Creativity for Life / Pastels & Crayons

This Pitt Pastel tutorial by artist Janis Doukakis goes in depth! Learn all about our Pitt Pastel Pencils along with basic techniques that will improve your art. With those newly learned pastel techniques, follow along with a winter blue jay tutorial.

Pastels are an artistic media unlike any other bringing artists access to vibrant pigments right at their fingertips in the form of sticks or pencils. Pastel artwork can be intimidating when first approached but learning what kind of pastel is right for your artwork is the first step in achieving your artistic goals and mastering the medium. Faber-Castell offers pastels in soft, oil, hard, and pencil form.

Oil pastels are a unique medium with a world of creative possibilities. Faber-Castell Oil Pastels are perfect for students and beginning artists. In this article, we will discuss tips and techniques for artists that are familiar with oil pastels. If you are new to oil pastels, we recommend that you check out our article “How to Draw with Oil Pastels for Beginners."

Oil Pastels are a unique medium with features unlike any other artistic tool. Pick up oil pastels and you have the ability create with vibrant highly pigmented colors with a smooth creamy laydown. Faber-Castell Oil Pastels were specifically created for students and aspiring artists. High-quality and easy to use, oil pastels inspire artists to push their creative boundaries and explore the different styles of art that they have to offer. New to using oil pastels? Here are some tips and tricks to get you started.

Pastels are a unique medium. Pigment packed, pastels deliver vibrant colors to a blank art paper or canvas. They are widely loved because they are an independent art medium. Feeling inspired? All you need is your creativity, your pastels, and a surface to create on. (Although we do know some great oil pastel and soft pastel techniques.) While all pastels are used for drawing and painting artwork full of vivid pigment, they have qualities that make them very different from each other. Learn the difference between oil and soft pastels and what makes each one unique.

An art lesson for kids with mixed media! Background Info: Growing up outside the port of Le Havre, France, Monet was familiar with boats. His father earned his living servicing larger ships at his small shop. Monet never owned his own boat until the age of thirty-three, but as a youth he had painted them in all shapes and sizes.

Soft pastels are a unique medium, unlike any other. Their incredible color, texture, and ease of use offer an opportunity to expand your artistic abilities like you never thought possible. In this lesson plan, we explore a landscape in soft pastel, and the basic steps to creating your own pastel painting.

Students will experiment with a variety of exciting materials and ideas to create their own Artist Trading Cards to trade and collect.

Pitt Pastel Pencils offer the artist the best of both worlds, combining the confidence and control of a pencil with the soft, looser mark of pastel. The colors can be blended and layered just as they would in a soft pastel painting. Their pencil form also allows the pastel to be easily sharpened to a point and be used for developing details in artwork.

Soft pastels are a unique medium unlike any other. Their incredible color, texture and ease of use offer an opportunity to expand your artistic abilities like you never thought possible. In this lesson plan, we learn the steps for creating a floral landscape in soft pastel.

This Pitt Pastel Pencil tutorial is full of tips and tricks to become a better artist. Learn how to become a fierce artist, Pitt Pastel techniques, and how to create a pastel portrait of your ferocious furry friend.

An art lesson for kids exploring Hopi Native American Indian Culture! Students will explore the cultural significance of the Kachina Doll, and the role it plays in the lives of the Hopi Native American Indian Culture. Students will then create a Kachina doll drawing with a unique meaning to apply to their own life.

An art lesson for kids inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's Almond Blossom with oil pastels and Connector Paint.

A Thanksgiving turkey tutorial for an at-home art lesson inspired by "The Very Stuffed Turkey" by Katherine Kenah. Share the illustrations, and discuss the fun idea of how this cute Turkey is a guest at five very different friends’ homes for Thanksgiving.

An at-home art lesson for kids inspired by“Hocus Pocus, It’s Fall!” By Anne Sibley O’Brien

These lovely sunflowers are created using white school glue, soft chalk pastels and black paper.

A lesson plan in oil pastels for kids in grades 6-8, completed in two 45 minute class periods. Students learn about the life of the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh, and create an original still life image of flowers in his style.

Soft pastel techniques and tips. Learn how to draw and create with soft pastels. This tutorial includes techniques such as blending, layering and hatching. Learn helpful tips on using soft pastels. Faber-Castell Soft Pastels can be used with other mediums such as Pitt Artist Pens and Goldfaber Colored Pencils.

A mixed media art lesson for kids celebrating the art of Marc Chagall. In this lesson plan, students will learn some exciting and effective art techniques with a variety of materials to create a very unique piece of art–
a portrayal of themselves, including images of meaningful things in their life, all inspired by Marc Chagall of course.

Easter egg craft with mixed media! The technique shown here, called “Resist”, is when you apply one material that is waxy or oily and then go over it with a water-based material that is not waxy or oily and won’t mix – it resists! In this case, I’m using crayons as the resist. Then I cover this with watercolor paint.