This post is concentrating on both oil and chalk pastels, as well as other medias. Pastels are a great way to add texture, depth and variety into your art.

The colour pay off and resistance you get from oils is fun and powerful whilst chalks can be soft, beautifully layered and easily manipulated with water or ink.

HOW TO USE OIL PASTELS

In the video above, I show how you can vary the intensity of colour from oil pastel by changing how strongly you apply it to the page. How to layer oil pastels and how to mix them with ink to discover their masking properties.

HOW TO USE CHALK PASTELS

In this second video, firstly we focus on chalk pastels. These are a newer tool for me so I was playing with colour pay off, layering, smudging and mixing with water. I love how you can get either a soft subtle hue or a strong one from the same medium.

Combining Oil and Chalk Pastels

I then end the video with two spreads combining oil and chalk pastel. I find that together they work amazingly. The mix of textures as well as varying colour depths gives for really interesting mixed media effects. When you add into this water and ink too, you are creating with so many different levels of appearance, giving you a real multi dimensional effect on your page

Thank you for reading and watching this post, I hope it inspired you to try these materials. I think that oil and chalk pastels are a worthy addition to your art tools… and are relatively cheap too!