The Unique Magic of Oil Pastels

Few things are more rewarding for an artist than the joy of working directly with color - when your hands become the tools of creation, and you can feel the artwork taking shape beneath your fingertips.

• When each stroke of an oil pastel is like shaping color itself, as if you’re molding the image in front of you—much like a sculptor shaping clay into form.

• When you blend and mix colors directly on the surface, feeling the textures beneath your fingertips and experiencing the joy that only hands-on creation can bring. There’s something deeply satisfying about this tactile process, a sensation so unique that even seasoned artists find it hard to describe.

• You open a box filled with vibrant sticks of color, only to realize that even the widest selection of shades can feel limited compared to the infinite range of colors found in nature. You search for the perfect tone to match what you see, but it’s nowhere to be found.

• You try to create depth and impact, but instead, your painting becomes overworked, with colors blending into muddy or dull areas instead of standing out with clarity.

• You layer color after color, hoping to capture the moment, but something isn’t working. The magic you feel when you start is often replaced by frustration as the painting loses its vibrancy and focus.

• You begin to wonder if oil pastels are just too difficult - maybe they’re not the right medium for you.

You Need to Learn to Think Like a Painter

The creative process with oil pastels is a deeply rewarding journey, but it comes with its own set of challenges that require a unique approach. Oil pastels are unlike any other medium—they combine the richness of oil paints with the immediacy of soft pastels, but they demand a specific kind of thinking when it comes to mixing and layering colors.

With oil pastels, we don’t mix paints on a palette. Instead, we create new colors directly on the surface by layering and blending. Mastering this technique involves more than intuition; it requires an understanding of how colors interact and how their characteristics—like value, saturation, and temperature—can be manipulated through layering. The way you apply pressure and the order of your layers can dramatically change the final outcome.

To unlock the full potential of oil pastels, you need more than sticks of vibrant color. You need to know how to simplify what you see, create dynamic color shapes, and layer strategically to achieve depth and vibrancy. This knowledge allows you to transform even a limited palette into a wide spectrum of beautiful, harmonious colors.

Painting with oil pastels isn’t just about applying color—it’s about seeing and understanding your subject like a painter. To create artwork that truly stands out, you need to grasp the core principles of painting—guidelines that have been used by master artists for centuries. This means simplifying complex scenes into essential shapes, understanding color relationships, and making thoughtful decisions about value, saturation, and temperature. These principles give you the freedom to paint with intention, allowing you to interpret your subject instead of merely copying it.

In this course, you’ll develop the mindset of a painter, gaining the skills to create balanced, harmonious works of art using oil pastels.

We’ll begin with the essential foundations: drawing, oil pastel application, and color mixing. From there, we’ll build on advanced techniques, giving you everything you need to create expressive, beautiful artwork and bring your creative vision to life.

We’ll begin with the essential foundations: drawing, oil pastel application, and color mixing. From there, we’ll build on advanced techniques, giving you everything you need to create expressive, beautiful artwork and bring your creative vision to life.

• Apply oil pastels in a way that keeps your paintings fresh and dynamic, avoiding overworked areas.

• Layer oil pastels strategically to achieve rich and vibrant colors. .

• Set up a functional and efficient oil pastel palette that makes the painting process easier, faster, and more enjoyable.

• Use a simple drawing technique that will help you accurately map out your paintings and establish a strong foundation for any subject.

• Keep your oil pastel paintings loose and expressive without losing control or clarity.

• Layer and mix colors directly on the surface with confidence, understanding how each color interacts to create depth and harmony.

• Analyze complex subjects and simplify them into clean, manageable shapes and forms.

• Paint a variety of subjects using a flexible oil pastel approach that works for landscapes, still life, portraits, and more.

• Create stunning effects of light by using optical color mixing. 

• Fill shadows with color to bring life and depth to your paintings.

• Apply different types of contrast to achieve strong visual impact and make your work stand out.

• Build the illusion of space and depth to give your work a sense of dimension.

• Observe and capture essential details, making your paintings more believable and realistic.

• Design engaging compositions that guide the viewer’s eye through your artwork.

• Paint from photographs while maintaining creativity and avoiding rigid copying.

Based on the experiences of the first students who took this course, it has helped them gain confidence with oil pastels faster than they expected. They’ve shared that they now have a much better understanding of how to approach oil pastels, use color effectively, and paint light and shadow with more confidence.

In this module, I’ll teach you a simple drawing technique that will help you easily sketch anything—from landscapes and still life to people, animals, and other complex subjects.

You’ll discover that mastering drawing doesn’t require years of practice in art classes!

In this module, you will learn how to effectively layer oil pastels to create smooth, subtle color transitions that bring harmony and balance to your paintings. You’ll explore various blending techniques and tools to achieve beautiful, refined color effects.

In this module, I’ll share my practical approach to color mixing, making it simple to create any color you need. You’ll learn how to quickly adjust the colors in your palette to match the unique shades in your subject. Discover how to make colors lighter or darker, cooler or warmer, and how to control their intensity—whether you want them more vibrant or more muted.

In this module, you’ll learn how to simplify your subject by breaking it down into basic color shapes. Discover how to use your oil pastel sticks to create natural, lifelike colors. You’ll also explore how to achieve harmony by combining warm and cool tones side by side. Master the ability to control key color characteristics—lightness, temperature, and saturation—so you can create paintings that feel colorful and true to life.

In this module, you’ll dive deep into understanding light and how to beautifully capture its essence in your paintings. We’ll explore the various effects of light that you need to observe and analyze when depicting natural scenes. You’ll learn how to fill your shadows with color and make your paintings glow. You will also learn how to approach different skin tones, making them vibrant and lifelike in both light and shadow. With a clear understanding of how light works, you’ll create dynamic color interactions that bring a natural yet impressionistic quality to your artwork.

In this module, you’ll bring together everything you’ve learned so far to create a vibrant painting of a sunlit church surrounded by trees and blooming bushes. You’ll discover how to make sunlight feel realistic and natural in your work and achieve unity by balancing the two dominant sources of light—the sun and the sky.

In this module, we’ll create a sunlit still life featuring vibrant flowers in a vase. You’ll learn how to paint backlit subjects, bringing warmth and life to your shadows. Additionally, we’ll explore how to handle patterns within a composition—using them to add visual interest while ensuring they don’t compete with the main focal points of your painting.

In this module, you’ll learn how to paint figures by simplifying them into clean, effective color shapes. You’ll discover how to approach skin tones with confidence and use local color strategically to adjust and unify the colors of different objects, creating a more harmonious and cohesive composition.

8 Core Modules with over 20 hours of HD video, recorded from two different angles: top view and behind-the-shoulder view, so you can feel like we’re painting together in the same studio. You’ll see exactly how I layer and blend oil pastels on paper, adjust pressure, and apply different techniques.

Step-by-step video tutorials with clear, detailed explanations. Lesson lengths vary from 5 minutes to 1 hour, making it easy to follow along and absorb each concept.

• Photo references and printable line drawings for each demonstration. If you’re not confident in your drawing skills yet, you can download my line drawings, trace them onto your paper, and paint alongside me.

• You will also be able to ask me questions. If you have questions while working through the lessons, you can explore the Frequently Asked Questions section, where I’ve published answers to common inquiries from students. If your question isn’t covered, you can post it in the comments section, and I’ll be happy to help.

This is a SELF-STUDYcourse designed to give you all the knowledge and techniques you need to grow as an oil pastel artist and create stunning artwork.

But this course is more than just learning how to use oil pastels. After all, anyone can pick up a pastel stick and make a mark. True painting with oil pastels involves much deeper thinking and analysis. It’s about understanding how to simplify your subject, reducing it to its most essential shapes, and selecting the right colors with accurate value relationships, saturation, and temperature.

If your goal is to capture what you see and interpret it as a work of art, you’ll need to apply the same core principles and rules that fine artists use when working with oil, gouache, acrylic, or any other color-based medium. That’s what this course is all about—giving you the tools, insights, and techniques to transform oil pastels into a medium for creating thoughtful, compelling fine art.

The knowledge I share in this course is one of a kind, born from years of experimentation, trial, and discovery. I’ve experienced both frustration and excitement while learning how to use oil pastels effectively to capture life as I see it and infuse my paintings with light—a key element in all my work, no matter the medium.

Materials I Use in this course.

When preparing for this course, I had to decide how broad my palette would be. I knew that if I selected a very limited palette, I’d end up teaching my students how to struggle through blending colors with it. But with a wider palette, the same could be done with fun and joy. So, I chose joy and decided on a palette that’s not as wide as my usual one but still broad enough to make the process of painting with oil pastels both efficient and enjoyable.

There are many brands of oil pastels available, and by the time you complete this course, new brands may have emerged. For this reason, I don’t expect you to have exactly the same colors I use in the demonstrations. Instead, I’ll teach you how to analyze the colors in your subject and use your palette effectively. This approach works with oil pastels from any brand.

I have carefully composed a highly efficient color palette that includes a variety of muted and nuanced colors with different values, along with some beautiful, vibrant colors.

My palette for this course consists of a 120-color set of Mungyo Gallery oil pastels and 35 colors from the Neopastel oil pastel range. I also use a few colors from the Sennelier oil pastel line to demonstrate how very soft oil pastels can add glow to nearly completed oil pastel paintings. You will find the full list of colors within the course.

THIS IS A DIGITAL PROGRAM

Oil Pastel Mastery is a digital, self-paced course. All video lessons, photo references, and PDFs are available to you anytime through my course portal—24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You’ll have lifetime access to the course on all your devices, including your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

You can complete the course from the comfort of your home or anywhere in the world, on your own schedule. The course is designed to fit seamlessly into your life. Watch the lessons whenever it’s convenient, revisit sections as often as you like, and practice at your own pace. With each replay, you’ll uncover new insights and experience those satisfying “aha!” moments as you fully immerse yourself in the process.

No need for in-person workshops—everything you need is right here, online. All you need is an internet connection to get started and never miss a moment of learning.

It depends on you and your current schedule. If you dedicate a few hours per week to each module, you can complete the course in about 8 weeks. I recommend 40 to 60-minute painting sessions, as they are ideal for learning and practicing new techniques. Your mind should be fresh when you paint, so take your time and work only when you feel energized.

Oil pastels are forgiving and flexible—you can pause at any point and pick up where you left off without worrying about drying times. Just come back to your work when you feel recharged and ready to continue.

And the best part? There’s no rush. You have lifetime access to the course, so you can learn at your own pace and revisit any lesson whenever you like!

• To deepen your artistic skills and discover new ways to interpret the beauty around you.

• To masterfully use your oil pastel palette, understanding the role of each color and how to layer and blend for great results.

• To simplify complex subjects into clear, expressive color shapes that create more impactful and eloquent paintings.

• To bring your subjects to life by making them look realistic, vibrant, and full of depth.

• To capture the magic of light in your paintings, creating glowing, colorful shadows.

• To feel confident painting any subject that excites and inspires you, from landscapes to still life and figures.

• To showcase your artwork and feel proud of what you create.

• To learn how to get the most out of oil pastels, including layering, blending, and creating unique textures and effects that make your work stand.

How long will I have access to my course?

After enrolling, you will have unlimited online access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.

What if I have questions?

If you have questions while working through the lessons, you can explore the Frequently Asked Questions section, where I’ve published answers to common inquiries from students. If your question isn’t covered, you can post it in the comments section, and I’ll be happy to help.

Will this course be valuable for me if I have taken your Color Mastery course?

Yes, absolutely! In my Color Mastery course, I teach how to approach color using fluid mediums. However, oil pastels—like soft pastels—require a completely different way of thinking when it comes to blending and layering to achieve the desired color. It took me a long time and a lot of experimentation to figure out how to apply the knowledge I teach in Color Mastery to a medium that sits between hard crayons and fluid paints.

If you enjoyed Color Mastery, you’ll love this course as well! You may even discover new insights that can be applied not just to pastels but to fluid media as well.

What if I can’t get the exact colors you use in the demonstrations in this course?

With new oil pastel brands constantly appearing, I don’t expect all of my students to have the same colors I do. And at some point, the specific colors I use may even be discontinued. That doesn’t mean the course would become useless. This isn’t a paint-by-numbers course. The color numbers I provide are simply a bonus. I could have easily taught the lessons by saying, “Here we need a light red,” or “Let’s use a muted green here,” without referring to specific brand names or numbers.

What I teach in this course is how to see and understand color—how to analyze what’s in your subject and translate it into your painting. If I use a light pink, you can use a light pink from a different brand. If I use a muted green and you don’t have one, you can create it by layering a brighter green with gray—or by applying green over red or brown. When I use a muted purple, and you only have a vibrant one, you can tone it down by layering it with gray or yellow. It’s all about learning how to mix and adjust with what you have—that’s where the real skill comes in. In the module Color Theory in Practice, I explain and demonstrate how to modify colors to achieve the desired shades.

Regardless of the brand, having a wider color palette with plenty of muted tones will make painting easier and more enjoyable. A very limited palette can be challenging and is far from ideal for working with oil pastels. Ideally, your palette should include a range of light, mid-tone, and dark colors for every hue across the spectrum, along with a variety of grays and browns. This way, you can adjust any color by making it lighter or darker, more or less saturated, and cooler or warmer as needed. I cover all of this in detail in the Color Theory in Practice module.

If you have a very limited range of oil pastels but love the medium and want to learn how to use it more effectively, I would recommend not thinking of this course as a paint-along course. Instead, you can watch all the lessons, complete the exercises in the Color Theory in Practice module, and then start experimenting with your own subjects—beginning with simple motifs. This way, you’ll explore the possibilities of your current palette based on what you’ve learned in the course, and you’ll also start to understand which additional colors to look for in the brands available to you to enhance your painting experience.

Can I take this course using soft pastels?

Yes, you can, but you should be familiar with soft pastels, as they are more delicate and don’t allow for infinite layering like oil pastels. Once the paper’s tooth is filled, it won’t accept additional layers of color. In this regard, soft pastels are more challenging than oil pastels, which layer and blend effortlessly.

However, all the principles and techniques I teach in this course can be applied to soft pastels as well. If you struggle to achieve clarity and impact with soft pastels, you will definitely benefit from this course. Just make sure you understand the limitations of soft pastels so you can adapt my oil pastel approach to work effectively with them.

When does this course begin and end?

The "OIL PASTEL MASTERY" course starts as soon as you complete your purchase! Shortly after your transaction is processed, you will receive an email with your login details, which you can use to access the course content immediately. This program is fully self-paced so there is no rush and no right or wrong amount of time to complete the course because you will have LIFETIME ACCESS to the course!

Can I download the videos to my own computer?

No, the video tutorials are streamed, but as long as you have a high-speed internet connection, you can go through the lessons as many times as you would like to.

Will I get feedback on my paintings directly from Lena?

This course is designed as an independent learning experience. While you won’t be able to submit your paintings for direct feedback, don’t worry—this online course is a highly effective self-study program with detailed, easy-to-follow lessons. You won’t miss a thing!

Do I have to be able to draw to take this course?

Absolutely not! There is an entire module on drawing in this course. In fact, the less you know about drawing the easier it will be for you to start drawing using the drawing technique I teach.

Do you find it more intuitive to paint with oil pastels or using a paintbrush (for oil, watercolor, or acrylic)?

It's hard to say for sure. On the one hand, painting with fluid paint (using a brush) allows me to mix the exact colors I need. At the same time, with oil pastels, I often have to achieve the colors I need by layering different shades, which may not feel very intuitive at first. But with practice, it becomes an enjoyable process that leaves room for some happy accidents—something that never happens when I mix colors with a brush because I'm a perfectionist and never apply approximate colors. So, painting with oil pastels adds an element of surprise to my work, which I find exciting.

How does the payment plan work?

If you choose the payment plan, you will only be charged $55 today. After 30 days, you'll be charged another $55 and the charge will be repeated on that schedule until a TOTAL of 6 payments have been made. When your first payment processes, you will receive immediate access to Modules 1, 2 & 3. After your second payment processes, you'll receive access to Modules 4 & 5. After the third payment, you'll receive access to Modules 6, 7 & 8. After that, you will be charged for an additional three months to complete the payment. Please note, this payment plan is not a subscription that can be canceled at any time. Once you choose this payment plan, you are committing to making all six installments.

Do you have a refund policy?

I am confident that if you follow the steps outlined in this course, you will see amazing results. Having said that, I offer a 3-day refund period for all purchases of "OIL PASTEL MASTERY".

This refund policy is designed to give you 3 days to walk through the content of the course and decide if this course is for you. If you decide you don’t want to take the course, let me know before the end of the third day after the purchase and I will issue a 100% refund.

Please note: The course contains over 20 hours of HD video. If you watch more than 3 hours of video content in the course and ask for a refund, your request will be declined. I can see the progress my students make through the videos in the course.