The Results Surprised Me! Oil Pastels on Black Paper!

Thank you artists for your great response to my [music] last video where I shared my first time ever painting with oil pastels. As [music] a soft pastel artist, I was fascinated using oil pastels for the very first time and I learned so much. But I loved it so much that I had to do more. And this time I chose to work on a dark surface. So I'm going to be sharing >> [music] >> four studies using oil pastels and I'm also going to share with you so many things that I learned from you guys. I got so many helpful tips from the comments in my last video from more experienced oil pastel artists and I'm going to be sharing all of that with you right now. Here we go. It's going to be so fun. The oil pastels I used is a set from Lightwish. They were kind enough to gift me this 77-piece set. If you want the full review of the set, see my former video. I'll have that link in the description of this video. But in that video, I mentioned that I wanted to try painting with these oil pastels on black. Some of you may remember a video of mine that was from, I guess, about a month ago where I used a black surface and I used wax pastels, the Neocolor II wax pastels. And you guys went crazy over that video, as did I over creating these paintings because wax pastels, well, they're smudge-free. So you can create They're not really pastels. They're kind of like waxy crayons, but they're amazing. I had never used them in this way. But I thought since this set of oil pastels doesn't have a lot of darks, I would once again work on a dark surface to kind of make up for that. Now, the 100 set of the Lightwish soft oil pastels does have more darks. That's what I've learned from you guys. I'll have all of the information on how to purchase these in the description of this video and I do have a coupon code. And uh Amazon had them on sale for a period of time, so I'll give you all of that information in the description of this video. This time I chose to use Canson Velvet. You may recall I used pastel matte in the first lesson, which I loved, but I chose this Canson Velvet because I knew I had a pad that had three different values of darks or charcoals. Now, the dark is missing here cuz I ran out, but you're going to see it right now. Here I'm showing the four reference images that I chose for these oil pastel studies. And in keeping with the theme this month on my Patreon page called rediscover and recharge, I chose three of the reference images that I've used already on pastel painting tutorials. So, one of them I have never used. It was this one, and this one was really fun, too. All right, let's get painting. A quick little station break, and then we're going to start the first painting. If you are watching this lesson and you're patron of mine, head over to the Patreon page. You're going to get all four paintings, the content, the commentary, and the last painting is going to be all real time. But don't worry, Monet Cafe YouTube channel. This first video here is only sped up slightly, and I'm going to give you all my commentary here. Also, I'm going to share with you some of the tidbits and helpful information that I learned from other artists about this wonderful medium of oil pastels. I'm starting with a sketch, and I'm using a Prismacolor new pastel. I'm basically just sketching in super basic shapes, and this is about a I think it's about a 4-in, maybe a 5-in by 5-in square again on the Canson Velvet charcoal color. One thing that slowed me down with this painting is I started taking off the labels. I later discovered uh I probably don't need to do that. My hands got a lot of the oil pastels on them, and I realized I can probably just leave them on because I really just kind of use the tips. I don't use them quite the same way as uh soft pastels making broad strokes. I might experiment and try that more. Um but for now, I'm just kind of using the tips. But you probably saw I used a little X-Acto blade. You have to just be very delicate with your cut, and you can get those labels right off. So, I'm just getting a few light values in the sky. I could see in the reference image there was a lot of pink, of course, but the sky even had a little bit of a pink hue. And I started with a little bit of that pale blue and a little bit of this lavender here. And again, I'm negatively painting. Now, this Canson velvet, it's that charcoal um pad that I showed. And this color, it's not black, but it's a really dark charcoal. And I do rectify something later in the video. I've done this before, and I always say, "Susan, don't do that." I have my oil pastels on my right side, so every time I reach over to grab one, my camera tries to refocus on my hand. So, I move them. I can't remember it's the next painting, but for some of the other paintings. And I put a little glow. I could see that in the reference image, too. Just a little glow behind the trees. Again, just I love painting negatively like this. And I wanted to use a dark surface because the set lacked a lot of darks. This is one of the darker pastels in the set. It's either this one or I think it's another one that's even darker deep blue. Yeah, this is not the darkest. So, I'm using this one to get my distant trees that are in on another level behind my my main trees here. And I'm working around my camera here, trying to make sure you guys can kind of see, not putting my hand right on top of the painting. And there was a fence at the top of the hill on the left side there, and I'm trying to just capture the highlights on the fence rails and give a little feeling of light. Again, preserving the dark. I don't need to paint the darks because the paper is the dark. And this is the darker one right here. It's It's the darkest oil pastel in the set. So, I'm negatively painting kind of in between those fence posts and rails. And I think I abandoned that later just to keep the painting simple and not so busy. I think I end up just layering that with some green for a distant field. And there are a lot of things about oil pastels and soft pastels that are similar. The basic principles of painting value, art, color, all apply. It's just a different tool and I'm having to and and anyone who switches mediums just has to learn the aspects and qualities of that particular medium. And so I'm just getting in between some of the flower shapes, my dark areas. Now again, I got my surface of my paper that's dark, so I'm not covering it all up. I'm just getting in a little sketchy grassy areas, kind of where I see them, working around my little flower shapes that I've already sketched in. And now I think I missed a little footage there, but now I'm just carving in a few little greens in between some of these darker, deeper grass values. And by the way, you can totally do these in soft pastel if you again, I'm talking to my patrons here. If you are wanting to recreate this in soft pastel, feel free to share it in our all of our sharing platforms. You can always improvise and use what you have as I always say. I'm I never want to encourage people too much money on art supplies. I mean, goodness knows we already have that propensity anyway. So I'm using this little green just to sneak in some of that color. This was a one of those cool greens that I'm really starting to like and use more and it just gave a fun little color. They have a great assortment of pinks, these kind of pink and magenta colors in the Lightwish oil pastel set. So I'm just giving little scumbly marks um with some of my flowers. As you can see, uh now I can't tell what these flowers are cuz they're so darn small and the ones in the foreground are kind of blurry, but if anybody wants to guess, go ahead and let me know. Um and I'm just giving that feeling of these flowers. A few of them are more individualized, but a lot of them just start to meld together, especially in the distance. It becomes almost like we're we're at a vantage point that's low in the Remember when we had that month the theme was all about vantage point? We're kind of low on the scene. Therefore, it makes the hill and things in the distance feel raised and higher. So, we're eventually going to just layer uh these pink values in a horizontal blanket of sorts in the distance. And you can see I've switched to a lighter uh pink value and just gave little marks on top. And uh wait, wait, wait. I don't know what I was doing there. Oh, I knew I had some other See, I told you they got really nice colors in these warm pink colors. So, they had the cooler pinks I used first, and these are warmer pinks. They lean a little bit towards red. That's what I mean by warmer. Cooler pinks lean a little bit more towards lavender. And uh these warmth uh dollops of warmth in the flowers, I could actually see that in the reference image, and I think it really brought some life to the uh these pink um hues in the scene. Now's where I'm getting um now's where >> [laughter] >> You guys don't care about my English and grammar, do you? Now is where I am making those horizontal marks that I mentioned before. And uh every so often a little a little mark um to maybe indicate uh more individualized flower. This is another one of the warm colors. You can see uh it it kind of leans more red orange um just a little. And uh I think it just brought some life to this, especially since we've got that glow of a setting sun in the distance. We're going to have a little bit of warmth in the scene. And we can also just, because we like to, because it's fun, use your artistic license. I do that often with changing flower colors and by the way, patrons, I I think I have a a good theme for the month of September coming. I think you're going to love it. So we'll be announcing that in about a week or not quite. Um, so put a little bit of lighter pink in the distance. And now I'm just getting kind of a blanket of some of the greens in between some of those pink flowers. And even though I've sped this up a little bit, once I took out the sections of me taking the labels off all of the oil pastels, the painting didn't take all of that long. Okay, I'm putting a little more warmth in the sky. I love this little nice tan color. And this is a beautiful kind of rosy pink, a very pale neutral in value. And I'm just combining that with the blue I already put down in the lavender. And this is similar to something that is called a fractured application of color. Often we do this in skies. Fractured just means you're laying down colors of a similar value next to each other, but they're just varying in color. Now of course adding a little umph to the glow in the sun that's setting in the distance to the right. And often with landscapes you get a little bit of a lighter value in the distant field or little hill I have back there. So I put down a lighter green and glazed a little bit of pink over it. Kind of reinforced some of the darks and the trees in the distance there too. I wanted to do some color echoing. So I thought let me bring in some of this blue that I have in the trees down into the grasses. You see how that just instantly made this painting really fun and come to life. And that's called color echoing. And you don't have to go crazy with it, but just a little pop of similar colors throughout the painting. I don't know, it just brings harmony. Ooh, now let's add some bright lighter pinks. I don't have the reference image showing here anymore, but my highlights on the flowers are lighter than what I actually saw in the reference, but that's okay. I I really felt like it still worked and just again, breaking out my artistic license and having some fun. Here's where I decided to ditch the the fence post and just make it feel like there was a bit of grassy hill behind some of the pink flowers there. I did have so much fun with these very much like when I did the Neocolor II wax pastels. Just this kind of negative painting and kind of a sketchy style is so relaxing. So, let me show you the final here. I like to zoom in a little bit so you guys can see a little better. Isn't that fun? I think it just feels colorful, alive, and painterly. And these are the pastels the oil pastels I used. Maybe not every color, but I think I used a lot of those. All right, it's time to move on to painting number two. The last paintings are going to be sped up quite a bit, but I still wanted to show you. And I'll let you know how to become a patron on my Patreon page in just a minute if you would like to get the full content. It's it's really affordable. Um So, you can see it's the same process. It's a lot of fun. I had fun creating the sky, adding in some highlights to the clouds. And also, I decided at the end of this to try and blend the clouds. I just used my finger. So, I've learned so much with my first exploration of oil pastels. And like I said, in just a minute I'm going to tell you what I've learned from other artists. So, don't go anywhere, but first I'm going to tell you how to become a patron if you would like all of the full lessons. So, it's super easy. It's only $5 a month to become part of my Patreon family. You can cancel at any time, by the way, but you unlock hundreds of lessons. Also, we have games, prizes, and I get to see your work. That's my favorite part. It is a family. It's an art family. Now, only for a few more days until August 31st, I have a discount on the annual membership. It's 20% off if you choose the annual membership with that coupon code, again till August 31st. I'll have all of this in the description of the video. Now, I want to go over some of the oil pastel wisdom I have learned since the other video. And some of these are from patrons and some are from people on YouTube. One is Donna. I was telling you Donna, she already has a lot of oil pastel experience. And she recommended the Mungyo, am I saying that right? I mean, I've seen this name forever. Um she said they're softer than most oil pastels, though not as soft as Sennelier or Holbein. And it blends well with little or no crumbling. So, if I get more, I think I'm going to take Donna's advice and try those. Uh the layering order um from Anne, she said it's just like with soft pastels, layer the harder, then medium, and then super soft on top. If you're a beginner pastel artist, that's how it works with soft pastels, too. That's a general rule of thumb, not to say you can't change that up a little bit, but that's typically the way it works. Then that's because the softest ones apply better after more pastel layers are down. Um you'll probably discover that the more that you paint with soft pastels. So, that was nice to know. It's the same with oil pastels. And if you were from YouTube and number three said silicone color shapers are some of the best tools for blending and carving away. I was excited to see that because while I was painting, I was thinking, you know, it looks like I could um maybe scrape and move things or make lines in the oil pastels I've already applied. So, and I have some of those silicone color shapers. So, thanks for that comment. Um number four is from Carol. She says, "Buy extras of white oil pastels and the amount of pressure is also important." I have already learned that through just my little playing. But, I get that with white. I'm thinking, too, you can lighten other colors if you have white, just like you can with soft pastels. So, thanks, Carol. Another one from Carol, um scraping tapping, streaking, blotting, and designing small patterns brings forth texture. I think she was even talking about using some stencils and things. So, get creative. Think outside of the box with that. And I am still uh curious about this. Six, sealing the surface. From Lynn, she said she coated her oil pastel several times with Krylon UV clear and it sealed perfectly. No smearing and no tackiness. I'm going to try that uh like she said down at the bottom on a practice piece, though, um just to be sure. And I think it was Donna in comment number one that mentioned something about the oil pastels, they never dry. So, I'm still trying to figure out uh the sealing uh option. So, more to come. All right, let's get to painting number three. Painting number three was a reference image that I have been eyeing for a long time. By the way, I just used a little square piece of pastel paper to get my outline. And I just loved the long shadows in this image. And while I paint with all of these really, I am remembering that I need to use the dark of the paper for my darks. That that blue that you saw me put down just before this bright green was the darkest in the set. The 77 set, I may have said this before earlier, the 77 set of the Light Wish oil pastels doesn't have that many darks. The 100 set does. Um that's what I've been told. And uh now I want to get some of those. So, I'm using the black surface of the paper or the charcoal surface. Um uh remembering that I need to kind of not cover all that up. So, it's it's kind of a backwards way of painting in a way, and it's really fun. Um so, I'm using my little sketchy style again, um adding this brilliant light that's coming from the sun or the sky in the upper uh right uh quadrant there. And of course, everything's going to be affected by that light that's in the path of it. Um and a little bit of the sunshine coming through the leaves. Also, I loved adding a little bit of magenta in the shadows. Keep in mind that your uh choices of colors should be more on value than color. So, sometimes if you don't have the right color, just choose the right value and your painting will really come out with a lot of fun colors. This one was fun. I liked adding this little bit of lavender as well. And here is the last one. I enjoyed this one, too. I liked them all, but I think I think Well, I don't know. I can't even pick a favorite. I I sort of like the tree one before, but I like them all. And I'm doing the same process, a little sketch with the Prismacolor NuPastel. Uh you get the the idea now now that you're watching the fourth one. Um getting in my uh bright sunshine and working in the similar fashion that I always do, which is working the whole. Um you if you followed me, you may have noticed I work all over the place when I'm doing a painting. And I find when I work this way, the piece feels more connected and more like a whole rather than segmented parts. I decided to make the sky brilliant, full of oranges, pinks, magentas, and purples. And once again, I'm choosing colors based on value more than color, so it comes out really exciting and fun. All right, I slowed it down here. I echoed a little bit of that orange from the sky just as little highlights on the tops of the poppy flowers. And I was thinking I might actually just keep these for myself. I took them into my house. I've mentioned this to you guys before. I like to take my paintings into my little coffee bar area. Here is the first one that I did, my very first oil pastel painting. And I just like the lighting in this area and [music] bringing it into my home and just enjoying it for a little while. So, I hope you guys will give this a try. [music] Again, use soft pastels. If you don't have any oil pastels, I would like to redo some of these soft pastels myself. But, this was a wonderful painting experience for me and I'm feel so grateful that I finally know what it's like to paint with oil [music] pastels. And hey guys, if you've stayed with me this long, please give this video a thumbs-up. It really helps YouTube to share it more. I I'd appreciate it. Leave me a comment, especially if you have more tips for painting with oil pastels. And of course, join my Patreon family if you would like all of the goodies. All right, everyone. As always, God bless and happy painting.