SAKURA Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Set - Soft Oil Pastels for Artists - 50 Sticks

These oil pastels work well. They are creamy, they are easy to blend, and the colors are bright.

this brand is the best its great for learning oil pastels I only wish it came with more white ones

I bought this brand of oil pastels because they were used by an art teacher I follow. They are noticeably easier to blend than other moderate price traditional oil pastels. It's a nice range of colors. I'd buy this brand again.

I found these oil pastels to be pretty good quality. To cut to the chase these are a decent quality, but nowhere as good as other oil pastels. Sure, they are a bit creamy but it’s not the smoothest application. It took me awhile to build the layers of color because of their stiffness, so I ended up using a lot more pastel than expected. Overall, I think these are good if you want to try out pastels that are a higher quality, but don’t want to shell out a million dollars for Senneliers to try out.The only issues I have with this set is that there aren’t a lot of browns to choose from when doing animal portraits.I had an oil pastel set before that was honestly horrendous, but this pastel set has lifted my faith in this medium. I look forward to doing more portraits and experimenting with these.

This brand was the first oil pastel to come on the market. They were invented in 1925. I have been using them since 1964 when I was a teenager who couldn't afford oil paints and all the products that are needed to use it properly. Over the years I have used other oil pastels including the water soluble kind, but I find Cray-Pas to be my favorite and these days I just don't bother with any other brand. I like this expressionist set very much. The colors are beautiful and vibrant, and the 2 extender/blender sticks that were included will make it easy to get the effects I want.

I bought another brand before this one and sent it back after trying 2 of the colors. When these came I was apprehensive but am thrilled with them. They blend well on batik fabrics and the oil doesn't transfer to my hands like the other brand. Love them. Tsome of the highlights and shading in the photo were created with these oil pastels. These were also less money for the same amount as the first set.

Previously, I wrote a review saying these are good but Sakura's "Specialist" line is better. It's not better, just different. If you've used regular pastels and are new to oil pastels (as I was when I wrote my initial review) these are as close to good quality, soft, dry pastels as you will find. There are others that look like they are similar to soft dry pastels, like Holbein and Van Gogh, but they are overly dry which make it difficult to get a rich surface.The Specialist are square thus more like square dry pastels. Each has its uses and I recommend getting both if you can afford both, plus a few buttery Senneliers for some finishing touches. (Available in single colors from sites like Dick Blick).The colors for both the Expressionst and Specialist lines are similar, and both can be used for covering broad areas and underpainting, but the square is advantageous when making fine lines and for hard edges.I highly recommend both!The colors of the Expressionist and Specialist lines are very similar. If you are switching from dry pastels to oils, start with the type you are used to, square or round, but ultimately you'll find both useful - the square especially for fine lines and hard edges.

Really awesome mom hates my art lots of ppl do and they judge me..