In my previous posts I talked about a basic oil pastel set and about different brands of oil pastel. Everything was about student quality pastel and for beginners it’s enough!
However if you like drawing with oil pastel and want to develop your skills, you should buy professional quality oil pastel. Why? Because it’s much better! :) It includes more pigment and better quality binders. It blends easily, and offers excellent coverage and lightfastness. Without doubt, you will enjoy drawing with this pastel!
I am going to talk about 3 brands which I use and have sets of.
1. Sakura 50-Piece Cray-Pas Expressionist Assorted Color Oil Pastel Set. Japan brand, made in China.
I put this set in just because of the producer description and price. Not really cheap. The set includes 48 colors and 2 extenders. I can not say anything about the extenders, I do not use them.
Producer says:
Extra-fine quality oil pastels
Good lightfastness.
Extremely smooth and very easy to apply
As for me, I do not feel or see a lot of differences between Sakura Juniors and this set. Only price! I wouldn’t say that this is a professional quality set.
However, the set has nice colors with their transparent application, so it's good for first layers.
2. Mungyo Gallery Artists' Soft Oil Pastels Set of 72 Colours.
Made in Korea.
This is a very good set which includes many different colors!
You can find smaller Mungyo Gallery sets too. For example, the sets Sakura and Mungyo with the same number of oil sticks(48) cost pretty much the same, and are around $45-50, however the quality of Mungyo is much better!
Mungyo is soft and has good coverage. Producer promises strong light resistance.
I enjoy drawing with this pastel and recommend you to buy a big set with 72 colors. Especially if you don't want to spend a lot of money. :)
3. Caran d'Ache : Artist Neopastel : Assorted Box of 96.
Made in Switzerland.
This is the best and expensive oil pastel. Very expensive if you compare with Mungyo.
However, it’s my favorite one - very soft, with high pigment, excellent covering and lightfastness! 96 colors is a full set. If you want to enjoy every stroke I recommend you to treat yourself. It's the most ideal oil pastel!
There are a couple more great brands of oil pastel which I do not use a lot (just try separate sticks), but want to buy sets. Then I will talk about them.
The next post will be about oil pastel techniques. Stay tuned!