When choosing art supplies, it’s often hard to know what the right thing is going to be. If you do a quick Amazon search for “chalk”, you’ll get a ton of results for chalk, chalk pastels, soft pastels, and even oil pastels. If you read the descriptions, you’re not going to have a goddamn clue which one is the right thing to buy because, god forbid anyone make anything easy.

I understand the frustration of this process intimately because, as you can imagine, I’ve been there. I’ve spent money on supplies I couldn’t use, I’ve bought supplies that I didn’t like, and I think it sucks that there isn’t more information out there to help beginning artists find the products they’re looking for.

Here’s the 4-1-1 on these different mediums and which ones you do and do not want for your chalkboard and/or chalkboard wall. Oh, and am I going to give you the inside scoop on brands too? Hell yes I am!

1. Plain Old Chalk

   People talk a lot of shit about chalk; it’s “too dry”, “too dusty”, or “it crumbles apart”. Plain old chalk comes in round sticks that you can sharpen using a pencil sharpener. It tends to be brittle, it makes a lot of dust, and yes, it’s dry. It’s also easy to use, easy to erase, easy to sharpen, and easy to layer and you can find it everywhere. You can do A LOT with a box of plain white chalk (although I’d suggest buying it in bulk, one little box won’t last long on a chalkboard wall). They also come in larger boxes with tons of colors - I use them like crazy.

   BRANDS: I’ll always recommend Crayola. I’ve bought it from a variety of online retailers and as much as I hate to say it, Amazon is the best vendor for it because they pack it tightly so I rarely get broken pieces. Every single time I’ve bought direct from Crayola, every single pieces is broken into two or three pieces.

2. Dustless Chalk

   Dustless chalk is sort of a farce. It’s more dense so it doesn’t create the same amount of dust as plain old chalk but I find that it’s harder to sharpen, it’s more expensive, and it doesn’t really add a lot of value. You can get it if you want but as far as I’m concerned, they’re pretty “meh”.

   BRANDS: Who gives a shit? I don’t use dustless chalk so I don’t have any frame of reference for good/bad brands.

3. Chalk Pastels

   I use chalk pastels quite a bit. Like plain old chalk, they tend to be dry and dusty but they have a wider variety of colors and richer pigments than you’ll find in standard Crayola chalk. They come in square-shaped sticks, which is kind of irritating if you need to get a really fine line and your pastel is worn down a bit but they work really well with plain old chalk if you need to blend colors. Pro tip: chalk pastels work great on the sidewalks too!

   BRANDS: I typically buy Sargent Brand chalk pastels. Their website sucks something fierce so I always buy them on Amazon. You can get 12-packs of single colors (like black or white), 12-packs of similar shades/tones (like earth tones or skin tones), or you can get mega packs with a shit load of colors. Richeson Street Stix are another good option.

4. Soft Pastels

   Soft pastels have more moisture than your standard chalk pastels. They’re rich and luscious and wonderful to work with. They’re safe on chalkboards, they blend beautifully, and they can even be blended with chalk pastels.

   The thing about soft pastels is that they’re expensive. That said, they are much easier to purchase single colors of than chalk pastels. I like chalk pastels but wouldn’t suggest spending the money on them if you’re a beginner. For what it’s worth, they look beautiful on paper.

   BRANDS: There are a lot of wonderful brands for soft pastels. I’m personally fond of the texture you can get from Sennelier and Mount Vision.

5. Oil Pastels

   Oil pastels are another animal altogether because they’re oil based. DO NOT USE OIL PASTELS ON A CHALKBOARD. These are strictly for pieces that are intended to be permanent. They have super rich color pigmentation and texture. They go on your paper (or wood, or whatever) really thick and can be finger blended like chalk can. That said, if you’re a chalk artist, oil pastels are not the supply for you.

   BRANDS: I’m not going to talk about brands here because we’re talking about chalkboards and chalkboard walls, which oil pastels should not be used on so if you’re dying to get into oil pastels, that’s a different conversation.

Ultimately, choosing the right supplies does require a little trial and error but in my experience, these are products that have been consistent. So, I hope this is helpful for you - if you are looking at a different brand of product that isn’t mentioned here, drop me a line in the comments and I can tell you what I know about them.