The colors are strongly pigmented and easy to spread and blend impressively, they also go on while leaving virtually no dust. Sightly harder than the other top brands, they are renowned for their opacity. Here are some recommendations to get you started.Ĭaran d’Ache pastels strike the right balance between price and performance. Higher-grade pastels can be bought individually, so we encourage you to shop around. A common combination, for instance, is to layer super-creamy Senneliers over slightly firmer Holbeins.

In fact, most artists will mix brands and fill their arsenal with colors of different firmness. It’s tough to pick the absolute best brand, as your preference will depend largely on your subject matter and style.

But they make up for that in ease of use, workability, and vivid color. A concern with oil pastels is that they never completely dry and should ideally be treated with a fixative or framed behind glass. Thinned with oil or solvents, they can also be used for painting. Of Masks and Men: James Ensor at Gladstone GalleryĪ cleaner medium than chalk pastels, but still softer and more blendable than either colored pencils or crayons, oil pastels are a great tool for both sketching and making finished pieces.

If you have oil pastels in the house, I highly recommend giving at least the basic oil pastel painting technique a try with your kids! (And joining in yourself, of course.Luciano Perna, Conceptual Artist Who Evoked the Magic of the Everyday, Dead at 63 Probably because the canvas was treated and was not able to absorb any of the oil or oil pastels the way porous paper does. We tried oil pastel painting on a stretched canvas but it didn’t work especially well. (I added a blue watercolor wash for the background afterward.)Ĥ. Here’s Daphne’s house drawing/painting above.Īnd here are my peonies, using this technique. Draw a picture with Sharpie permanent markers first, then add oil pastels to color in some areas, then do the oil rubbing step.

Draw with oil pastels, paint with watercolors, let dry, then do the oil rubbing step.ģ. Try some watercolor resist by painting with watercolors over your finished oil pastel painting.Ģ. That’s all for the basic technique! Oil Pastel Painting Variationsġ. You can also draw really lightly with the oil pastels, as I did here with the side of a broken oil pastel, and then use the oil to blend it into a more cohesive band of color. Tip: Use a different Q-tip for different colors. Watch as the oil pastel blends, spreads, and becomes more paint-like with the addition of oil and friction. Dip a Q-tip in oil then rub over the oil pastel drawing. Oil pastels (we used both the regular Crayola oil pastels and the creamier Portfolio oil pastels this time)Ģ.

Easy oil pastel drawing for beginners