Recently, I got myself some oil pastels, mainly to try to find a medium that would be easy and quick to use for backgrounds in coloured pencil paintings. I also wanted something that will work nicely in paintings done exclusively in oil pastels. I remember using them years ago, in high school, and rather liking them. So, after some initial research, I settled on a small 12-pack of Sennelier oil pastels and Caran d'Ache Neopastels. To try them out, I decided to draw a red apple, using GreArt's How to draw apple with oil pastel tutorial on YouTube. This way, the topic and all the planning is already done for you. While the main components of my picture are very similar to those in the tutorial, I decided to completely change the leaf (to more closely resemble an actual apple tree leaf), and skipped the water droplets. I have nothing against water droplets or drawing them (they can look great and add a wonderful visual interest), but I see so many water droplets being drawn on nearly every apple and fruit these days, that I just simply don't want to look at them for now (much less draw them).
Anyway... I found both brands of oil pastels wonderful to work with, at least on Strathmore Bristol Vellum, 300 series, paper. The Sennelier are famous for their creaminess and that they were, being best used as a last layer and for glazing. The Neopastels are a bit harder/waxier, but oh, so velvety in finish! Unfortunately, I was unable to fully capture the gorgeous, deep, rich finish of the pastels in photographs. No matter what light, positioning and camera I used, the lens could not capture the many details and nuances of the painting.
Also, FYI, I used Canvy app to present my painting as if it was mounted on a wall, which appears to be much larger in scale than it actually is. In reality, the measurements of the image are only 12x16.5 cm/ 4.75x 6.5".
Also, FYI, I used Canvy app to present my painting as if it was mounted on a wall, which appears to be much larger in scale than it actually is. In reality, the measurements of the image are only 12x16.5 cm/ 4.75x 6.5".
Below are some of the steps of my drawing process.
First, I roughly laid down the main color areas of the apple. I blended the colours in a vertical direction, but not very smoothly, in order to reflect the splotchy nature of apple skin. From then on, I added the stem and continued to add details, like more splotches, shading/highlights.
When I was more or less satisfied with the general look of the fruit, I added the leaf. I looked at a variety of apple leaf photo references, in order to see their general character. The leaf in GreArt's tutorial looked a bit too much like a hoya plant leaf for my liking.
After the apple was done, it was time to add the background. I decided to layer blue on top of black for added richness and depth. The process was so fast! If I used coloured pencils, it would have taken me many long hours just to build up that kind of smooth, dark, rich background. Here, it took me less than one hour for the dark navy background! I love how easily the Neopastels blended and layered!
And this is what it looked like with all of the main components in place and blended. From this point on, it was just a matter of dealing with details and making adjustments. I cleaned up the edges of the stem and leaves with black and/or very dark navy Prismacolor pencils. I also used a couple of coloured pencils to add some detail to leaf veins and small speckles on the apple.
And here it is finished, along with some photos of the details.
