Oil Pastel Portraits on Colored Paper

Oil pastels are the perfect middle ground between drawing and painting. In this course, we will be exploring the expressive possibilities with this painterly and easy-to-use medium. You'll learn color mixing, layering, blending, mark-making and more while drawing colorful portraits. Fun fact: this medium is relatively new - created in Japan in 1924, initially called Cray-Pas (combining the words crayons and pastel). Then, it was Picasso who asked Henri Sennelier for a medium that could be used on any surface, paper - canvas - wood - and oil pastels by Sennelier were born.

For each portrait, we'll begin by establishing our color harmony by selecting specific pigments to express light and shadow on colored paper - this will result in an Expressionistic portrait.