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Cherry blossoms in oil pastel
In this step-by-step plan, Gerdien (@artbygejoja on Instagram) shows you how to create these beautiful cherry blossom branches using Sakura Cray-Pas oil pastels. Sakura, the Japanese brand known as the creator of Pigma Micron fineliners and Gelly Roll gel pens, is also the inventor of Cray-Pas, the original oil pastel that combined premium-quality pigments, wax and oil into a pastel stick. Did you know sakura means cherry blossom in Japanese? How fitting for this artwork! This step-by-step plan also contains some useful tips on how to work with oil pastels, so let’s get right into it!
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Japanese garden in oil pastel
In this step-by-step plan, Gerdien (@artbygejoja on Instagram) shows you how to create a tranquil Japanese garden using Sakura Cray-Pas oil pastels. These smooth, brightly coloured pastels are easy to blend and allow you to create texture and depth, or even imitate the effect of oil paint. Gerdien also shares some wonderful tips on how to work make the most out of these special pastels, so let’s get started!
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Lascaux cave drawings
One of the world's first works of art is the collection of cave drawings discovered in Lascaux, France in 1940. The murals were insanely well preserved, which made it possible to research how people lived and made art over 15,000 years ago. These people used colours from materials that they found around them, like charcoal, soil, lime, blood and even urine. This discovery of humanity’s first artists showed us that humans have always had the tendency to express themselves using images. Though we thankfully have more modern products to express ourselves with nowadays, we still use colours that resemble the earthy tones found in those caves; think of colours like umber, ochre or burnt sienna. This step-by-step plan shows you how you can create a cave-like surface to pay a tribute to the ancient cave drawings found in Lascaux. To create the drawings on this rough background, we will use Rembrandt carré pastels.
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Small Pear Tree in Blossom
“It is still quite cold here in the Netherlands, even though it is April already, so everyone is desperately looking for a glimmer of spring. The crocuses and daffodils on the sides of the road and the fresh tulips offered at the markets offer us some hope for warmer days to come. Van Gogh’s small pear tree is in full bloom. Though pear trees may bloom later in the year, this image still spoke to me during this time of the year: blossom that will soon bear fruit. Van Gogh’s paintings often seem to be quite simple. That is, until you start working on them yourself. He has the tendency to ‘draw’ using his paint brush, which is why Van Gogh’s paintings are great candidates to recreate as drawings! The number of colours he uses in his art are seemingly infinite. The lines are both prominent and fragile. His paintings offer me some consolation in the final dark days of the winter season.” In this step-by-step plan, Merel Jansen, technical advisor at Royal Talens, shows us how to recreate Van Gogh’s Small Pear Tree in Blossom using Van Gogh soft pastels (how fittingly), Bruynzeel Design coloured pencils and Rembrandt pastel paper. She uses a fixative spray for pastels in between layers and to fix the final piece.
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Portrait on Sanguine Red toned paper
In this speed paint video, artist Chris Gambrell shows you how to build a portrait with pastels. He also showcases how much of an impact the colour of your paper has on your final piece! Watch how he incorporates shading and highlights to his work to create a stylised portrait. Chris used Rembrandt artist quality soft pastels and toned paper in the colour Sanguine Red to complement the warm tones and make the cooler colours pop even more.
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Portrait on Mystical Blue toned paper
In this speed paint video, artist Chris Gambrell shows you how to build a portrait with pastels. He also showcases how much of an impact the colour of your paper has on your final piece! Watch how he incorporates shading and highlights to his work to create a stylised portrait. Chris used Rembrandt artist quality soft pastels and toned paper in the colour Mystical Blue to complement the cool tones and make the warm colours pop even more.
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Portrait on Industrial Grey toned paper
In this speed paint video, artist Chris Gambrell shows you how to build a portrait with pastels. He also showcases how much of an impact the colour of your paper has on your final piece! Watch how he incorporates shading and highlights to his work to create a stylised portrait. Chris used Rembrandt artist quality soft pastels and toned paper in the colour Industrial Grey to make the colours pop even more.
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City at sunset
One of the most easily identifiable elements of a Japanese city is the presence of overhead power lines on every street. We tried to capture this iconic element of Japanese city life in this oil pastel drawing of a shopping street at sunset. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sakura, our Japanese brand, in 2021, we would like to share this oil pastel drawing of a Japanese street at sunset with you. We used Sakura’s iconic Cray-Pas Expressionist oil pastels to create vibrant colour gradients and bold contrasts. Let’s get started!
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Building a portret
Soft pastels are a great medium for portraits. Building a portrait, however, can be tricky. This step-by-step plan contains some useful tips to start creating your own portraits using soft pastels! Skin tones are notoriously hard to create, which is why we used Van Gogh Soft Pastels Portrait Selection. This selection of 36 contains all the shades you need to easily create a wide variety of skin tones. We also used Rembrandt toned paper in the colour Verona Green to compliment cooler colours and make warm tones pop more.
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