Soft Pastel Drawings For Beginners

Creating an easy flower oil pastel painting has never been this fun. If you are a beginner with this painting medium, you will enjoy this tutorial as it allows you to experiment with your oil pastels and create dynamic designs.

What are the essential materials you will need for an easy flower oil pastel painting tutorial? Can you work with a few tools with easy flower oil pastel painting tutorials? Are there tricks to achieve the natural and vibrant colors produced by oil pastels?

Contents

1 Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting Tutorial
2 Materials To Use For An Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting Tutorial
- 2.1 Pastel paper
- 2.2 Masking tape
- 2.3 HB pencil to trace or outline your design
- 2.4 Oil pastels
3 Step By Step Process On How To Create Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting
- 3.1 Step 1. Pastel Paper
- 3.2 Step 2. Sketch
- 3.3 Step 3. Cut Paper Shape Design
- 3.4 Step 4. Apply Color On The Background
- 3.5 Step 5. Blend Your Color
- 3.6 Step 6. Remove Petal Masking
- 3.7 Step 7. Apply New Color
- 3.8 Step 8. Design Details
4 Are Oil Pastels Similar To Oil Paints?
5 How To Make A Good Oil Pastel Painting?
- 5.1 Oil Pastel Techniques To Try
  - 5.1.1 Blending with heavy pressure
  - 5.1.2 Blending with light pressure
  - 5.1.3 Scumbling
  - 5.1.4 Stippling
  - 5.1.5 With oil
  - 5.1.6 Sgraffito
  - 5.1.7 Color mixing
6 Benefits Of Using Oil Pastels
7 Final Words

Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting Tutorial

In this easy flower oil pastel painting tutorial, we will help you understand the beauty of your oil pastels. Together with a few tools and supplies to help you paint that flower using your oil pastels. This tutorial will also help you work with your painting and blending skills.

There are a few factors that you need to take into consideration when it comes to working your oil pastels. One is to help you avoid getting the paint smudged. It is a common setback for using oil pastels or almost any type of pastel paints. Though there are guaranteed solutions to this disadvantage, best to know what you should know about this painting medium.

Don't let the pain gets much on your painting surface
Painting with oil pastels is conveniently easy with limited essentials
You can blend your oil pastel straight to your canvas with your fingertips
Oil pastels provide fresh and vibrant colors

Pastel painting is easy as you will need a few materials to start working with them. Just your oil pastels and a good pastel paper, you can start creating art. You can simply blend the oil pastels straight into the painting surface. You do not need to worry about any pastel dust as oil pastels have less than hard pastels.

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Before you begin working on this easy flower oil pastel painting tutorial, best to know what design you are working on. If you are wondering what the easy yet dynamic ideas are, try working with some flower ideas. There are massive flowers to choose from.

Now, preparing everything at hand will help you work smoothly. This will keep the imagination, ideas, and inspiration at hand as you work. Since there are just a few materials for pastel painting, it's best to work on different types to help you find which brand of materials you might like the most.

Materials To Use For An Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting Tutorial

One of the critical factors for a successful, easy flower oil pastel painting tutorial is the suitable materials. You can work on ordinary paper but for best results work on pastel paper. The pastel paper has enough tooth to hold your pastel paints in place. You can also blend them properly with a suitable surface.

There are almost always two types of paints for beginners to try working with. The student-grade paints and the artist-grade paints. Student-grade paints are cheaper and lose less than artist-grade paints. You can both work on these types of paints to see the difference.

Though pastel is almost pure pigments, that is one of the reasons why they don't have a binder to hold onto the painting surface. This setback can easily be fixed with the right materials, like using painting fixatives.

You will need the following materials for this tutorial:

Pastel paper

When it comes to working with oil pastels, you need to be precise with the materials you will use. For instance, pastel paper is the ideal painting support that works perfectly for oil pastels. The surface of the pastel paper has enough tooth to hold your paints or pigments in place.

Masking tape

You will need masking tape or painters tape to secure the area where you will be working with. Since oil pastels are prone to getting smudge quickly, it's vital to protect your service and keep it steady while working on them. The masking tape will provide enough support on your painting surface or pastel paper.

Oil pastel painting – Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting Tutorial

HB pencil to trace or outline your design

Just like watercolors, the best way to work with oil pastels is to plant your subject before adding your colors. This means you need to outline or trace your ideas to the surface before starting working on them. An HB Pencil provides a lighter pencil mark or outline on your pastel paper. To make sure that you are working as planned, an outline is a great starting point.

Oil pastels

While there are two types of pains to choose from, we strongly recommend working with artist-grade pastels first. If you have a limited budget, though, you can work with student grade oil pastels in the meantime. This will give you enough exposure and an idea of how they work on a surface.

Everyone will tell you to work with student-grade oil pastels forest to understand how the painting medium works. I advise you to work both with student and artist grade quality oil pastel. This gives you the perfect experience of how each oil pastel reacts on the painting surface or pastel paper.

Student grade paints can be affordable or cheap compared to artists grade, but the quality outweighs the setbacks. Nonetheless, it's still the artist's preference and style for colors that matter the most when creating artwork, especially when working with oil pastels.

Step By Step Process On How To Create Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting

Let's begin our oil pastel painting tutorial for easy flower design. First, you will need to secure your painting surface with masking tape to keep it from moving while you are working. This will also allow you to have a better grip on the paper and concentrate on your design ideas.

Step 1. Pastel Paper

Secure your pastel paper with masking tape on all the sides and edges. This will help you easily work with your painting as it creates stability. Most oil pastel artists ensure that their support doesn't move when they are working.

Step 2. Sketch

Sketch or outline the design of your paper with a pencil. Use light pencil marks for tracing. With the right materials that you use your outline won't affect the pigments above your painting surface. The outline serves as your guide and ensures that you're on the right track while working with your artwork.

Step 3. Cut Paper Shape Design

Cut a petal shape design from your masking tape and secure it on your pastel paper. Make as much petal tape as you can. This will block the pastel paints from overlapping into the secured area.

This technique can also be done using a painter's tape when working with acrylic paints for a birch tree design. For further details and tutorial, you can click here .

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Step 4. Apply Color On The Background

Apply color on the background of your pastel paper. Use a light color when working on the background for your underpainting.

You can select a few different colors to blend for your background. A gradient design for color will be best to try with combining two or more pastel pigments. You can use complementary or contradicting colors together. Be as creative with using your oil pastels as you can.

Cover your background with a variety of oil pastel colors as you want. Work on the edges and even on the areas where you secure with masking tape.

Step 5. Blend Your Color

Blend your colors using a folded tissue paper or a paper towel. Make a horizontal motion as you blend all the colors.

Use another tissue paper if you think that the first one has already many pigments in it. When you have blended all the colors, and created an excellent background, apply another layer of paint into your pastel paper.

Keep on working and adding new layers of paint to your painting surface. Blend the colors properly. Repeat the process of blending your next layer with tissue paper. Once you are satisfied with the color combinations, you can stop right there and continue with the next step.

Step 6. Remove Petal Masking

Removed the petal masking tape that you have applied to your painting surface. Add stems to your flower petals using a pencil for the moment.

Step 7. Apply New Color

Apply new colors into your white space of flowers. You can use a variety of complementary colors for your flowers.

Work on color combinations with your flower petals. Create multiple layers of colors together. Using tissue paper, blend your colors. Apply another layer of colors on the first layer of oil pastels and repeat blending colors.

Add the stem colors using green oil pastels.

Step 8. Design Details

Work on the details of your design by adding highlights with a pastel pencil. Work on tracing the flower stems and the corners of your flowers to emphasize the highlights and edges.

Once you have added your design's value, you can have a few retouches of your flower image by adding a few more oil pastel colors to layer the background.

Add white colors to the background to produce the light source of your painting.

Once you have added white as the light source of your flowers, you can add more complementing colors into the background. You can trace details and highlights using a black pastel pencil.

This can be tricky, but you can blend the colors on the edge of your painting surface using a folded tissue paper. Add pressure on the corners. Removed the masking tape that secures your painting from the surface.

You will notice that the borders are clear from any oil pastel paint residue or overlapping. This will also serve as the borders for your flower oil pastel painting. You can choose to frame it or work on it by storing it properly with glassine paper on top. This will prevent your paint from getting smudged.

Are Oil Pastels Similar To Oil Paints?

When it comes to creating rich and vibrant colors on your painting surface, two names will indeed emerge: oil pastels and oil paints. These two painting mediums offer immediacy, providing effect variance and convenience. They are also an excellent painting medium if you are always on the go or traveling from one place to another.

Oil paints and oil pastels have similar compositions made from the same pigments, wax, and oil. However, regardless of the similarities that both these painting mediums have, it's essential to identify their differences. One notable difference between oil pastels and oil paints is their drying time.

Oil pastels are manufactured using a non-drying mineral oil which affects their drying time. That means this painting medium won't get completely dry on the support. That is why most pastels are prone to getting streaky if you will not be careful with their surface.

Oil paints, on the other hand, were created using linseed oil or safflower oil. Though it takes time for the oil paints to completely dry or cured, they will still get dried. This gives a hardened and firm surface once they reach their complete drying time process.

Oil pastels are made with non-drying mineral oil.
Oil paints are made with safflower or linseed oil that eventually dries over time.

Understanding the unique characteristics between oil paints and oil pastels allows you to create your ideal art. Oil pastels provide fresh and vibrant pigments on the surface, same as oil paint, it's best to understand their unique characteristics moving forward. With plenty of pastel variants available in the market, it is essential to identify which type of pastel works best.

You may notice that oil pastels will dry hard on the support. However, this does not mean that the paint layers are completely dry or already reached their curing time. Oil pastels retain their viscosity throughout the layers of paint on your paper. Compared with oil paints, oil pastels don't try through the process of oxidation. That means they don't reach a specific curing time or drying time.

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The best part about oil pastels is they don't smudge easily if you compare them with soft pastels. It is still needed to protect the surface of pastels regardless of which type you're working with to prevent them from getting smudge. There are different ways on how you can protect the surface of pastels. You can frame them under glass, or you can use a fixative to protect the surface of your painting. This prevents unwanted elements from accumulating over the surface of your paint.

While there are now non-toxic pastels you can purchase on every art store, it's still ideal for checking or working with professional-grade or artist-grade pastels. The option still varies with the painter's preference and style, painting technique, and current budget.

How To Make A Good Oil Pastel Painting?

Creating an excellent oil pastel painting requires patience, expertise, and passion. Aside from that, you have to invest in suitable materials to ensure the quality of your art. With oil pastels, there are little essentials you can work to start painting. For instance, you can go and purchase a high-quality pastel paper and your chosen type of pastel.

Some experts will advise you to work with student grade types of pastels first. That will enhance your skills and your exposure to the characteristics of this painting media. Others will tell you to work with artist-grade paints. Neither of these two is beneficial, and it's about the artist's preference for quality and pigment.

To create an excellent and long-lasting oil pastel painting with breakdown essential factors that you need to consider to improve your skills. Here's everything you need to learn in a nutshell:

Buy the right materials
Understand the characteristics of your painting medium
Find inspiration in creating
Protect here artwork

The best way to make the most out of oil pastels is to create your palette. You dare your purchase student grader artist grade oil pastels to find the right colors that work best for you. You can check open stocks to start building your palette. Then compare the cost you will put on when you create your pallets versus a ready-made palette.

Next is to understand the characteristics of the painting medium you're working with. Since I will be working with pastels, preferably oil pastels, there are little essentials you can provide. Pastels are prone to getting smudge. They also offer rich and vibrant fresh colors. Understanding both the strengths and weaknesses of the painting medium will help you enhance your skills moving forward.

Inspiration is the best way to motivate yourself to create stunning artwork. It is the beauty of expressing your vision using pigments of colors and support. To make the most of the subject you're working with, you have to check your paint's characteristics end which color is best suitable for your project.

Lastly, since oil pastels or almost all types of pastels are prone to getting smear, you have to reconsider protecting your artworks. There is a variance of ways on how you can do so. Several artists will advise you to frame your painting under glass, while others will use fixative to protect the surface from getting smudge.

It is still your preference and style on how to protect your artwork that matters. Some will agree that applying fixative on their artwork is the best way to protect oil pastels from getting smudge, while others prefer the other way around— framing them on glass.

Oil Pastel Techniques To Try

Mixed media is another way to see how your pastels react with other painting mediums. Once you get comfortable and familiar with these characteristics, you can tweak them to create different artwork. This mirrors your capacity and expertise towards a specific painting medium.

You can also check for tips and techniques on how to create stunning artworks using oil pastels. For instance, the methods I've listed below will improve your skills and expertise with oil pastels.

Oil pastels can be used on multiple surfaces, including wood, metal, glass, paper, board, canvas, and even rocks. Here are effective techniques you should try:

Blending with heavy pressure

This technique allows you to work with a couple of colors using heavy pressure blending on the surface. You can layer rich colors of pastels from the preceding layer you work with. You can experiment by adding white or black colors to create a shadowy effect on your painting surface distinctively.

Blending with heavy pressure allows you to see how your pastels will react and if it's ideal on the subject of your work. Continue to experiment by adding various pressures on the surface to see the outcome of your colors.

Blending with light pressure

To achieve a variance of hues on your painting surface, it's best to use light pressure with your oil pastels. While this can help you understand every color's characteristics and blend-ability, this also improves your painting skills using this painting medium. Furthermore, if you want to achieve a unique surface on your painting, you can experiment with the light pressure technique.

Scumbling

This oil pastel technique allows you to apply controlled pressure on the surface as you scribbled marks on your pastel paper. You can build up as many colors as you want to create a unique textured surface.

Stippling

This technique allows you to create small and choppy pastel strokes to build up that striped effect on your painting support. You can layer an extra color to achieve that unique texture using this technique.

With oil

This technique allows you to create a unique textured surface by adding oil to your oil pastels. Evenly smooth your oil pastel's surface to blend colors. Leave the surface overnight to dry.

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Sgraffito

This painting technique requires you to create two thick layers of paint or oil pastel paints. Using a sharp object, stylus, or paper clip, you can scratch the first surface to reveal the underpainting. With this painting, you can plant first how you want your underpainting to be shown.

Color mixing

Mixing colors is the best way to help you achieve a specific color, hue, or pigment you are working with. The best way to accomplish this is to use primary colors first to see how you can create unique secondary colors with your oil pastels. Continue to layer or blend colors until you achieve your preferred color.

This technique is ideal if you're working with landscape, seascapes, or any drawings or paintings related to nature.

The aforementioned painting techniques ideal for pastels allows you to improve your skills with this painting medium. While the best way to understand the characteristics of a painting medium you're working with means you have to use them until you get comfortable frequently.

Benefits Of Using Oil Pastels

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Pastels offer fresh and vibrant pigments on their support surface. To make the most of painting with pastels, you must know the benefits and setbacks sleep offers. One of the known setbacks with pastels is that they get much quicker. Most pastels nowadays are toxic-free which are ideal for all artists' ages.

Here are expected advantages when you work with pastels:

There are different types of fossils to choose from which meet your unique needs and requirements.
They provide rich, vibrantly fresh, and luminous colors every artist prefers for their artwork.
Pastels offer convenience and portability.
They are ideal for mixed media artworks.
When you work with pastels, they provide you a low maintenance painting medium.
They provide complete blendability as you work with this painting medium.
You can protect the surface of your pastel painting using fixatives.
You don't need a paintbrush to work with pastels as you can mix colors with your fingertips.
Pastel painting offers several accessories to improve your painting surface and session.

With the benefits that pastels offer, you must also be aware of their setbacks. This includes the following:

The surface of pastels gets smudge off easily
Several types of pastels may omit dust that can be harmful to your health
Pastels are fragile and are prone to accumulating dirt or dust on the surface
They offer a permanent surface once you applied on

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Easy Flower Oil Pastel Painting Tutorial 8

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Final Words

Did you try to use these recommended products that I use in this project? Please leave us a comment below. I am delighted to read all of it.

Creating an easy flower oil pastel painting has never been this fun. If you are a beginner with this painting medium, then you will enjoy this tutorial as it allows you to experiment with your oil pastels and create dynamic designs.

What are the essential materials you will need for easy flower oil pastel painting tutorial? Can you work with a few tools with easy flower oil pastel painting tutorial? Are there tricks to achieve the natural and vibrant colors produced by oil pastels?

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