Over the past few weeks I've been experimenting with oil pastels. They are not my favorite art material, but I challenged myself to stick with them for a while, and it was fun!

Thanks Ania, for this class and the inspiration to experiment!

Here are a few pictures of what I made.

I love the scratching or etching technique, both with oil pastels only and with acrylic ink. The next illustration is made with acrylic ink on top.

I've also prepared some pages in my sketchbook for when I'm on holiday ;)

I love the texture here. It's acrylic ink on top of oil pastels, but with a bit more water.

 

For this tree I smudged the pastels with a bit of oil on a cloth.

 

Quick drawings of plants in my garden.

 

Stencils and smudging with my fingers.

 

And this was also stencils and smudging. So light and airy!

 

The illustration at the top (the 'cover image') was done by smudging with a q-tip (you know, those things for cleaning your ears...) and I started with a background of acrylic marker. And then the bottom part of the drawing is with the scratching technique. It's a detail of a larger drawing.

I'm still in the middel of experimenting, and don't plan to stop yet. I've also had lots of fun making art with my daughter with oil pastels, she loves drawing and then adding ecoline over the top. I'll leave you with her artwork from yesterday: