Oil pastels may not be a demanding art form but it is a very popular medium among the artists all over the world. In terms of the other various art forms, oil pastels is very new and a modern medium of art. The most amazing part of oil pastels is that it combines the ease of drawing like pastels with the feel of oil paint. Later in this article we will discuss about the history of oil pastel but first of all you should that this article will inspire you all with some mind blowing beautiful oil pastels paintings below.

This fair new art medium was discovered in Japan around 1925 by a crayon company named Sakura Crayon Company. It was evolved from the combination of dustless, smooth and soft characteristics of crayon with rich and bright pastels. Later in the year 1949, an owner of an art equipment supply brand, Henri Sennelier designed a professional version of oil pastel by getting influenced by the artist Pablo Picasso and Henri Goetz. Check out these beautiful oil pastel paintings for beginners.

Beautiful Oil Pastel Paintings

So we can easily say that after his invention oil pastel got a professional form. But again in 1980, Holbein entered the market by creating an oil pastel form for the real serious artists. This professional grade oil pastel contains ground pigments with a small amount of wax in it.

If we go deeper into the history, Picasso actually wanted a pastel stick that could be used in a variety of surfaces but Goetz wanted something different which is that a pastel can be used in a surface directly an immediately without the use of any kind of tool such as brushes or palette knives etc. So at this time Henri Sennelier got influenced with both the ideas and came up with these amazing new medium.

Now coming to the technical part, we should say that the pigments used in oil paints, oil pastels and hard pastels are all the same. But the difference is in the binding material. Oil paints are actually pigments in a base of linseed oil and drying agents which is liquid enough to be extruded from a tube. Now hard pastes have less oil and wax binder than the oil pastels. But oil pastel has more oil and wax binding which makes it softer in terms of consistency. Normally oil pastels are available in two forms till date one is student and the other is professional.

At present you can find various different brands of oil pastels which are available in different types of grades. While choosing an oil pastel you should keep in mind that the more costly it is, the higher the ratio of pure pigment. Of course the best quality products give you much better experience.

Now you should know that there are various types of techniques which are used in oil pastel form.  Among them, the most common is layering which is actually used to create various layers of colors. And another popular technique is using turpentine or mineral spirits as a blending tool to create wash effects which is similar like the water color.

But it is for sure that oil pastels, is really a very beautiful form of art. If you want to be a professional artist in this arena, you should get training from a teacher who can teach you all the beautiful techniques. And practice a lot to master out the technique and become a professional artist. Here we have collected some beautiful oil pastel paintings made by various artists. This article is only made with a motive for inspiring new beginner artists to inspire about this modern art form.