I wanted to compare a softer brand of oil pastels. The left is what I used for the last pose of the girl, Neopastels. At the right is Sennelier’s Oil Pastels. The Sennelier’s are only darker, because they’re the only colors I have at the moment. Senneliers blend more readily and look softer and fill more holes in the paper. For the purpose of rendering figures, that is what I want.

On this test I wanted to try soft on top of hard, to rough in with the Neopastels, and finish with the Sennelier’s. A is step 1, B is Step 2.
That worked well. It allows the ability to rough it in and make changes, and once satisfied to put on the finishing layer without creating a muddy mess. I will try the Sennelier’s at life drawing group once a better selection of colors in my tool box.

The oil pastel covered easily, and worked well on the sanded paper. I like it for this purpose. 19×25″ Oil Pastel on Brown Pastel Paper.

At one point I almost through this one out the window! I drew it at larger scale, and wasn’t sure if my proportions were right, because I couldn’t see what I was doing. I had sanded the paper for oil pastel, but since I thought it was a lost cause, I just took a regular dark pastel and shaded it. The surface was too smooth for regular pastel, and it made for stark shading. Worse after seeing it shaded I could see that the drawing was solid. Tomorrow I will attempt to ressurect it with oil pastel. Will oil pastel cover it?

I put the final touches on the drawing before the oil pastel figure. I’m not sure which way I prefer. The Conte crayon has a softness and precision. I would want to try the oil pastel on a softer paper finish before making a judgement.

I tried oil pastels on this pose, called Neopastels. The paper was a bit rougher than I liked, Canson, but the color paper was the best I had available to me at the time. I like the fine color adjustment the oil pastels allow. I like the buttery feel of the media. There are many supports possibilities I could try marking on, and many ways of fixing the surface, I can test.