Oil Pastels for Beginners | Seascape

1. Intro: Thank you for joining in and welcome to another Skillshare class. This is oil pastels for beginners have a really nice beach scene here. Pretty seascape that is very beginner friendly. And you will learn how to blend and layer colors. How to create these cloud formations, as well as mixing the water in the sand down below. I will show a few different blending techniques. Scraping techniques as well to lift color and then add another layer on top. So let's jump right in and get started. 2. Supplies & Cloud Formations : First step, I'm going to go over some of the supplies that we're going to use today for this tutorial. I have a light horizon line that I used my Tooby pencil. So just a straight line across there for the horizon line to separate the sky and the water. And then I have some blending tools here, the Q tips, some blenders. And I found these at the Dollar Tree, I wanted to show they do stay on your finger pretty good and they help blend the color. So then there's a bunch of colors that I have. We're going to use a lot of blues today. And then some of these more sandy tones, the browns and the tans there. So I have my watercolor paper taped down and it is 140 pound. And here I'm just showing quick, if anybody wanted to see the packaging, if you wanted to find those at the Dollar Tree, I definitely recommend it. With your paper taped down and then you'll have the nice clean white edges when you take it off. So that's a good idea. And we're going to pick out some blues. I have a light, medium and dark blue, but I will share the exact names. I have an aqua, pale blue. That's my lightest blue. For the medium shade is a cobalt blue, pale compose blue was one of my deeper blues and the deepest one and my hand there is Prussian. You're going to need a white as well. I am going to start off with my lightest blue first. I'm going to use that, that shade and going to sketch out some of the clouds. If you follow some of my other tutorials, I do use the brown paper a lot, but because there's a decent amount of white in this painting or the oil pastel drawing here. So we want the clouds to be white and so we're not fighting that brown tone from the papers, so we're going to use white today. And again, I'm just using the blue there and sketching out some of the areas that I want the clouds to be. And I'm not pressing too hard either. After I'm done with my outline with the same color, I'm gonna go ahead and start to press down a lot heavier so you can get the color on there. And then we're going to blend everything out. Also at the very top and over in the corner, I am going to use some of my says cobalt blue light. I'm going to mix that in with my other light blue. And I will be using that in some shadow areas throughout these clouds as well. Now I'm going to go in and use my paper stump here, my blender. Just make sure you're always cleaning your blenders in-between colors regardless of what you're using. I do show a wide variety of tools in this video and my other oil pastel videos as well. I have the paper stump, like I said, that I'm holding in my hand here. Also, if your set came with a colorless blender that looks just like your regular oil pastel sticks. It's clear. You can use that. Or the the little finger thing that I showed from the Dollar Tree. So there's a wide variety of items that you can use to, to blend out here. You can use your own fingers if you don't mind getting a little bit dirty, or you can use Q tips as well. Now that I have the general area are covered with my blues that is in my hand, the clear blender that I was mentioning before, and some white. I'm using my white and I'm going to start to blend my edges up into the clouds and fill them in. This is going to create a more feathered and natural look. So we don't have those harsh edges. Now that we're ready for a little bit more detail after that blending, I'm going to use my lightest blue again and add a little bit more shape to these clouds. I do recommend the what the blender that I have in my hand. If you're having a hard to reach area, something that's really tiny, use your paper stump because it has the nice point at it. And then also back to the clouds. You can do some circular motions with your white so that they look nice and puffy and well blended. One last thing with the clouds here is you're going to use your deeper blue and then just create some more shadows on the underneath here for a little bit more dimension and shape. And we're closing in on the end here for the cloud portion. Next up, we're going to be working with the water and the sand and a lot more blending 3. Blending Water & Sand : For the waterline here we're going to start off with the Prussian blue. I'm going to start off skinny here with my whatever smallest, smallest edge you have. Because I know sometimes the pastels can be a bit chunky. So I'm using my flat edge there and just using it on the side. And then I did make it uneven on purpose. So some areas are a little bit thinner than others, so it looks a little bit more natural. And then I'm going to use my blender. Again, if you have a nice point on your blender, that will definitely help with some of these lines so you can get a nice crisp edge. Next up, I'm going to use the blue that I used up top, which was a little bit darker, my cobalt blue. And then we're going to mix the two of those together. And I just wanted to show a quick demonstration here of the Q-tip, which you can use them if you have them. I'm not crazy about the ones that I had there. I think they're a little bit too cheap and they can leave your paper a little bit scratchy. So I need to pick up some better quality Q-tips next time I'm at the store. And then a quick reminder again to always clean your blender sometimes that happens. And yeah, you definitely don't want colors mixed on your, on your painting there. And again, sometimes you get those chunky little pieces and then you can just wipe them off. Next up here we're gonna go over some of the sandy colors. And I've heard this pronounced multiple ways. I don't know if it's John Brilliant or June brilliant. It's a light peachy tone. And then I have one that is a little bit more. On the pinky side. It says flesh. And then also Naples, yellow, pale. And then you're going to need a color for your shadow area. The one that I used was raw umber. The color that I'm going to start off with is marked flesh. So this is the one that I said it was a little bit more pinky tone than the others. We're just going to sketch out the sandy areas. So we have a nice separation there between the sand and the water and then a tiny bit of the waves. And then after you're done with your quick outline, you're going to start to fill in the area. And I'm gonna go back and forth between the three different colors here. So that was your flesh color there. And the one that's more of a peach tone and then the yellow After we have our sand layout here, we're going to add some of your lightest blue for the water. We're going to mix that in here. Over the areas that were white. Also, I am being a little bit more gentle with my strokes here because as you will see, we're going to blend a lot of colors down below here. And I don't want to push too hard, because if we try to mix too many colors, it may get a little bit muddy. The areas that we added, some of the lighter blue, we're going to go ahead with our shadow color and just add a little bit more of this deeper blue. Right here. As you can see, everything is a little bit stripy, so I'm going to use my white to blend everything altogether just so it looks a lot more natural. This will help to get rid of that leg straight, be harsh line appearance. When you're done with your blending, we're going to add a little bit more of the Prussian blue just for some darker areas in the water. And down below for some of the shadow areas in the sand. I'm using that raw umber. Then we're just going to blend that through. Coming up in our next portion here, we just have a couple of final details. I'm going to show a how to remove some color in an area if you need to. And then we're gonna put on some quick little ways. And then it's, it's almost time for final touches here. 4. Final Details : Now we're ready for those last-minute details. So I'm gonna go ahead with this is just the end of a watercolor brush. Or if you have a palette knife, you can use that tool. And I'm trying to brighten up where I want my waves to be. So I'm just going to gently scratch off some of the oil pastel that's there. And then we're going to add a thick layer of white on top. And right here I'm just touching up some of my shadow areas as I was blending out my waves, I lost my lines a little bit, so I just added a few more. And then you can look around and see if you have any areas that you need to touch up. Sometimes you get those little tiny pieces. You may just have to gently remove. Or you can deepen up some of your shadow areas if you can't see them that well, sometimes it happens if you over blend it a little too much. And that is it for today's oil pastel tutorial helped you did enjoy it and you can feel free to check out my other oil pastel classes as well. Don't forget to post your progress and your artwork, and I'll see you next time.