When I was young I loved chalk and oil pastels. There was something about the dusty blend of chalk that I loved working with. Oil pastels left chunky lumps on the pages but smoothed out with a finger into lovely layers.

I didn’t use them often in college but when I was teaching I used them a lot. I also stained a rug in a rental with chalk pastels. It cost me some money.

I started to avoid really messy materials like chalk and oil pastels. Chalk also started to dry out my skin.

When I picked up the kid’s tempera sticks I was reminded of oil pastels. More than once I felt like the tempera sticks felt like chapstick or lipstick smoothing onto a page. Good oil pastels are often referred to in the same way.

I went out and bought a 12-pack of Faber Castell oil pastels. Pretty chunky, smooth but chunky.

I’ve been thinking of doing the tempera sticks with the kids for their big project but they are not lightfast and we only use artist grade materials with the kids for these projects. So I went back to oil pastels.

I made my way out to my local (truly local a small local chain Artist and Craftsman Supply) art supply store and picked up 2 brands of student grade oil pastels and a handful of artist grade pastels.

The first brand of student grade oil pastels I picked up was Panda by Talens. They were smoother than the Faber Castell but not by much. The 24 pack of colors is a good choice.

The next step up was Van Gogh brand by Royal Talens. Smoother still but not that chapstick like consistency was looking for.

Finally, the artist grade Sennelier oil pastels. I was only able to afford 8 of these*. These went onto the page like the kid’s tempera paints. They were luscious and smooth like chapstick or lipstick. The colors vibrant and color matched to Sennelier watercolors, oil pastels, and acrylic paints (and other professional art supplies). Honestly they feel and smell like a whole different medium. At $4.49 a stick (that’s discounted) I can really feel like I’m rubbing money on the page. Even a small image uses a lot of the stick and with oil pastels (and the tempera sticks) I’m really feeling an urge to work larger.

Anyway, I can say I don’t hate oil pastels anymore and even kind of enjoy them. Especially when I buy and use the really pricey brand.

*I have a budget at work for test supplies for the show pieces. This falls under that budget, but damn these are $$$.