Conte wraps genuine pastel cores in wood, giving you the rich pigmentation and soft blending of traditional pastels with the control of a pencil format. These aren't just hard pastels shaped like pencils, the cores maintain the velvety texture and brilliant color saturation that pastel work demands while eliminating the mess and breakage that comes with working stick pastels bare-handed.

The wood casing enables precise mark-making: sharp points for fine details in portraiture, crisp edges for architectural elements, controlled shading in botanical studies. You can blend and layer exactly as you would with traditional pastels, but with the added precision of pencil handling. This makes them particularly valuable for adding details to broader pastel work or for artists who want pastel's distinctive look without committing to full-stick techniques.

Sets arrive in metal tins that protect the pencils during transport and keep your palette organized on the work surface. Individual black and white pencils come in blister packs of two each, practical for artists who burn through these foundational colors faster than others or prefer building custom palettes around specific color families.