Oil Pastel Experiment – Part the Second

My second experiment with oil pastels went just as badly as my first. There are some nice parts to the picture, but the beak was very challenging – I didn’t get the curve or length quite right, and I was using red. The lesson I learned: Always start with a lighter color. With pastels, I can always take it darker, but you can never erase it or lighten it enough.

I am finding pastels to be quite challenging for me. I am used to drawing with pencils which I can always erase easily. I don’t have that freedom with pastels. Pencil drawing has also made me a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the details. Details aren’t an option with pastels, however. I need to work on looking at the picture as a whole, rather than every little detail.

Oil Pastel Experiment – Part the First

As this was the first time I’d picked up oil pastels in about seven years (and I’d only used them one time that seven years ago), I was happy with the way this apple turned out. But I did discover that I cannot use the red pastel over the green one – it turns the apple brown (you can see this at the top of the apple). However, red on top of yellow works just fine. Why that is, I may never know. So I have a nice red apple with a bad spot. Yum!