For Christmas this year I was gifted a set of oil pastels in colors, a set of chalk pastels in colors, and two books. One goes over some color theory (perfect for the detail geek in me) and the the other is a step-by-step guide to using color in this new medium.

How-To and oil pastels
Color theory and chalk pastels

Naturally I read through both of them Christmas day, and made some notes on things I wanted to remember and go back to review. Part of the allure of the how-to book was that it went through how to create the images in a step-by-step manner.

My first try was going through the first exercise to create a drawing that looks like Horsetooth Resevoir, the largest body of water here in the Fort Collins, CO area.

First try

My second try was to recreate another image from the book, using the oil pastels.

Second try

Next I tried the same scene, using the chalk pastels to find out how those worked differently. I did use some of the oil ones in the sky when I was fiddling with what I liked better.

Third try

Since what I really enjoy is the animal portraits, I skipped ahead a bit to the section on doing those.

Fourth and fifth tries, respectively

Eventually I’d like to start adding color into the drawings I’ve been doing. One thing at a time, though! First I need to learn how to do it and how to use some of the tools described in my book.

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