Introduction to Oil Pastel Painting

Intro to Oil Pastel Painting Supply List

Oil Pastels (Choose One)

The best of the student grade

Pentel set of 50 (Amazon about $7) small round sticks sold only in sets, good coverage, go down smoothly

Cray-Pas Expressionist set of 50 (Amazon about $20) large round sticks sold only in sets, good coverage and blending

Mungyo Gallery set of 48 (Amazon about $25) large round sticks sold only in sets, almost artist-quality, smooth and blendable.  These may be professional quality but there is no information on the lightfastness or pigments used.  RECOMMENDED

Artist Grade (you will want professional grade pastels if you plan to show or sell your work)

Cray-Pas Specialist set of 50 (Dick Blick about $50) Also Open Stock on-line. Square sticks, huge color range, fairly hard, lightfast with pigments listed

Caran d’Ache Neopastels set of 48 (Dick Blick about $85) Also Open Stock. 96 colors available. Round sticks, about the same consistency as Mungyo. A great assortment of greens, lightfast with pigments listed

Holbein Artist Oil Pastels ($$) Also Open Stock. Smooth, highly pigmented. You can get the 3 magic colors to make optical black open stock at local stores

Sennelier ($$$) These are the gold standard for oil pastel.  Saturated colors, lipstick consistency, excellent for the final layer on a painting.  The white is the whitest white you can get (you need this!)

Paper

Canson Mi-tientes or Strathmore 400 pad 9x12 or 11x14 assorted colors about $10

Misc

Tortillons or Stumps for blending

White eraser or Pentel Stick eraser

Old credit card to make a scraper

Reference photos

Soft paper towels (Viva)

Optional

Silicon tip color blenders, stylus, clay shapers

Color pencils if you have them