Oil pastels are a drawing medium that consist of pigment mixed with a non-drying oil and wax binder. They are conveniently portable and can be used  for quick sketches or intense layered works of art. They are a relatively "young" medium, as most drawing and painting methods have been around for centuries.

Looking for the smooth application of a crayon and the intense colors of pastels the oil pastel medium was first developed in the 1920's by the Sakura Crayon Company. This lead to the color sticks known as Cray-Pas, widely regarded as a children's medium. In 1947, however, artists Henri Goetz and Pablo Picasso, looking for something that would allow them to draw on almost any surface, approached Henri Sennelier with the idea of designing a professional version of the children's product. Finally in  1949, with the help of the two artists, Sennelier invented the first professional oil pastels with a smooth texture and vibrant color quality.

Currently many brands of oil pastel are available and the number of uses and styles seem to be increasing as well. Oil Pastels offer unique flexibilty and archival quality and are a great medium to experiment with.

To learn about The Oil Pastel Society, click here.

For an instructional about blending oil pastels with Linseed Oil, click here.

Oil pastels are a rich and flexible medium that can provide a variety of finished looks, smooth blending or thick painterly layers. In this post we'll show you how to refine a loose oil pastel drawing into a smooth painterly work of art. Oil pastels can be blended with most oil painting mediums including, turpentine, mineral spirits and all oils... In this project we'll just use a little Utrecht Linseed Oil.

This first image shows our supplies, a set of Van Gogh Oil Pastels, a filbert brush and Utrecht Linseed Oil. You can also see that we've roughed in our drawing on a Master Panel with the two colors we want to carry throughout the whole work, yellow ochre and burnt sienna. The next step is to bring some of the other colors into your still life.

We continue on building color with the oil pastels, keeping it loose knowing that the details and blending will be done with a paint brush and linseed oil. The objects in the still life retain a light value, warranting a nice dark background of burnt umber and burnt sienna.

These images show the blended work. This effect was achieved by dipping into the linseed oil and blending together the layers of oil pastels. The brush was cleaned with mineral spirits between colors to keep the image from getting muddy. In the second image we've gone back in with the pastels to work in a few more details and some shading. You can continue to work between the pastels and oil & brush until you're satisfied with the results.

Here is a detail of the drawing before and after blending. You can see what a difference can be made with a little oil and some brushwork. The amount of blending is a personal choice and results will vary depending on your surface. This was done on a smooth panel and gives a light wash effect, using a porous surface like watercolor paper or unprimed canvas gives a totally different result. Experiment and enjoy!

The Oil Pastel Society was formed on September 1, 2004, as a non-profit organization, to promote the knowledge and understanding of oil pastel as a fine art medium and to expand the awareness of oil pastel to other artists, galleries, the media, and the general public.

The Oil Pastel Society is a web-based group that allows like-minded artists to exchange ideas and methods, spread interest in the medium of oil pastels and to share beautiful works of art. Each year they put together a fantastic group show available for all to view in an online gallery. The following work is from their 2008 show "Transitions".

You can learn more about The Oil Pastel Society by visiting their website.

"Carousel Stampede" - Charles Wood

"Jade Buddha" - Connie Chadwell

"Annunciation" - Stephanie Neely

"Opus II" - George Shipperley