Learn Oil Pastels: Create 4 Mini Illustrations on One Page | Michelle Gooi | Skillshare

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Learn Oil Pastels: Create 4 Mini Illustrations on One Page

teacher avatar Michelle Gooi, Traditional Artist

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Intro

      1:57

    • 2.

      Material

      0:45

    • 3.

      Cherry

      15:07

    • 4.

      Moon 1

      8:36

    • 5.

      Moon 2

      9:44

    • 6.

      Flower vase

      16:00

    • 7.

      Landscape and Outro

      15:01

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About This Class

Want to create something beautiful, but don’t know where to start? In this class, we’ll create a dreamy 4-in-1 oil pastel illustration on a single page—featuring a cherry, a glowing moon, a vase of flowers, and a soft flower field landscape.

This class is designed to be relaxing, beginner-friendly, and fun, while helping you explore different themes and techniques in one cohesive artwork.

In this class, you’ll learn:

  • Basic oil pastel techniques like layering, blending, and color mixing
  • How to draw simple, aesthetic illustrations step by step
  • How to create depth using light, shadow, and color variation
  • How to simplify references into easy, beginner-friendly shapes
  • How to create a cohesive artwork with multiple themes

Why You Should Take This Class

Learning oil pastels can feel overwhelming at first—but it doesn’t have to be. This class breaks everything down into small, manageable steps so you can enjoy the process without pressure.

By working on four different mini illustrations in one page, you’ll:

  • Build confidence faster by exploring multiple subjects
  • Discover your favorite styles and themes
  • Practice essential techniques in a fun and low-stress way

These skills can be applied to your future artworks, sketchbooks, or even content creation if you enjoy sharing your art online.

I’ll guide you through each step in a gentle and encouraging way, so you can relax, enjoy the process, and create something you’re proud of.

Who This Class is For

This class is perfect for beginners, hobby artists, or anyone looking for a relaxing creative activity.

You don’t need any prior experience with oil pastels or drawing—just bring your materials, an open mind, and a willingness to explore.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Michelle Gooi

Traditional Artist

Teacher

Hi, I'm an oil pastel & also pencil art artist, a self-taught creative who learned through online courses and lots of practice--no art school required. I believe anyone can learn to draw and paint with the right guidance, and I'm here to show you that oil pastels can be fun, relaxing, and beginner-friendly. I teach food drawing with oil pastels and am working on more classes featuring landscapes, pets, animals, and human portrait. Follow my Skillshare profile to stay updated on new classes and creative lessons.

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Level: All Levels

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Transcripts

1. Intro: Welcome to my class. If you ever wanted to create something beautiful but feel overwhelmed or didn't know where to start, this class is for you. In this class, we're going to create a fun and relaxing four in one illustration project. On just one page, we'll divide it into four section and draw four different themes together. A cherry, a moon in a dark sky, a vase with flowers, and a dreamy flower viewed landscape. Hi, I'm Michel Gui, an artist and content creator. I love creating soft dreamy illustration that feel comforting and calming. I have been sharing my art journey online and helping others explore creativity in a simple and enjoyable way. In this class, I'll get you step by step using oil pastel and focus on helping you feel more confident and free when creating art. By the end of this class, you'll be able to create your own aesthetic four panel artwork, understand basic oil pastel techniques like layering and learning, and explore different themes in one cohesive piece. Class is perfect for beginners, hobby artists, or anyone who just want to relax and enjoy a creative moment. You don't need any p experience. Just come with an open mind and have fun. We'll start by preparing our page and sketching the layout. Then we'll move through each section step by step, from simple objects like cherries to a soft glowing moon to flowers and landscapes, learning different techniques along the way. Your class project will be to create your own four partner illustration on a single page. You can follow along with me or add your own personal touch and make it uniquely yours. I'm really excited to create this with you. Let's get started, and I'll see you in the first lesson. 2. Material: Now we are going to go over all the tools and supplies you need to use in this class. We only need three things which are a set of oil pastel. I'll be using Muno soft oil pastel 72 colors. It's a brand from Korea, but you can use any brand you like. When I'm referring the oil pastel number in the class, the number I refer is from uno brand. But you can just find any similar color with the oil pastel I use in the class. Second, a pencil for sketching. Or if you prefer to use light colored pencil to sketch, it's fine, too. And lastly, an eraser to erase the sketch, and that's it. No need any fancy supplies. Let's just start the class and play. 3. Cherry: Hello, my friends. So we are going to draw on our sketchbook. So this is my sketchbook, and these are some doodling I drew. Please don't mind. I'm going to draw on the right empty page. So the first drawing we're going to draw is a fruit, which is a cherry. The color we will use to draw the cherry are carmine, scarlet and white. And for the steam, we will use emerald green, light, olive, yellow green, and ochre. Now before we start drawing, we draw the frame first. Use salmon color to separate into far right tangle or grids. Then we start, draw the cherry. First, we draw a simple sketch first, pencil to sketch, draw two circles, but not totally round. Cherry usually have a little heart shaped look and have a distinct, slightly pointed end. Then draw curve line at the top that sunk in, then draw the stem of the cherry. After that, use eraser to lightly erase the sketch. Later on when we use oil pastel drawing, it will not much our painting. Now we start using colour. Use colour to paint as the base color. It's more easier to draw the outline first the feel the color in. Remember to leave white space for the highlight area that you can see from the reference. Don't need overthinking too much to shape. We can adjust it later. Now let's move on to the other one. Also remember to last space for the highlight. Now, we finish the base layer. We built out the second layer, but it starts adding more darker red, which is camine. I added the carmine in the shadow areas, which is the bottom and a little bit at the top. Then we use white. Remember to clean your white oil pastel before using. Use white oil pastel to paint the highlight, but don't fill up the entire highlight area. Just around the red. Try your best to not touch the center highlight because we want to keep a little bit of the original white blank space as the most bright white highlight look and also on the other side of cherry. Then use decorate, which is camine to add the shadow again. You can see there's a little bit of reflect light at the right side of each cherry. So we use white colour to emphasize that. Add a few strokes at here, then just use your finger to blend it. Then also blend lightly the highlight above to make it look more natural. Keep adding the highlight and the reflection and blend it with your finger until you're satisfied with the looks. Then we move on to add the steam. Use yellow green to draw the curve line, but how do we draw a line without looking so you can break this at the side first. Try not to put full pressure and try to find the pointed area or the edge of your oil pastel and start to draw the steam. I will teach you how to draw in line later when we draw the blant with a bus in next few chapter. Then use light olive color. Remember to clean your oil pastel. And you also can practice and find the edge or pointed area of your oil pastel at the side first. And then draw the state. It's okay if you draw out of the line. Don't be hard on yourself. Think it as experience and a fun drawing. Let go of the pfessionism. Then use emerald green to add as the darker color of the steam. Then use light live again to add on top as another layer. This time, remember to connect the steam to the cherry. It's okay. The red goes out a little bit on the steam. Then use Occur to add on the top of the steam. Next, use olive green to add on top of the ochre colour. The upper areas of the steam seem a little bit too thin. I make it look more thick like the reference. Then I add a little bit of yellow green again on the steam to make the colour look more pop. Lastly, I use carmine and white to create the sunken in area at the top of the cherry. And use finger to blend it and ta da, your cherry is done. Lastly, you can use any color you like to colour the background. I just use golden yellow to paint as the background because I think this colour will make the cherry look more pop and stand up. If you like, you can add more decoration like draw a few star around it. I just use camion red to draw the star. So your terry drawing is done. You have done a great job. Let's move on to the next one. We're going to draw Amon 4. Moon 1: In this chapter, we are going to draw a moon. The colors we are going to use are white, gray, and Prussian blue. First, let's draw circles with pencil, roughly draw it, then use eraser to lightly erase the sketch. Then we start adding colors with oil pastel. Use gray to draw the circle outline. Then start filling inside with a circular motion. Don't fill up the full moon, just some areas that have darker gray as in the reference. Vary your pressure. Don't apply full pressure, just lightly draw it. You can apply more gray color at the bottom. Then use white colour to blend the gray color. Start from the edge of the circle, then start to blend from the left side and go with a round direction. Lift it the bottom gray area. Add more white colour at the right side. Then use your fingers and start to blend also in a round circle direction. It's okay if it goes out from the outline. We will add the dark background later on, so don't worry about that. Now, we want to add more depth by building more layers. Use white with full pressure around the circles. And some at the center. And around the outline, too. Then we use finger to blend the white. If it's hard to blend, you can add more white colour. I add more white around the outline to make it look more soft and smooth. Now, I want to add the texture of the moon. Use back the gray colour we use at the beginning. When you apply the gray oil pastel, only put very light pressure when you draw, so it will turn out the texture like this. If you put full pressure, it means you paint with full coverage, and it will not appear to look like this. Slowly adding the texture little by little, be patient. We are only adding in the areas that we see have those blocks in the reference. Or if you want to be a little bit creative and different, you no need to follow the reference. You can be creative with the mode. The reference is just a reference. Next, we blend it with finger. Don't fully blend it away. We are not going to make the textures away, we just make it look more natural, especially around the outline. Then we continue adding the texture little by little, and blend it at the same time. Also, we slowly create the circle's outline shape around it. You can see there's more white at the bottom and the right side. So we are adding more white oil pastel to it. And also some parts that I think need less gray colour. 5. Moon 2: Next, we're going to paint the background. The sky is not totally black colour. It's a very dark blue, so I use plasian blue for the background. Start with around the moon, but leave some space between the moon because we want to create the smooth transition later around the moonlight. Once you finish, draw the rough circles around the moon, paint the rest of the background with the same color. Next, we start to use white colour around the moon with light pressure, slowly adding more nearer and nearer to the moon. Then this is the key moment. We use white colour to draw around the moon and on top of the dark blue layer. Then start to add more white with gently light pressure around the moon background. And this is where the magic happen. We use finger to blend it, try to create the round shape intentionally when you do the blending. If you accidentally change the shape like me, just use white oil pastel back and paint it, then blend it again. Now we are just trying to make the moon shake look round by using white colour to draw a bow white circle. Then when you use finger to blend, don't use the same finger we did the blending just now. Use another clean finger to blend. Because we don't want to smudge the painting, then we start blending from the inner circle of the moon. We can add a few strokes with gray oil pastel to create more clear round shape. Now we're done with the inner circle. Let's start blend the outer circle of the moon. You can add more white to adjust the shape if you think your moon don't look round enough. I think the texture on the moon look quite bolery now, so I'm using gray color to draw the texture again to make it look more clear. Next, I use the dark blue colour to draw around shape around the moon to create the circle moon shape and try to make the moon look more stand up. Then use finger to blend carefully. Try to blend the outer circle first, then slowly plan the inner circle. It's okay if your moon don't look very round, you can use white colour to adjust the shape anytime. You can see there's a white glow around the moon in the reference. So we just use white colour to draw the round circle of the moon. And at this point, your moon is actually done. But if you want to keep rendering and adjusting, it's up to you as long as you satisfied with your painting. I just put another dark blue layer again and blend it to make the moon look more set up. So your painting is done. You have done a great job if you make it till here. In next chapter, we will draw a flower vase. See you in next chapter. 6. Flower vase: So in this chapter, we will draw a vast with flowers. The colors we will use are yellow, golden yellow, white, yellow green, grass green, ice blue, and light blue. First, we use Spencer to sketch. We'll start by drawing the vast, lightly estimate the overall shape and size of the vast. Draw two horizontal lines, one at the top for the opening of the vast and one at the bottom for the base. Then draw two vertical lines on the left and right side. Connect all the lines to form the body of the bass. And at the bottom to complete the base. Now, the vast shape is finished. Next, we'll mark the positions of the flowers. There's no need to draw the detailed shapes of the flower at this stage. Just draw simple circles to indicated where each flower will be. And that's complete our simple sketch. Now that we've finished the sketch, gently erase it using an eraser, leaving only faint visible outline lines. Et's start coloring the vast first. We'll begin with ice glue as the base color, just like before, start by drawing two lines, the top opening of the vast and the bottom. Then outline the full shape of the vast following your sketch. After that, fill in the colour. Make sure to leave some blank space on the upper right and right side of the vast. This will represent where the light is hitting. Next, take white and apply it to the highlighted area on the right side. Then, use your finger to gently blend the colors. If any areas become too bright, you can go back in with a bit more ice blue to balance it out. Now, we'll add another layers to create shadows. Take light blue and draw a soft line along the left side, slightly towards the bottom, following the edge of the vast. Then apply ice grew above it and gly blend it with your finger. For the base of the vast, sin is white. Use light blue to lightly draw a thin separating line above the base. Then fill the bottom part with white. You can also use white along the edges of the vast to refine and clean up its shape. If you want to enhance the lighting effect, add a bit more white on the right side and softly blend it again. And that completes the bus. Now, let's start drawing the flowers. We'll use yellow for the petals. Don't overthink the shape. Just imagine a simple asterisk or starlight form. It doesn't need to be perfect or complicated. Before drawing on your final piece, you can practice on the side. Try to keep your strokes thin. If your strokes feel too thick, adjust the angle of your oil pastel, use the edge or hold it at about a 45 degree angle. This will help you create final lines, practice until you feel comfortable, then move on to your outward. Start drawing the flowers from the bottom, following the circles we sketched earlier. Slowly walk your way upward, placing each flower where you mark them. Once you're done, take golden yellow to add the flower centers. You can practice this on your test flower first. Simply press a small.in the middle of each flower. When you're ready, add them to your final drawing. H. Next, we'll draw the steam and leave using yellow green. Again, practice some thin lines and shrugs on the side first. Try to keep your lines delicate by using the edge of your pastel or adjusting how you hold it. Looking at the reference, the lines might seem messy or overwhelming, but we can simplify them. Just focus on connecting each flower back to the s. Raw the steam one by one slowly and gently. Hey. At this stage, it might look a bit too simple, so let's add more strokes to create leaf. Along each steam, add a few extra stroke on both sides. This part is actually very relaxing. Just pw it up gradually from the bottom to the top. If you see empty spaces, you can fill them in. But remember to step back and check the overall balance. Try to avoid making some areas too tense while others look too empty. Not every space needs to be filled. Leaving some breathing room will make you upward, feel more natural and balanced. Now, let's add more depth using grass green. Go over some parts of the leaf we just drew and lightly layer this color on top using the same strokes. This will help your drawing look less flat and more dimensional. And now your vase with flowers is complete. If you like, you can decorate the background however you want. For example, you can add small star or little decorative elements using your favorite colors. Just has fun and be creative. For mine, I added some yellow star, then fill the background with pink. After that, I added a layer of white and blended it slightly. Then I went back in with some yellow in certain areas and blended again. And that's it. A simple and soft background. How did your piece turn up? I would love to see it. Feel free to upload your artwork in the project session. In the next chapter, we'll be drawing a simple but beautiful flower fields with a blue sky. 7. Landscape and Outro: Now we're going to draw a simple flower view landscape. The colors we'll be using are ice blue, white, pink, cold pink, grass green and yellow green. First, letly draw a horizontal line across the middle of your paper using a pencil. This will separate the sky and the flower view. Once you're happy with the placement, you can go over this line using pink. Let's start with the sky. Take ice blue and begin sketching out the shape of the clouds. Draw one on the left, one on the right. And one large cloud that stretches across the lower part of the sky. For now, just outline the shapes. Don't feel them in yet. Next, lightly add some shading underneath each cloud using ice tube. Keep your touch very soft, as we'll blend this later with white. After that, use the same ice boo to fill in the rest of the sky. Now before we move on, make sure your white oil pastel is clean so you don't accidtly mix other color into your sky. A quick tip. If your oil pastel gets shorter, try pulling the wrapper from the top instead of the bottom. The color number is usually printed at the bottom, so this help you keep track of your colors more easily. Now take white and begin blending the shaded areas of the clouds. Try bending in a slightly diagonal direction. You can also experience with circular motions. The effect will be slightly different. So choose what you prefer. Next, use white to softly go around the edges of each cloud. This help blend the clouds into the sky and create us a softer, more natural look. If the shadow look too light, you can go back in with a bit more ice bog, then gently blend it again with your finger. You can also use white to refine the shape of your clouds, making them stand out more clearly. And that's it. The sky is complete. When you pin to draw the flowers from the reference, you can see it's a large area filled with pink flowers. So we'll apply the colour in a horizontal direction. Remember to leave some small gap in between for the grass. Try not to color in large solid areas. Instead, work in smaller section and vary your pressure. Sometimes lighter, sometimes slightly heavier. As you move towards the bottom, use smaller strokes, you can start using a dotting techniques. Just tapping the pastel to create more flower shape. The flowers should become more scaded and less dens as you go down. So avoid making them too crowded. If you notice some areas at the top feel too empty, you can likely add a few more flour to balance it out. Next, take glass screen to draw the glass. Use the gap we left earlier and observe the reference to guide you. Start from the top and apply the color lightly. Think of this as layering, build it up gradually with soft strokes. In the upper area, you can use more line light strokes, and as you move downward, slowly fill in more of the empty spaces. H. The lower you go, the denser the glass can become. Then lightly add a few small green dots within the flower area above. This helps the flower and grass blend together more naturally instead of looking too separated. Now, we'll use yellow green to add more depth. This colour is lighter, so it helps create reaction. You can layer it on top of the green areas or feel it in any remaining gaps. Build it up slowly from the bottom towards the top. If some areas feels like they don't have enough flowers, especially near the bottom, you can go back in with pink and add more. It's totally fine to layer it on top of the green. You can also add a bit more grasping within the flowers to enrich the texture. Next, we'll use pink for some of the flowers. In the reference, some flowers appear more saturated, so we'll use this color to represent those. You don't need too many, add them mostly in the lower area. Oh If you still see a lot of white gaps, you can choose to leave them for lighter airy look or continue filling them in. I'll add a bit more pink, and since it's overlap with the green, I will enforce it with cold pink so the colours end up more. Looking back at the sky, if the cloud feels too white, you can likely add a touch of ice blue. Then bend it again with white. As an optional step, you can gently add a bit of pink onto the clouds. Then blend it softly with white in a diagonal motion. This helps the sky and flower feel more connected and harmonious. And with that, your landscape is complete. Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I hope you enjoy this relaxing process and feel inspired to create something beautiful in your own style. Don't forget to upload your artwork in the project section. I willtu love to see what you created. If you enjoy this class, feel free to follow me here for more art classes like this, and I'll see you in the next one.