Flowers in Oil Pastels
Oil Pastel Flowers!
I did these in 2009 while learning how to use oil pastels in art school. I find oil pastels are so much fun to work with — if you have artist-quality pastels! Otherwise, it can really be frustrating and even hamper development of the piece.
The base colors here are done with Cray-Pas Expressionist, which are so-so quality in my opinion. I used Sennelier oil pastels in white almost exclusively for the white areas of the flowers. Also added Senneliers for greens reds and some yellows.
BTW – if you are looking for more oil pastel techniques, check out OilPastelTechniques.com!
After working on this piece I went out and bought 9 more Sennelier oil pastels (individual sticks purchased from Jerry’s Artarama in Virginia Beach), so now I have more variety to work with! 
Anyway, I’m fairly pleased with how this piece worked out. I think I could have gone more dark for the shadowing inside the flowers and some in the petals. But the dark is a good contrast to the delicate flowers, in my opinion. Also, the quality of the photo here doesn’t do the piece justice! The colors from the oil pastels actually look much richer and vibrant.
I think oil pastels are great for paintings of flowers and I’m looking forward to doing more in the future.
Have a look at more of my oil pastels art here
Recommended book:
Oil Pastels for the Serious Beginner
Any comments or criticisms are welcome!
Portrait Drawings of Children by Eric D. Greene
Recent Google searches:
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Every time I visit your site, I wish I had more time to do some artwork again. This and the Christmas ornaments are really awesome. How long did they take to do?
~ Kristi
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Thanks Kristi! I honestly love doing these oil pastels – as long as it comes out the way I want! Haha The Christmas ornaments I did mostly during class time, I would say for a total of about 3 hours. The flowers took roughly 4 hours to finish.
I’ve been visiting your blog a lot lately – you’re posting some awesome photography over there! (as well as the useful advice on blogging and social networking of course
)
-Eric
Eric these are so beautiful!
And you know what I love even more that you are not afraid to take pride and ownership for your work! This piece is beautiful and as an artist it starts with you to feel amazing about it! A lot of people in the world today think that it is the “polite” thing to do to be falsely humble. But that serves no one and does not put out any valuable energy into the universe. Hence some artists are always scraping by, while others are making it big with the same talent!
Love what you do and be proud of it – always, for it is then that happiness will be pouring into your life no matter what!
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Thank you Evita! You’re right about loving what you do and taking pride. I think all great artists *must* know that what they are doing is worthwhile. It is part of what drives them, don’t you think?
For sure!
Evita’s last blog post..Overflowing
Beautiful movement. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Andrea, thanks for the encouraging comment!
I love these flowers. They look amazing! & They really helped for my artist link for my GCSE topic!
Thankyou
Hello Charlotte, thank you for visiting and for the comment. Best of luck with your GCSE!
Wow. These Are Amazing Eric:o
Ive Been Looking For An Artist Who Does Flowers With Pastels For Days And This Is The First Ive found That I’ll Be Proud To Do A Contextual Reference On My GCSE Art, Thank You So Much For Being Such A Great And Most Deffinatly Inspiring Artist:D!
I love oil pastels as a medium. So expressive!Reply – Quote
That’s a fantastic piece of art, truly great. I like the way the shadows form on the stems. Nice work my friend.
This is beautiful and elegant, just what im looking for, as im studying oil pastel artists in my GSCE Art class
I was wondering if you had a specific name for this piece?
I would be really grateful if you replied, thanks.