Oil pastels are a vibrant and versatile medium that can be used to create stunning landscapes. Their rich colors, smooth blendability, and forgiving nature make them ideal for both beginners and experienced artists. Whether you’re drawn to capturing the drama of a mountain range or the tranquility of a countryside scene, oil pastels can help you bring your vision to life in 2024.

This guide will equip you with the knowledge and techniques to master landscape drawings with oil pastels. We’ll delve into essential aspects like choosing the right materials and explore key methods for creating depth and dimension in your landscapes.

Part 1: Getting Started

1. Gathering Your Supplies

Before embarking on your artistic journey with oil pastels, it is essential to ensure that you have the necessary tools and materials to bring your artistic vision to life. A good quality set of oil pastels featuring a wide range of colors serves as the foundation for your artistic endeavors, allowing you to create vibrant and expressive landscapes. Consider investing in soft pastels for seamless blending and layering, as well as harder pastel options that provide precision for adding detailed lines and intricate elements to your work. Brands such as Sennelier, renowned for their rich pigments, and Pentel, which offers a favorable balance of quality and affordability, are popular choices among artists.

When selecting paper for your oil pastel creations, opt for heavyweight, sanded pastel paper specifically designed to complement the unique properties of oil pastels. The tooth, or textured surface, of the paper provides an ideal grip for the pastels, facilitating superior adherence and creating a beautiful foundation for blending and layering. Brands like Canson Mi-Teintes and Strathmore Pastel papers are renowned for their quality and popularity among artists, offering a versatile canvas for your artistic expression.

2. Reference and Composition

Finding Inspiration: Nature is your playground! Look for landscapes that resonate with you, whether it’s a majestic mountain vista or a quaint village scene. Take photographs to capture details or use them as reference points while creating your artwork.
Planning Your Composition: A strong composition is the backbone of any successful artwork. Think about how you want to guide the viewer’s eye through your landscape. Use techniques like the rule of thirds to position your focal point and create a sense of balance. Sketch a light underdrawing with a pencil to map out the major elements of your landscape.

Part 2: Capturing Light and Shadow

1. Layering Colors

Oil pastels excel at creating depth through layering. Start by establishing the basic shapes and colors of your landscape with light pressure. Gradually build upon these initial layers, adding darker tones for shadows and richer colors for highlights.

Building Form: As you layer colors, pay attention to how light interacts with the different elements in your landscape. Use darker tones to define the base of mountains, the shadowy sides of trees, and the foreground elements closest to you.
Creating Highlights: Once you have established your shadows, add highlights with lighter colors. This creates a sense of light reflecting off surfaces and adds depth to your landscape.

2. Blending and Smoothing

Blending is key to achieving a smooth and seamless look in your oil pastel landscapes. Here’s how to achieve beautiful blends:

Finger blending is a straightforward yet highly effective technique in oil pastel art. To execute this method, simply use your clean fingers to gently blend colors together while the oil pastel is still fresh on the paper. By starting lightly and gradually increasing pressure, you can achieve a seamless and more intense blend of colors, creating smooth transitions and gradients in your artwork.

On the other hand, tool blending involves the use of specialized blending tools such as stumps and tortillions. These tools provide more precise and controlled blending, which is particularly useful for small or detailed areas in your piece. When using blending tools, it’s important to maintain a light touch to avoid lifting too much pastel from the paper, ensuring that the colors blend harmoniously without becoming muddy. Both finger blending and tool blending are versatile techniques that offer artists different ways to achieve beautiful and expressive results in their oil pastel creations.

Part 3: Adding Details and Texture

1. Refining Your Landscape

Once you have the basic structure and colors in place, it’s time to refine your landscape and add details.

Sharpening Lines and Details: Use a sharpened pastel pencil or a harder oil pastel to add sharper lines and details like tree branches, rock formations, or distant buildings.
Creating Texture: Oil pastels are excellent for creating texture. Use the side of the pastel to create strokes that mimic the texture of grass, bark, or clouds. You can also scratch the surface of the paper with a tool to reveal the underlying layers, creating a textured effect. While oil pastels don’t use a sharpener like pencils, the question remains: how to sharpen oil pastels for fine detail work?

2. Experimenting with Techniques

Don’t shy away from the opportunity to experiment with a variety of techniques to imbue your landscape drawings with unique and captivating effects. Embracing different methods allows you to infuse your artwork with depth, texture, and visual intrigue, enabling you to expand your creative repertoire and explore the full potential of oil pastels within your landscape compositions.

One technique to consider is scumbling, which involves applying gentle, circular strokes of color to achieve a soft, textured effect. This method can be particularly effective for capturing ethereal elements such as fog, distant mountain ranges, or a hazy, atmospheric sky. By employing the scumbling technique, you can introduce a sense of depth and atmosphere to your landscapes, contributing to the overall mood and ambiance of your artistic creation.

Another technique to experiment with is overlaying, where thin layers of oil pastel are applied over darker colors to create a luminous, radiant effect. This method is especially impactful when seeking to depict natural phenomena such as sunlight filtering through a canopy of leaves or dancing across the surface of water. By skillfully overlaying lighter colors atop darker tones, you can achieve a mesmerizing interplay of light and shadow, infusing your landscape with a captivating sense of vitality and luminosity.

Part 4: Finishing Touches and Practice

1. Adding Finishing Touches

The final touches play a crucial role in elevating your landscape drawing to the next level, adding depth, dimension, and visual interest to your artwork. Consider using a white or light-colored pastel to introduce accents and highlights, providing a final touch of sparkle and luminosity to your composition. These accents could include the subtle glint of sunlight reflecting on water, the radiant bloom of a vibrant flower in the foreground, or the graceful movement of a bird soaring across the sky. By delicately incorporating these highlights, you infuse your artwork with a captivating sense of realism and dynamism, enhancing the overall visual impact of your landscape drawing.

Additionally, consider utilizing fixatives as a means of preserving and protecting your completed artwork. While fixatives are optional, they can provide valuable protection against smudging and help maintain the integrity of your oil pastel creation over time. When selecting a fixative, opt for a non-aerosol formula specifically designed for oil pastels, ensuring compatibility with the unique properties of your medium. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully and apply the fixative lightly from a suitable distance, allowing it to safeguard your artwork without compromising the vibrancy and texture of the pastels. By incorporating these final touches and protective measures, you can further enhance the overall quality and longevity of your oil pastel landscape drawing, ensuring that your creative vision remains preserved and pristine for years to come.

2. Practice and Develop Your Skills

The key to mastering any art form is consistent practice. Here are some tips to help you develop your skills in landscape drawing with oil pastels:

Draw Regularly: Set aside dedicated time to practice, even if it’s just for a short sketch each day. The more you work with oil pastels, the more comfortable you’ll become with the techniques.
Experiment and Explore: Don’t be afraid to experiment with different colors, techniques, and compositions. There are no mistakes in art, only happy accidents that can lead to new discoveries.

Seek Inspiration: Immerse yourself in the work of other landscape artists, both past and present. Observe how they use color, light, and composition to create their landscapes.
Take Workshops and Classes: Consider enrolling in workshops or classes to learn new techniques and get feedback from experienced instructors.

With dedication and practice, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the art of landscape drawing with oil pastels. Remember, the most important thing is to have fun and enjoy the creative process!