This post is about the best oil pastels for beginners. Oil pastels are such a fun medium that I have loved since childhood.
If you’re a beginner artist, you may be wondering if oil pastels are good for beginners, and the answer is yes!
In this list, I cover all the best oil pastels for absolute beginners. Whether you are a new artist, dabbling in a new medium, an art student, or just curious about oil pastels, this list is for you!
Best Oil Pastels For Beginners
Below are the best oil pastel sets for beginners. If you want to know how to succeed with this awesome medium, make sure to read to the end for some tips and tricks on using oil pastels.
SAKURA Cray-Pas Junior Artist Oil Pastels
I would recommend this set to anyone who doesn’t want to spend a lot. This set is also good as a test pack to see if you even like using oil pastels. Even though they are labeled as “junior artist” don’t let that throw you off! They are good beginner quality and come with a nice array of colors. This is a great set for students to get emerged in the oil pastel world. I started with this set many many moons ago. 🙂
SAKURA Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastels
This set is great for many reasons, you get a wide range of colors, they are super affordable, and are great quality for beginners. The expressionist set is a step up from the junior set but is still excellent for oil pastel beginners. They blend well and the colors are so rich. Trust me, they’ll make you obsessed with oil pastels! I use these often and highly recommend them!
Pentel Oil Pastels
Pentel Arts makes great oil pastels. As with any beginner set, you will learn a lot with them before you invest in higher-quality oil pastels. This set is another option when looking for the best oil pastels for beginners.
Related: Watercolor And Oil Pastel Mixed Media Floral Painting
Paul Rubens Oil Pastels
The Paul Ruben oil pastel set is a good price point, comes with unique and vivid colors, and is great to get started with. Even though these are listed as a beginner set, you can create some pretty awesome art with them.
How To Choose An Oil Pastel Set
You may be thinking, well how do I choose a set? Start with how much you want to spend, then how many colors you want in your set, and if you want to become serious with oil pastels or are just trying them out for fun.
The Sakura Cray-Pas brand is my go-to recommendation for beginners, and as mentioned, I still use the expressionist set a lot and am a loyal customer.
Oil Pastel Tips For Beginners
Test blending techniques
Before you jump into using them, I suggest opening up a sketchbook and testing out some blending techniques so you see how oil pastels function. There are many ways to blend oil pastels together. You can do this with 2 colors together, using your finger, a q-tip, and layering.
Once you get a feel for how to blend and work with the pastels, you’ll feel a lot more confident when starting a project.
Swatch your colors & create new colors
Swatch out your colors from your oil pastel set on a piece of paper. Use another sheet to see what new colors you could create by mixing them together! Oil pastels are very easy to blend and you can create some awesome shades by mixing certain pastels together. Just think of them as paint tubes!
Use different pressures
You can use oil pastels with light pressure or heavy pressure. Light pressure will create great texture on the paper and heavy pressure will create a more “painted” and full coverage effect.
Experiment with shadows and highlights
Since oil pastels are smooth and easy to blend, you can easily add shadows and highlights to your work. You can do this with similar colors or with black or white. It’s good to experiment with your set to see how you can create shadows and highlights easily. Once you have it figured out, you’re on your way to succeeding with this fun medium!
Oil Pastels For Beginners
If you’re new to oil pastels, I really hope you give them a try and I hope my tips are helpful! Once you start creating with them you’ll quickly catch on to how to make some masterpieces with them. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or comments!
I’m planning on making an oil pastel technique blog post soon which will go over ALL techniques you can use with oil pastels. Once I make that, I will link it in this post!
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