Painting roses with oil pastels

Hi everyone! I wanted to share with you this painting I’ve just finished and post here the reference as well in case you feel like giving it a try.

This is the video with the process of one of the roses:

I recorded and edited the whole painting but it turned out over an hour long and I feel that maybe it’s too much for youtube so I’m just sharing the process of the second rose, the quickest one of the two. Maybe it’s just me so please let me know if you’d have prefered to watch it all.

I’m having some trouble recording voiceovers for my videos so in this one I’m not talking and explaining what I’m doing. I do, however, show every mark I make so I think it’s clear what it’s going on and it should be fairly easy to follow along.

This is the reference photo:

And this is my painting:

It’s been a while since I last painted florals and it was sooo relaxing to make. I painted it at night after a long day and it was the perfect way to unwind: doing something creative that didn’t require a lot of mental energy, which I had run out by then. In that sense working on a still life (or landscape) is much more freeing that working on portraits, where you have to pay a lot more attention overall and usually require more time as well.

Materials

The paper I’ve used it’s Pastelmat in light blue but for this exercise pretty much any regular paper can work since there’s not a ton of blending or layering. The oil pastels are a mix of Sennelier, Neopastel and Holbein, maybe even some Mungyo. I just pick the color that I need regardless of the consistency or texture so any of those brands would do, and likely many others but I haven’t tried them and can’t comment on them.

If you end up giving it a try please let me know! I’d love to see your version.

Have a lovely day! ♡