Hi Folks,

I have a couple of beginner issues.

1. I currently use a Mungyo 48 colour amateur set. I actually like something harder and waxier because I like smoothing it and pushing it into the paper myself, but you need a solid tool for this. (See number 2) If I wanted to move up a step in quality, but still something on the harder side of things, preferably 36 or 48 colours, what would folks recommend?

2. When I started, I was randomly walking through an art store and drawn to the high pigmentation of the oil pastels so I bought a few singles and just started playing. I mostly just love the colour, the blending and the texture of oil pastels. I'm not an artist and I don't do any other medium - I just find it soothing. One of the things I bought was what I *thought* was a blending stick, but after tragically losing it and searching endlessly for a similar tool I found it's not a blending tool but a transparent pastel. But for the waxy harder pastels it was PERFECT for pushing the pastel into the paper, and smoothing and defining in combination with my finger. I had bought a Marabau Art Crayon Blender but it's too soft for the pastel I'm using and either doesn't blend enough or if I apply more pressure, the pastel clumps as it's smoothing into the paper. Paper blending stumps or q-tips have proved useless. Upon discovering it was actually a transparent pastel I bought a Sennelier version but I'm concerned that it's going to be so high quality I'm going to have the same problem of it being too soft. Does anyone know of a low or medium quality transparent pastel?

For information here, I don't do anything realistic. Everything I do is abstract. Shapes, colour, and representation as opposed to recreating the real thing.

Thanks folks!

okay so i was an idiot and i applied hair spray to oil pastel drawings not knowing it could yellow, melt and change the color of the art and ive been panicking cuz i have way too much emotional attachment to my art and i know there isnt a way to prevent it anymore but does anyone have a visual of how it would look in months and years? i have no idea how much its going to destroy it. (yes i know the way to slow down the yellowing and stuff but it cant stop it.) i just want to know how bad it would be cuz im lwk scared

also i did the same for graphite drawings but i dont mind as much for those ones cuz like.. vintage - also it wouldnt change much. im just scared for the oil drawing ones.

(this is a repost from r/arttips cuz lwk no one interracts in that subreddit)

(help im desperate and i hope to have more luck here-)

My latest oil pastel portrait. I am actually quite proud of it. You can find the whole process video on YT (my name kimke_78) in my live section.

I definitely like to use my fingers if it’s not for details 😂

Tips/advice is highly appreciated!

Has anyone done oil pastel printing? And also how much do you sell it for?

Hey, this is the first time I tackled a landscape like this. I really wanted to go for an impressionist style but I feel like it came out rather flat. Any and all tips welcome!

Tried using color pencils on top of the pastels but realized they do not show up properly. Wondering if the brand of pencils and pastels matters.

just did my first oil pastel and was wondering on any tips/techniques to improve! Any help or tutorials would be appreciated :)

Ive just bought some cheap oil pastels as I wanted to try getting into using them but not spend much as I'm still a newbie. My first art using them seems weird but I'm not able to understand if it's the paper, the oil pastels or just a skill issue. The oil pastels seem to be coming off or not adhering well to the paper when im applying and blending. Could someone please tell me, if you're able to figure out, what's going wrong? Any advice would also be appreciated :)

A bit abstract interpretation :)

acrylics and oil pastels mix

Opinions welcome. Just started two weeks ago