I used to be a dedicated oil painter. I spent 40-plus years painting portraits of horses using oils. So when I have the opportunity to share colored pencil help for an oil painter, I speak from experience.
I recently received a question on this topic from a reader who is now making the same transition I began in the 1980s. Since I’m certain there are others either making the same transition or thinking about it, I decided to share some of those suggestions here.
Colored Pencil Help for an Oil Painter
The main topics for that email discussion were pencils and paper. There were also a few technical questions, but they’re best saved for another post.
Colored Pencils
The reader asked if oil-based pencils were always best. I can see how that might seem like a good idea to an oil painter. It just makes sense. Oil paints; oil-based pencils.
However, both types of colored pencils (oil-based and wax-based) are essentially the same. All colored pencils use a mix of some kind of oil, some kind of wax, and a few other ingredients to form a binding agent that holds the pigment together in pencil form. The difference is that an oil-based pencil has more oil than wax in that mix, and a wax-based pencil has more wax than oil.
Oil-based pencils are generally dryer, harder, hold a point longer, and leave less wax on the paper. Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils are oil-based.
Wax-based pencils are generally softer, layer more easily and also more quickly, and are easier to blend. Prismacolor pencils are wax-based. They are a good, artist-quality pencil that’s reasonably priced.
I discussed this topic in more detail in Wax-Based or Oil-Based, also on this blog.
Pencils I Recommend
The pencils I use the most are Faber-Castell Polychromos (oil-based). They have a good range of colors, all the colors are lightfast, and they’re ideal for the way I draw animals and landscapes.
They are a little bit more expensive than Prismacolor pencils, but they’re not the most expensive pencils on the market.
I also use Prismacolor (wax-based), but only when I need colors that aren’t in the Polychromos line or for sketching. Since I use only the lightfast colors no matter what brand I use, and since only about half the Prismacolor line is lightfast, I don’t use them very often.
I also have a full set of Caran d’Ache Pablo pencils, which are somewhere between the Polychromos and Prismacolor in softness. I don’t use them very often, but they are very nice and all the colors are lightfast.
My Recommendation if You’re Starting From Scratch with Pencils
There are many other student grade and artist grade (professional) pencils on the market. Too many for me to have tried them all! (That’s why I don’t recommend them. They may be perfectly fine, but I have no personal experience with them.)
Pay more attention to the quality of the pencils than to whether or not they’re wax-based or oil-based. Colored pencils are available in scholastic grade (grade school), student (serious artists who are just starting out with colored pencils), and artist grade. As a rule, the better pencil you use, the better your drawing experience.
For artists who are just learning colored pencils, but are serious about them, buy either student grade or professional grade. Student grade will be less expensive, but they may also not be quite as high quality.
I also suggest that rather than buying a full set of any brand to start out, get a few colors from several different brands. Try them out for a short time, and see which ones you like best and which ones perform the best. Then, buy a set of those.
But believe it or not, you don’t need a full set, no matter what brand you use. You can get by quite well buying only the colors required for whatever you like to draw.
Papers
I also learned that the reader was using Strathmore Mixed Media paper. Is that the best paper?
It is a great place to start, and many artists stick with it all their artistic life. I’ve never used it personally, but I have heard good things about it. It’s a good paper at a good price and it’s also available in colors. That makes it a good place for transitioning oil painters to begin learning colored pencil skills.
The fact is that you can hardly go wrong with any of Strathmore’s papers, and they’re great for students.
Legion also makes excellent drawing papers, though some of them are more expensive than the Strathmore lines. I like Stonehenge and Stonehenge Aqua (watercolor paper), but there are a lot of papers on the market.
My Recommendation about Paper
One thing I recommend is that you buy pads to begin with. Most of the good papers are available in different sizes, as well as in full sheets. Full sheets are more cost effective, but when you’re beginning with colored pencils, a full sheet can be very scary (not to mention take a long time to fill).
Pads allow you to work smaller. You can also buy small pads of different papers to try. Win-win!
If you have an art supply store nearby, the best thing is to visit them and ask one of the sales people about paper. If you find someone who is an artist and who draws, that’s great. Even if they use charcoal or graphite, they will still be able to give good advice. You will also have the advantage of being able to see and feel the paper.
Colored Pencil Help for an Oil Painter
There’s a lot to learn with any medium. Colored pencil enthusiasts transitioning from oil painting are ahead of the game because a lot of the skills learned with oils transfer to colored pencils. I know that from personal experience.
But it does take practice. There is definitely a learning curve, so the most important suggestion I can make is to keep drawing. Don’t give up!
Colored pencils are a naturally slow medium. There is no way to make them work as fast as oil painting. It’s just not possible.
But the more you work with them and learn about them, the faster you will get. Even if you end up doing a lot of limited palette works at the beginning, that will help you.
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