I had no idea ChatGPT could do that. It’s impressive but sort of scarry. I’m glad you shared the info with us about the pictures and I do really like how you handle the composition with your oil pastels. I’ve never tried those and didn’t realize how soft and subtle they could be. Really like your results!
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Hi @Jeanine
I would NOT say that oil pastels are “soft and subtle”. Well actually the Sennelier are very soft, but I usually explain that those are like drawing with lipstick. Hard to capture fine details and hard to control. Oil pastels are by far my least liked media, but I’m trying to concur them. What I’m finding is that for any of them, if you use a solvent and thin them out you can apply them with a paint brush for more control. I really like a thinned out version for an underpainting and then build them up from there.
And that leads me to my response to @Lucy. The Mont Marte Oil Pastels look and act exactly like the Cray-Pas Expressionist oil pastels. they are round STICKS that are “harder” than the Sennelier sticks. The thing is that they can be thinned with water, instead of using a solvent like Mineral Spirits. It is possible to draw on the paper and then thin/blend with a paint brush that has water on it. I prefer to make it look like watercolor by rubbing a wet paint brush on the end of the pastel stick and then applying from the paint brush to the paper. If you have a soft paint brush, you will just pick up a little color. If you have a stiff scrubber type brush, you can pick up more pigment. Hope that makes sense.
Terri Robichon
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Thank you very much Terri for answering! 
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Hi Terri,
The is always something new to learn! I so appreciate your detailed explanation. Maybe I will try oil pastels in the future. I have shied away from the because they look so heavy and ‘globby’. Ha, a real technical term there.
At any rate, I love fine detail so even when I use pastel sticks I almost always use pastel pencils to add detail. I also have watercolor pencils and lots of Prismacolor pencils and a smaller collection of Polychromos pencils. I just finished an Amaryliss bulb using Polychromos and watercolor. I was so surprised that the watercolor was added on top of several layers of the colored pencils. I thought it would float on top but it turned out fine.
Again, thank you so much for the insight. I’ll be looking for those as I meander the aisles at Blick’s in a few weeks.
Cheers,
Jeanine
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Hi Jeannine and @robichon
This is my set of Caran 'd’ache watersoluable sticks. Neocolour 2 - aquarelle. They are highly lightfast and hard enough to be sharpened with a regular pencil sharpener. And you can get a rough pallete (also from Caran d’ache). It is made from plastic, with a surface like fine sandpaper. You rub the sticks on it to blend and then add the water, that way you can blend whatever colour you like, and have it in whatever consistency you want, before putting it to paper with the brush. PALETTE Aquarelle 26 x 13 cm | Caran d'Ache CH
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Hi @Elina
I just want to reccomend a book. It is in German, by: Susanne Boehmer-Hoops. It covers realistic animal drawings in graphite, colour pencil and pastels. It is SOOOO good. I think you would really enjoy it.
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Hi @Jeanine
I see you’re a detail girl just like me. This drawing is delightful. I am amazed that you put watercolor on TOP of the colored pencil. Surprised that it wouldn’t rub off.
If you like this level of detail, you’ll probably dislike oil pastels because they are indeed globby. I have found thinning them and using a paint brush for the details helps, but I almost always finish with the creamy soft Sennelier which are challenging for me.
Please keep posting your work. One more thing, I just double checked and Blick does not sell Mont Marte - the only brand that I found that has the watersoluble Oil Pastels. (And that is not a spelling error, it is how they spell it.)
Amazon is the only place that carries the Mont Marte brand, and most of those are NOT watersoluble oil pastels, so read the name and description carefully. I bought the one with 48 assorted colors for $16.99 and I believe they also have a 24 piece set for $12.48.
Terri
Hi @siffermus
Thanks so much. I actually just checked these out and it says they are “wax” pastels / or are also referred to as an “artist crayon” in their video rather than “oil pastels”. That may not matter to a lot of people, but I enter most of my drawings in the local county fair and the category name is clearly called as OIL pastels. So for me, I’ll just stick with the ones I’m using.
Also, while the Mont Marte are stated as Water Soluble, they do NOT transition to that watercolor look nearly as much or as easily as shown in the Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Artists Crayons video.
Terri
Thanks so much to both of you for the valuable information on oil pastels. I actually do use the pallet which I used for my watercolor pencils. Very helpful.
Thanks again!
Jeanine
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I think it’s wonderful how Therese Artist Community encourages and supports each other. It is very inspiring and heart warming. Thank you for reaching out to me with with the materials you use and the helpful hints. Very helpful.
Jeanine
@siffermus Ooooohhhhh…sounds interesting! My Partner will be in Germany in April, I will tell him ,I would love this
I like to train freehand drawimg, never used transferpaper…
And I am thinking about ordering Stabilo Carbothelo pastel pencils and pastelmat paper
…
Now I draw with the Kalour pastel pencils on my brown watercolor paper…
It is a Jason Morgan class.
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@robichon thank you for your recomandation oft Andrea Nelson…I had fun drawing a penguin (even it was with colored pencils instead oft watercolor)
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Hi Forum friends - Just finished a 5x7 oil pastel landscape from a photo I took at Yellowstone National Park. This one is on Arches 300# hot press watercolor paper using only Mont Marte watersoluble oil pastels (applied with paint brushes).
I have finished all 5 oil pastel drawings for my local county fair, so no more of these for another year. Next I’ll be finishing a couple of watercolor paintings.
Terri
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That is simply amazing Robin
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Hi @Creativejan
Thanks for the kind words. And just for clarification, my name is Terri Robichon (not Robin).
Sorry I called you Robin my fingers sometimes type wrong names .
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No a problem, just didn’t want others to be comfused.
Terri
Practising with indentet lines - getting better, but they still have a nasty habbit of disappearing when I blend. On this one I have tried blending with a cotton bud instead of a blending tool to see if it would make a difference.
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@siffermus I love this picture…horsenoses are so soft and gentle
and your drawing is amazimg!
What is ment by intentet line?
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Wow what an awesome picture