Today I am going to review my Pentel Oil Pastels.
I have been using this particular brand since 2015, and am thrilled with both the quality and the value for money.
My current set is the largest they do, 50 pastels – which is just £6.99 in the UK from Amazon (links at the bottom of the page), an incredible price for so many lovely pastels. You can also buy smaller sets.
The pastels come in a flat box, so they are all laid out neatly in two rows – making it very easy to see the colours. There is a plastic moulding that goes over them, then a card sleeve holds it in place. I always keep my pastels in the box as it keeps the colours separate – dark colours can make marks on light colours if they touch.
Oil pastels are clean and easy to work with, can be used for a variety of techniques and work well with other media.
They are well known for the ability to blend smoothly together, making them perfect for creating gradient backgrounds – which is what I mostly use them for.
After creating gradient backgrounds, with masking tape used to make frames etc, I draw over the pastel with a correction pen or acrylic markers. Although I have quite a few brands of acrylic markers that work for this, the Arteza brand ones are my current favourites (they are also great for painting on stones!)
Here is an example of a simple, but very effective piece done using the Pentel oil pastels. The black tree is drawn using a B3 pencil and the blossom and moon were “painted” in using a Pentel fine tipped correction pen. I followed a tutorial on YouTube for this, and it was quick and easy.
Here is a link to the tutorial of how to create this piece on YouTube – Flower Tree drawing with Oil Pastels – step by step by Art Arena.
This artist has many more great oil pastel tutorials on their YouTube channel – Art Arena’s YouTube channel.
You can also create full pieces of art work with them…. Check out the greArt그레아트 YouTube channel for some lovely examples.
There are actually 49 different colours, as there are 2 sticks of white. The sticks have a number and a colour name. I have seen a lot of videos on YouTube etc where people are creating oil pastel art. They often put up which colours they are using – and the colours match the Pentel ones, so you could follow along easily with these pastels.
The pastels are beautifully creamy and not “waxy” like some brands I have tried. They blend very well, though one does need to use the right sort of paper – just as for any brand of oil pastel,
I like Canson Mixed Media 200gsm card and use this pretty much exclusively for pastel art. It is very smooth and the pastels blend beautifully on it.
I do, however, also use the pastels in my art journals, on watercolour paper (both hot pressed and NOT) and on high density card such as Neenah, for various effects.
In Summary
Pentel oil pastels are a low priced art medium. They are versatile and can be used with many other mediums for interesting effects. They come in a wide range of attractive colours and blend well. They are clean to use and easy to store.
Links to Products Mentioned on Amazon
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