Oil Pastels

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All Oil Pastels Soft Pastels Wax Crayons Markers / Pens Inks and Indian Inks Calligraphy and Hand Lettering
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In short

Choose oil pastels by the number of colors and their thickness. A 12-color set is enough to start with – Nassau, Royal & Langnickel or GIOTTO OLIO MAXI with chunky 11 mm pastels. For more shades, there’s Nassau 24 pcs and DALER ROWNEY Simply with 50 colors, which according to the manufacturer don’t need fixative.

Oil pastels – sometimes also called oil crayons – are soft, creamy pastels you draw with directly on paper, card or canvas. You can blend and layer the colors, so you can create solid areas as well as smooth transitions.

Oil pastels and oil crayons: which set to choose

Sets differ mainly in the number of shades, their thickness and the surfaces the manufacturer recommends them for. Here’s an overview based on the individual product descriptions:

Set Key features Product
Nassau, 12 colors soft consistency for blending, layering and shading; paper, canvas, card Nassau 12 pcs
Nassau, 24 colors high opacity, smooth transitions; paper, canvas, card and wood Nassau 24 pcs
GIOTTO OLIO MAXI, 12 colors round, 7 cm long, 11 mm diameter; can also be blended with your fingers; paper, canvas, boards; for school and home GIOTTO OLIO MAXI
Royal & Langnickel, 12 colors round, 6 cm long, 9 mm diameter; oily and creamy, easy to blend and layer; paper, canvas, boards Royal & Langnickel SET12
DALER ROWNEY Simply, 50 colors soft and creamy, for solid areas and fine details; no fixative needed; paper including colored paper, card, canvas DALER ROWNEY Simply 50 pcs
Royal & Langnickel mixed media set 50 oil pastels plus pencils, acrylic and watercolor paints, brushes and paper in a wooden box that doubles as a tabletop easel 151-piece set

If you’re a beginner or buying for school, go for 12 colors – the manufacturer states that GIOTTO OLIO MAXI and Royal & Langnickel SET12 are suitable for school and home use, and DALER ROWNEY Simply is designed for beginners and hobby artists. The larger Nassau 24 pcs and Simply 50 pcs sets are ideal when you want more shades.

The collection also includes other ranges: hard KOH-I-NOOR GIOCONDA oil pastels with a 7 × 7 mm square cross-section, Van Gogh oil pastels from ROYAL TALENS, Faber-Castell Gofa, Colorino Artist metallic oil pastels and Art Creation water-soluble oil pastels.

Oil pastels: blending, layering and surfaces

You apply oil pastel directly to the surface. For the Nassau sets the manufacturer highlights easy blending, layering and smooth transitions, GIOTTO pastels can, according to the description, also be blended with your fingers, and DALER ROWNEY Simply handle both solid areas and fine details.

The descriptions list paper, card and canvas as surfaces; GIOTTO and Royal & Langnickel also boards, Nassau 24 pcs also wood, and Simply also colored paper. You’ll find drawing paper in the sketch pads category.

The range also includes KOH-I-NOOR 8314 and GIOCONDA 8352 oil pastels, which the manufacturer says can also be applied with a brush and oil, much like oil paints, and used for sgraffito (scratch) techniques. There are also Art Creation oil pastels, which can be softened with a wet brush for a watercolor effect.

Looking for a different technique? Take a look at soft pastels, wax crayons or the whole pastels and markers category.

Frequently asked questions

Do oil pastel drawings need to be fixed?

For the DALER ROWNEY Simply set, the manufacturer states that the pastels adhere firmly to the surface once applied and don’t need fixative. The descriptions of the other sets don’t cover this.

Which surfaces are oil pastels suitable for?

The descriptions recommend the Nassau, GIOTTO, Royal & Langnickel SET12 and DALER ROWNEY Simply sets for paper and canvas. Nassau and DALER ROWNEY Simply also for card, GIOTTO and Royal & Langnickel also for boards, and Nassau 24 pcs also for wood.

Can oil crayons be blended with your fingers?

Yes, the manufacturer explicitly says so for GIOTTO OLIO MAXI. For DALER ROWNEY Simply, the manufacturer mentions easy blending without specifying the tool.

How thick are oil pastels?

GIOTTO OLIO MAXI are 11 mm in diameter and 7 cm long, Royal & Langnickel SET12 are 9 mm in diameter and 6 cm long. The descriptions don’t give dimensions for Nassau and DALER ROWNEY Simply.

Can oil pastels be thinned with water?

The descriptions of the sets in the table don’t mention thinning with water. The range also includes Art Creation water-soluble oil pastels: apply water to the paper with a wet brush, or use it to smooth out color you’ve already applied.