use your fabulous piece portraying Sandra and Sorolla (maybe that could be the title?!).
Getting the colour right (actually, getting all parts correct) when photographing is almost impossible sometimes! I find certain colours, colours like oranges and purples, can be particularly tricky to capture.
It’s a gorgeous set Gail. The colours make me smile and then feel very impatient to use them. Congratulations – it is truly a set of colours that speaks to who you are and the joy you bring to your painting, 👏👏👏
Thanks so much Kerrie!!
I LOVE that the colours make you smile and that they somehow relate to who I am – that’s just the best 😀 Thank you!
Mine are on the way! Can’t wait to get my fingers on those luscious colors. You have certainly made the point that these are extremely versatile. So looking forward to using them!!! Congratulations on the set, Gail!!
Yayyyy!!! I can’t wait to see what you do with them Ruth!
And hah hah, glad I made my point! 😜
Thank you very much for showing the laminated colour chart from Krysia Eade with the pastels reference numbers for your new 36 unison pastel set.
It will be such a great help with trying to assemble a properly balanced set to work with from my existing pastels and some individual new unisons as and when affordable!
I really enjoy your site and am grateful for all your generous sharing.
wishing you happy and safe healthy days
You are so welcome Dolma. I love that Kyrsia thought of doing this!
The Unison Colour website also lists the individual colours in the set. You can check that out here.
Wishing you health and happiness too!
Gail, these colours looked so delicious that I couldn’t resist. And they are so ‘you’ – I can see them in all your demos. I also have a tendency to use far too many pastels, so this box would be a great help towards using a limited palette.
Problem for me, after trying a few avenues, is that it’s impossible to get the set from overseas without paying massive delivery costs (more than the price of the set). and then probably waiting months. 🙁
But then I just happened to see that a local online art store had Unisons on special. Voila! My chance to get the colours as singles, if not the set. Had to substitute one of the reds for a Red Earth but it looks similar. Sorry I couldn’t get the actual set, but it’s the next best thing.
They arrived today and I have some spare boxes – so they’re going away with me next week. Looking forward to using them.😍😻
Judi I’m thrilled that you were able to figure out a work around and that your local store sells individual sticks and that, who how! They were on sale. Perfect 😁
And I had to smile, grin in fact, when you said the colours are so “me.” I’m glad they reflect who I am and the way I work. I can’t wait to see what you do with them and how they may help you to reduce the number of pastels you use in a piece. Bring them on!!
Gail Sibley has her own page on the Unison website:
https://www.unisoncolour.com/associate-artists/gail-sibley/
https://www.unisoncolour.com/paint-anything-with-this-box-of-pastels-by-gail-sibley/
Thanks Chris!!