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Loosen up Your Style With Oil Pastels
Oil pastels are an exciting and versatile art medium. Their convenient versatility can be the aspect of oil pastels that make them confusing to beginners. There are more than a few ways to use oil pastels. Which way is the right way?
The good news is, one of the greatest freedoms in art is that we are not bound to use the mediums in the same way others use them, or for that matter, how they’re intended to be used.
If you can get comfortable with that, then you can have endless success in oil pastel. This post is about making the most of the oil pastel’s ability to be loose, expressive and imperfect. I will introduce you to the benefits of oil pastel in its loose form. At the end of the post you can find the link to an oil pastel tutorial in the style of my children’s book illustrations.
Loosen up Your Style With Oil Pastels
This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you that allows me to continue to provide useful content. Thanks.
Oil pastels are an exciting and versatile art medium. Their convenient versatility can be the aspect of oil pastels that make them confusing to beginners. There are more than a few ways to use oil pastels. Which way is the right way?
The first confusing bit is that oil pastels are technically a painting medium that use the same motor-skills as drawing. They’re usually stumpy and blunt, so even though you have the same hand control that you would a pencil, adding details and precision is difficult.
So are they for painting or drawing? I have seen many a student become very frustrated while using oil pastels for the first time. There is an inner conflict brought about by the assumption that they should be able to create precise details, but the materials won’t behave like their pencil. It can easily create the sensation that one isn’t “good” at using oil pastels and there is a temptation to revert back to the materials we know well that make us feel in control. (Okay, maybe I’m mostly talking about me.)
Any time you get the sensation that you aren’t “good” in something in art, chances are that somewhere in your head there is a “should” or “should not” bouncing around and dictating to you what your art is supposed to be in order to be “right”.
The good news is, one of the greatest freedoms in art is that we are not bound to use the mediums in the same way others use them, or for that matter, how they’re intended to be used.
If you can get comfortable with that, then you can have endless success in oil pastel. This post is about making the most of the oil pastel’s ability to be loose, expressive and imperfect. I will introduce you to the benefits of oil pastel in its loose form. At the end of the post you can find the link to an oil pastel tutorial in the style of my children’s book illustrations.
Y is for Yellow-bellied Warbler work in progress
C is for Chickadee work in progress
K is for Kingfisher work in progress
Fast and Loose
When I decided to create a children’s alphabet book about birds while at home with a new(ish) baby, I needed a medium and style that allowed for success even when illustrating with a wiggly infant on my lap. I also needed one that didn’t take hours and hours for every illustration. While researching and planning, I revisited some oil pastel animals I had done on black paper and knew I had found exactly what I was looking for.
That is how I came to illustrate Little Birder’s 26 birds in loose, bright oil pastel on black paper.
Relatively fast
Loose application
Bold illustrations
Lends itself to imperfection
I love how thick and bright the pastels cover the black paper, and I think the black paper outlines between shapes makes the colors pop and the illustrations stand out. (I mean look at this camel. What’s not to love?)
Oil Pastel Camel by Jessalyn Claire
Oil Pastel Elephant by Jessalyn Claire
Oil Pastel Horse by Jessalyn Claire
Relatively fast
Loosening up your style and attempting something similar to the examples I have shown of my developed style on black paper will also shorten the amount of time it takes to complete your artwork. The side bonus of moving toward something with more forgiveness is that it will speed up the process as you leave small imperfections and choose not to fuss over every small detail.
Troubleshooting tip: Finding yourself having a hard time not getting caught up and spending more time than you mean to in the details? Choose the area in your artwork where you want your viewer to spend the most time. Allow yourself the most time adding slow and detailed application into this area. Limit the amount of details you attempt to add into the rest of the work.
Loose application
As mentioned, Oil pastels have a variety of options for application, allowing for freedom and choice in your work. Oil pastels is one of the art mediums that can create very successful and exciting work when applied loosely.
Troubleshooting tip: Practice a loose style by picking a simple (but interesting) subject and create three versions. You can either start from precise and loosen up, or you can start with a really loose and free application, tightening up your work as you move to the second and then third versions.
Bold illustrations
Despite the fact that oil pastels vary in the thickness and opacity in their application, they all lend themselves to bright, bold results. There is flexibility to blend them in layers or apply them thickly in an impasto style, or both.
Troubleshooting tip: Do your pastels look a bit like crayon markings on the paper? I have seen students disillusioned with oil pastels only to realize that they have stopped their art too early in the process and have not built up their oil pastels enough, either with blending or with thick heavy application to make the colors pop.
If your artwork is feeling like a kids crayon drawing (and you don’t like it that way) ADD MORE. Yes, there is a point where you won’t be able to add any more without some negative effects, but if you’re having the mentioned problem, then you probably lean toward being naturally light-handed with your oil pastels. Don’t be afraid. I know it is intimidating to do something that might “mess up” the work you’ve spent time on, but so often if something doesn’t look right or “good” it is because it just isn’t finished yet.
In order to get the boldness out of the oil pastels you will want to make sure you have done one of three things:
Make sure you’ve added enough pastel that you can blend with your finger (or a solvent like baby oil) to cover the tooth of the paper. This will also take away the “crayon” effect. This would be the thinnest application of oil pastel and would likely have the most subtle effect.
Blend the oil pastel with other oil pastels until it is a soft blended surface. Layering the oil pastels will blend them into one another. There has to be enough oil pastel on the surface to be able to achieve this effect. Remember that if you are still seeing the white tooth of the paper underneath your markings (and you don’t like it) you’re not doing it wrong, you simply haven’t quite added enough layers.
Similar to the style I’ve developed on black paper, rather than slowly adding and building up oil pastel to make it thick and opaque, I simply press harder in the initial application, sometimes without layering the color. (I usually do a combination of this and the layering.) So, if you are adding marks to your artwork like this and it looks like crayon (and you don’t like it) - press harder.
Lends itself to imperfection
I find that, contrary to what you might expect, beginner artists actually lean toward being too clean and precise, and adding too much detail in their subjects. I am convinced that this is because without our own creative experience, when we view great works that are very convincing in their subject matter, we assume it is because they’ve spent more time and put more of every detail into it for us to read. In actuality, great artists are usually able to create convincing art with fewer marks and details because of how well they have come to understand things like light and shadow, form, color theory, and so on. For new artists, the tighter we are and the more detail we try to get in, without fully understanding how to do it convincingly, the less impressive and convincing our art will be.
That is why oil pastel is a great exercise in moving us away from rigidity and control, and toward loose, expressive and “imperfection” that will actually create interest and excitement in our work.
Troubleshooting Tip: To help you learn how to represent important details, try an exercise of choosing a subject matter with some degree of detail, and see how few strokes or how few shapes you can use to create a convincing representation of the subject. Try squinting your eyes while looking at your reference and only including the details you can see while squinting. Similarly you could choose a subject matter such as an apple, and attempt to paint it in the style of an impressionist artist, such as Monet.
If you’re not convinced yet, here is the thing, oil pastels are stumpy and blunt and do not lend themselves to precision details, so you’re off the hook. You can let go of perfection and set your expectations for discovery. There is a reason that I picked this style for that season of life.
If I can manage this style with a baby on my lap (who constantly tried to snack on the art materials,) then you can manage it. The key to success is to let go of perfection and enjoy the imperfection that comes with those stumpy little oil pastels.
Have you tried oil pastels yet? Comment below and let me know your experience with my favorite little artist crayons.
Follow this link to find the tutorial for an oil pastel painting in the style of my children’s book Little Birder: A Field Guide to Birds of the Alphabet.
Click the image below to get your own copy of my children’s book Little Birder: A Field Guide to Birds of the Alphabet.
Free Art Class for Kids | How to Draw Realistic Birds on Outschool - Part One
Do you have a child that wants to be an artist or learn to draw? In this post I share the first video from week one of my How to Draw Realistic Birds (and Think Like an Artist) class on Outschool.com
Keep reading to learn more about learning on Outschool and find the free learning video.
want a FREE DRAWING LESSON? Find the video below.
Do you have a child that wants to be an artist or learn to draw? In this post I share the first video from week one of my How to Draw Realistic Birds (and Think Like an Artist) class on Outschool.com
Keep reading to learn more about learning on Outschool and find the free learning video.
Not everything that changed in the pandemic era is for the worse. (I mean, a lot of it was pretty awful, let’s not let that go too easily.) However, one of the most interesting, if not most important, changes that we have seen is the shift toward online distance-learning. The world that was already at our fingertips through the internet, is now the world of knowledge to be learned from the comfort of our own home and the convenience of our own time-zone… and it is pretty awesome.
THE SILVER LINING
There are significant downsides to children attending kindergarten from a screen at home, and yet there is also a silver-lining in the situation. That is, we’ve realized that if our kids can learn how to multiply from their local math teachers from the living room couch, then why can’t they learn to draw, code websites, bake, dance, speak a new language, make origami, or whatever their little hearts desire to know too? That is where platforms like Outschool come in. Outschool boasts of 140,000 classes to choose from for ages 3-18. Outschool has multiple formats for classes in core subjects like math, science and history, but it also has offerings of art, hobbies and just about any subject you can dream up. Outschool focuses on small-group, interactive experiences that take place live, but there are also opportunities to learn without a live meeting.
Let’s learn a little more about Outschool before moving on to the FREE part-one video lesson from the first week of my class How to Draw Realistic Birds (and Think like an Artist)
What is Outschool?
Outschool is an education platform that offers online classes for kids ages 3-18. Unlike traditional classes, Outschool classes let kids explore their interests with live Zoom classes taught by experienced, independent educators.
What kind of classes are on Outschool?
Live classes- Live classes meet over video chat in the classroom for the schedule timed. This format is just like any online class scenario that we have come to know.
FLEX Classes - While the vast majority of Outschool classes feature scheduled, live meetings using the video classroom, it also offers the option of flexible schedule (“flex”) classes, which don’t rely on live meetings. In a Flex Class format, teachers conduct the class by posting videos in the Outschool classroom and engaging with learners asynchronously. Flex classes run for a minimum of four weeks.
What are the options for class length on Outschool?
One-time Classes- These are classes that meet only once. They can be a great option for filling in a school holiday, or a last minute Saturday activity. (Yes, there are tons of classes that happen on the weekends.)
Multi-Day Classes- These are classes that meet more than once. This can range from two meetings all the way up to a semester class. Multi-day classes that meet more than once in a week are considered camps.
Ongoing Classes- Ongoing classes meet weekly and do not have a set start or end date. Sign up for ongoing classes similar to a subscription. Any time you need to miss a week you can stop your subscription and re-enroll when you are ready to return. I like to call my ongoing art classes “clubs”, because students often stay together for long periods of time, allowing for familiarity between the students.
What size are the classes on Outschool?
Group Classes - Group classes on Outschool vary depending on the age range, but all group classes are capped at 18 learners.
1:1 Classes - 1:1 classes are private classes with the teacher and topic of your choosing. It is a great opportunity for affordable tutoring or 1:1 learning time that is tailored to your student. Interested in 1:1 art lessons? Find my classes here. (Available for ages 6-18)
Semi- Private - Many teachers offer semi-private lessons that provide the opportunity for lower cost classes that have the same personal interaction with your student as a private lesson.
Way to go! Now that you’ve learned how to see basic shapes for your sketch and draw what you see in front of you, click the button below to find the guided-drawing video of a Black-Capped Chickadee.
How to Draw Realistic Birds- Part One- Starting with a Sketch
Drawing skills are the foundation of any art practice. Knowing how to draw opens a world of possibilities on which to build your creativity. That is because the basis of great drawing skills is observation. In order to draw well (realistically), we have to draw accurately. Drawing accurately means obeying the rules of nature, tapping into the way the brain works, and knowing where it sometimes steers us wrong.
How to Draw Realistic Birds- Part One
This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks.
Drawing skills are the foundation of any art practice. Knowing how to draw opens a world of possibilities on which to build your creativity. That is because the basis of great drawing skills is observation. In order to draw well (realistically), we have to draw accurately. Drawing accurately means obeying the rules of nature, tapping into the way the brain works, and knowing where it sometimes steers us wrong.
First of all, what do we mean by realistic?
How to Draw Realistic Birds- Part One- Sketch
Have you ever seen a drawing or a painting that looks so real that you can’t tell whether it is a photo or an artwork? That is probably what is conjured for many people when they envision realistic art. And it’s true, that is realistic. In fact, it is so much so that it is called photo-realistic, or hyper-realism. But that isn’t the only type of realistic artwork. For this lesson it is important to realize that when the word realistic is used, what I mean is “accurate”.
Are the proportions accurate? Is the head the correct size for the body? Is the tail the correct length, the wing the right length? Does it have the identifying marks of the bird that we are using as a reference. Have I created a sense of form (3D) by adding shadows and highlights strategically? Basically, does this look like the thing I am trying to draw?
(Psst… you can download the FREE How to Draw Realistic Birds- Part One PDF below!)
Step one: Basic Map Sketch
The drawing will be done in two parts, starting with a sketch. While teaching children this process, in order to illustrate the important purpose of a sketch in realistic drawing, I began to call this step a “basic-map-sketch”. I call it “basic” because it begins by using basic shapes that you already recognize and understand very well to build the overall structure of your drawing. I call it a “map-sketch” because it does for us as artists, what a map does for a traveler. If I’m going somewhere I’ve never been, I don’t simply take off and start guessing which direction to go. I get out a map, look at all of the lines and angles, and get a sense of the picture as a whole to understand where I am going and then I start. To start off with guesses would take longer, involve more mistakes and it’s likely to require turning around and going back a few times.
Think about your sketch as a safe place to make mistakes. The sketch is the place that we slow down, engage our brains and rework as much as necessary until we get things correct. There are two common downfalls in drawing. The first is impatience. For many of us, a sketch is tedious and delays the gratification of seeing a drawing come to life. There is a tendency to rush through the preliminary parts of our drawing, that include the important element of accuracy, to move to the more satisfying parts. The second is the fear of mistakes. For many of us there is the pressure to get things “right”. Oddly, the idea that we cannot make mistakes in our process can create the temptation to leave marks the page that are not correct, simply because they were the first marks we made.
Going into the sketch portion of your drawing with the expectation to make “mistakes” takes the pressure of perfectionism out of the picture. It is difficult to be willing to erase a mark you’ve lovingly placed, but be willing to change it and work at it until it is right.
Learn to see the basic shapes
First let’s have a quick practice at seeing the basic shapes within a bird. (Animated GIF of appearing shapes over bird image, take away image) It may take some imagination and practice for this to become a natural process, but over time it will become more second nature to break down a complicated shape into smaller, more basic parts to see the structure. Remember, you’re not looking to fit your bird sketch into a mold with a certain type/number of shapes. What you’re really doing is attempting to make connections in your brain between what you are observing and pieces of information you already have. It sounds a bit unbelievable, but by making these simple comparisons such as, “The head reminds me of a circle.” it creates new connections in the brain and your ability to see the object in front of you with more accuracy will increase.
Step by step sketch
STEPS 1-7
Posture line: Start by sketching a line at the angle of the posture of the body. The oval we will draw for the body will be drawn on top of this line. Do not try to draw the angle of the bird overall, focus on the angle of the largest portion of the body. The head will often be set at a completely different angle. This line helps ensure you sketch the overall shape in the correct position.
Circles: Visualize the circular shape of the body and head. Pay close attention to the size comparison between the two body parts. You do not have to over generalize the circle shape. The aim isn’t to over-simplify the structure into simple shapes, the aim is to make connections between shapes you already recognize and the shape you are trying to observe.
The beak line: The next trick is a great example of how knowing the way nature behaves can make us better artists. In many birds, and most songbirds, if you were to visualize (or sketch) a line where the top and the bottom of the beak meet and continue it out the back of the head, you will find that the eye will sit right on this line. The second benefit of this line is that it shows clearly how the bird’s head is tilted. These small details of angles can trip up an artist. It is the sort of small detail that causes that sensation of something being “off” in your finished drawing, but often not obvious enough to know what exactly it is that looks wrong.
Then draw the beak around that line, paying close attention to the size and shape of the beak. Is it short and fat? Skinny and sharp? It is important to notice that unless the bird is facing directly to the side, the beak shape WILL cross over and into the circle you’ve drawn for the head. You will see illustrated or simplified birds with a v-shaped beak popped right on the side of the head, but in real life birds are more often looking toward or away at an in-between angle. Add the eye sitting just on top of the line you’ve created, trying to study the shape, and the distance between the beak and eye closely.
Wing shape: As seen above, many wings can be simplified into one or more v-shapes or triangles. Estimate the length of the wing the best you can, realizing that as you add information to your drawing, it will become more clear whether you have accurately estimated the length. The wing is an area where I often have to make changes at a later stage.
5. Tail: Often you will find a triangle where the tail and the body meet, or a rounded V-shape when looking at the tail from the front. In this bird we barely see the space where the tail and body meet, but we do still see a small indication of the v-shape feathered section that I am referring to. Sketch this shape in to give the proper angle from the body and then draw the tail, paying close attention to the angle of the tail. Use a simplified shape that you plan to correct later or draw it with the nuance you see in it.
6.Perch and legs: There are a few ways to approach this last portion of our sketch. The bird we are drawing is not flying, but it isn’t floating. So we need to add a place for it to perch in order to draw the legs and feet. There are a few ways to add the branch or surface where a bird is perched. One way is to simply estimate. This is not a bad system. Lightly sketch a line roughly where you visually estimate the perch to be, keeping in mind that if it is too close or too far away it will impact the length of the legs.
7. Or an alternative method is to look between the legs at the negative space. You can visualize the shape that is created by the space between the legs and perch, and draw this shape. (In this case a thin triangle.) The lower edge of the shape will be the perch or top of the feet, and show you how far from the bird these need to be drawn. The legs can also be drawn by this method of visualizing the shape of the negative space. The same shape you have drawn, if drawn to accurately match the image, will also provide the inside line of the legs. You can follow it by simply drawing the opposite side of each leg.
*The alternative to adding the legs this way is to simple measure and visualize the angles of the legs. This will often create a triangle that has the same helpful effect of helping you check your work. Draw these angled lines very lightly onto the bird, paying attention to where they connect to the body, and then finish by drawing your thin bird legs around these lines.
Feet: For today, we will draw a simplified version of the feet. Often, the position of a bird’s foot will visually appear to be a dark mass of toes rather than a foot with distinct features to pick out.
Using straight lines, simplify the overall shape of the foot, ignoring the space between any toes. Not only is this helpful in ensuring that the posture of the foot is correct, and makes it much easier to draw, but it’s a helpful way to observe the way the feet work to better understand how to draw them in the future.
Lastly, once again we go to the negative space. See how the space between our toes and our shape create a triangle? Recreate those triangles within the geometric shape we used to draw the foot and then erase the outer lines. Voila. C’est finit.
perfecting the outline
STEPS 8-10
Congratulations. You have finished your basic map sketch. However, these next steps are arguably the most important. The reason being that without it, using the basic shapes would make our drawing look less realistic, rather than more. Drawing with these basic shapes can really increase the accuracy of your drawings, UNLESS you get to this point and leave it as it is. We’ve used two ovals to capture the proportions and shape of our bird, but as is, it can be reminiscent of another object made with stacks of circles… a snowman! That is why I warn students against “the snowman bird.” For some reason it is very difficult for young students to remember not to leave the ovals from their sketch in the final drawing.
If we trace the outline of a snowman onto our bird image, we see very clearly that is not the shape of the bird. So, before doing any details or shading in our drawing, we must take a moment to refine the outline and shape of the bird. DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP. I know you’re ready to see this drawing come to life, but trust the process. If you leave this step off, you would be better off to draw by simply studying the outline.
Taking a close look at the reference photo, draw a line coming from below the beak to meet the body. Then study the angle at the front of the head that comes out of the beak and then the shape of the head. Finally, following the outline you observe in the photo, connect the head to the body oval along the outline, adjusting the size and shape as necessary.
Now, erase the leftover lines from the original shapes…Ahhh, that feels good. Doesn’t it?
The last step for part one will be to lightly mark out the various color changes along the body and major wing detail. This allows your brain to visualize the bird’s 3D form better. The brain needs surprisingly little to be able to fill in the missing information and understand what is going on. Think about the wing detail with the shape basic shape breakdown as the overall sketch. You are taking a larger, more complicated shape and breaking it down into smaller, simple shapes. You do not have to add every detail, just focus on the big shapes within the wing. Taking a moment to add in the wing detail will save you from having to stop and re-engage that part of your brain once you’ve moved on to the artistic, intuitive part of the drawing.
Whew, you did it!
Way to go, you’ve created your basic sketch. Now go have a cup of tea first, or move straight to part two of How to Draw Realistic Birds by clicking here!
Wait, there’s more!
You may be an adult, but that doesn’t mean you can’t watch the free video tutorials for kids from my Outschool class, here. Be sure two watch the learning video and the guided drawing video of a Black-capped Chickadee.
Or, get your copy of my children’s book about birds, Little Birder: A Field Guide to Birds of the Alphabet here.
Check it out!
Sometimes at this stage we have to trust the process even when it doesn’t feel like it is looking great. How do you feel about your sketch? Let me know in the comments below.
