I go back a long way with oil pastels. The literature is sparse on them, but I have just about all the good books ever written on them. This is a photo of some of my first drawings in oil pastel. I was in high school when I did these, so we’re talking the middle 70’s (1975-76-77-78). These are obviously school grade cheap oil pastels I did these with, and the colors are still as vibrant as when I first put them on, I think, which is over 35 years ago. Which is why I say don’t break your bank buying oil pastels or any art supplies. Now the paper they’re on is fragile, but again, they’ll never see the inside of an art museum, so who cares.

Interestingly, the spade pattern on the bottom left is a design I actually made a rug out of! I had gotten into that whole cheesy latch-hook thing, didn’t like the design kits you could buy, so I bought some rough weave fabric and made my own!

And as far as the landscape, seems like everybody does a sunset when they first do oil pastel - it’s one thing you can’t really screw up!

Starting a new drawing - going to try oil pastels this time. I’m working from a photograph of my beloved croton bush that lived with me in my apartment over the winter and is now back outside. I love its colors, so I thought the leaf patterns would make a good greeting card or a cool area rug. Anyway, we’ll see how this ends up looking. I thought this would be faster than doing it with colored pencil. Sometimes, though, it’s not about fast, it’s about GOOD. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas.