Studio Materials Exploration: Oil Pastels
Like many art materials, oil pastels can vary in all aspects, from quality to quantity. Throughout this blog, I’ll be going over what I have discovered, while experimenting with two brands of pastels; one of which is student grade, while the other is artist quality.
Sakura: Cray-Pas
Price: $18.19
Quality Grade: Student
When working with this brand of oil pastel, right off the bat you will notice that the size of each is very similar to those of your typical crayon, if not ever so slightly bigger. The texture of the material is also similar to those of crayons, however, with a slightly more delicate touch which makes it more fluid when applying to media (i.e. paper, cardboard, linen, etc.). Based on prior experiences with this particular brand, the quality grade is great for school ages from elementary school to high school. It is easy to use and blend with either your fingers and/or blending stumps, and can serve as a great introductory material for those willing to expand their knowledge on various, dry artist tools. Additionally, due to its fluidity, it could also serve as a great transition from dry to wet materials.
It is important to keep the media (or source) that is used with oil pastels. These work well with more “toothy” or textured papers like, charcoal paper or drawing pads. There is also paper that is made specifically for pastels that should be available at your local art supply store. From my experimentation, these pastels did not work well with dark paper due to their pigment being a tad weak. So, it would be best to stick with lighter toned media.
Sennelier
Price: $31.53
Quality Grade: Artist (or Premier)
This was my first time ever, using an artist quality grade oil pastel. When purchasing this product, I did not know what to expect; my automatic assumption was that it was going to be “better” than the student grade brand without any background knowledge on how it would be. Once I started using it, the fluidity and pigment were the first two things I noticed, and the difference compared to the previous brand was like night and day. Little to no pressure needs to be applied when using these pastels due to their delicate fluidity; it is almost as if you were applying lipstick onto paper. The colors also stand out very well on different toned media. Furthermore, it is extremely easy to blend.
Despite its superb quality, it is very delicate and would not be recommended for younger age use. Therefore, it would suit best for college aged students and above; those with more experience using [oil] pastels.
Final Notes
Personally, I have yet to explore even more with using oil pastels. This activity has shown be a clear difference between the quality grades; therefore, I plan on testing out more brands to find out what the differences are and whether they live to specific quality standards.