Need Info on artist's oil pastels

Hi Bob,

"Oil" pastels are what I would describe as similar to soft crayons. They have a waxy carrier and when you draw on paper with them, they have a "slippery" feel and leave a line similar to, well, crayons. If you try to scrape a little off a stick, you may find that it sticks to your knife blade or comes off in flakes.

"Soft" pastels are like sticks of fine-grained chalk and do not have a waxy carrier. When you draw on paper with these, you should get a dry dusty appearance. If you scrape these with your knife, it should come off as a fine powder.

Sorry if this sounds vague, I haven't used oil pastels since school (over 35 years).

Phil,

That appears to be what these are.   They are not artist's oils, but hard pastel sticks which are labeled "artist's oil pastels".  Does that help?

Bob

Hi Bob,

Actually, oil pastels have very few applications in modelling. For weathering  "dust" effects, one would use "soft" pastels which are, ironically, hard sticks of a chalk-like material.