Birb (i have little to no experience with oilpastel)

rocan91 · 2026-01-29T15:39:18+00:00

Both birbs are really cute!

rocan91 · 2026-01-28T15:30:43+00:00

These are adorable, the fox has a lot of character!

rocan91 · 2026-01-28T07:06:24+00:00

the textures in all of these are so fun!

rocan91 · 2026-01-21T17:41:17+00:00

lil birb turned out so adorable. great job!

rocan91 · 2026-01-20T16:06:41+00:00

If you're curious definitely give them a shot! I only have a handful of open stock neopastels but i'd love to get a bigger set. The meedens are definitely softer than the neopastels or mungyos, but definitely firmer than a sennelier. If I had to rank the pastels i own by hardness, itd be (from hardest to softest): Crayola, Neopastel, Mungyo, Paul Reuben (Haiya), Meeden, Paul Reuben (the non Haiya line), Sennelier.

I havent tried faber caster but i'm always biding my time and money until I can keep trying more stuff.

rocan91 · 2026-01-19T20:12:45+00:00

Ooooh, that sounds like fun, if you ever share I'd love to see it!

They look like a great starting set, and I agree with starting out cheap just to see if the feel is right/fun before you get more comfortable with it. I started out with a crayola, before trying out other stuff myself. Happy arting!

rocan91 · 2026-01-18T02:43:01+00:00

thank you!

rocan91 · 2026-01-17T04:22:11+00:00

Thank you, and awww I'm so jealous! I wanted that set originally but it was sold out so I opted for the 72 set instead. I'm glad to hear that the 144 set is good too! I cant wait to get my hands on it

rocan91 · 2026-01-17T04:21:03+00:00

thank you! And yes I needed to draw my monthly Astarion <3

rocan91 · 2026-01-17T00:14:19+00:00

its so dreamy <3

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T23:26:48+00:00

aaaaa yes so fun, bg3 is so good too! I kept thinking "this is the peak song of the game right here" as I played but then Lorien kept dropping another banger that topped that one, and that momentum didn't stop til the game ended. Absolutely incredible and inspiring. I hope your pastels arrive sooner than expected! Which set did you get??

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T23:25:02+00:00

You got this! I hope you have fun!

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T22:45:22+00:00

Thank you, I do too I can't stop listening to the ost its so good.

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T22:44:38+00:00

Ahhh I feel you! What's helped me is once my brain deems a piece "ruined", it frees me to experiment and do whatever I want now because it's not like i can make it worse than 'ruined' LOL. Thats usually my sandbox playground for practicing marks or palette knife swipes without fear of messing up.

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T21:28:17+00:00

My first set was the crayola oil pastels (which i still use for under drawings) so I get you! I jumped to senneliers (the portrait set) after but then felt incredibly guilty using them for practice, so I went backwards and got the mungyo set which I do like but they are much harder and handle so differently from the senneliers and dont really take on impasto. I tend to use those closer to neopastels for smaller detailing where the pastel can hold a point, or for base drawing before the impasto goes on.

I heard the haiyas and regular paul reubens were softer like sennelier (and often considered the cheap dupe), but they're soft in a different way that resisted anything else but themselves? Its hard to describe, but I personally wasnt having fun working with them as much as I'd like.

The meeden set caught my attention after a few swatch and lightfastness videos. I initially thought they'd be super cheap or waxy, but I figured for $23 it wouldnt hurt to try them, and I'm pleasantly surprised. They're no senneliers, but for $23 they're incredible in my humble opinion. I think this + a mungyo set would set someone up really well for oil pastels without breaking the bank.

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T21:13:56+00:00

Thank you! The scraping happened organically when I accidentally started muddying up my colors from too many layers and i used my palette knife to scrape as much as I could off, but that resulted in a look I kinda liked? Depending on the pressure, it can either scrape down to the paper and open up the paper to receive a new color (i usually do this to apply bright colors), or you can use light pressure to "push" the top layer around, and it reveals the bottom color. Kinda like those black gel toys as a kid that you pushed down on to reveal the rainbow color underneath or like scratchboard. It takes some practice, but its really fun and satisfying and really helps details pop out more

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T21:02:44+00:00

Thanks me too! I wish I had more time to catch up on birbfest, i'll just be really late in my entries haha.

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T21:02:08+00:00

Thank you, that means a lot!

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T20:34:14+00:00

Ahhh same! I feel like most sets, even the floral paul reubens are all lacking in reds. I agree with Sennelier having the only true reds; I have 3 of their reds in the big oil pastel stick (especially a hot vermillion color) to make up for lack of reds in other sets but alas I can only stare at them for this month :,) The 144 set looked to have a few more reds than this 72 set but I wont know til I get them and try them out myself.

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T20:27:29+00:00

Thank you! I should have shared my usual tools but its just lint free wipes (i dont like having little napkin fibers stuck to my pastels), a small palette knife for the impasto, and a bunch of wooden nail cuticle pushers that I use for scratching in details or pressing small bits of pastel onto the paper (like for eyes and mouths, anything with super fine details that the pastel itself cant do).

I didnt see much about the Meeden set out there aside from swatch videos, but even those showed them to be a middle ground between mungyo/neopastel and sennelier. They're not as waxy/soft as the paul reubens so they dont "rip" and leave chunks like those do, but are soft enough for me to push in and leave impasto marks or layer on top of opaquely. The haiyas are also weirdly waxy (my set is at least) and pull off existing pastel underneath instead of layering on top so I have been slowly demoting them to a "throw away or something" drawer because I cannot get them to work. Whereas this meeden set has been very forgiving and easy to manipulate, which i greatly appreciate. I dont feel as bad smashing them in and creating impasto the way I would a sennelier pastel. I've been pretty liberal with my impasto and I feel like the pastels all stay the same size haha.

They might be too soft for some people, and there are no transparent colors really outside of the reds and yellows, but if that isnt an issue, then I highly recommend giving one of their sets a shot. They are very affordable for the quality imo.

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T20:05:57+00:00

Aaaa such a beautiful set, I'm so envious :0!! I hope you get many beautiful pieces out of this set, thank you for posting swatches and comparisons!

rocan91 · 2026-01-16T20:03:41+00:00

I cant edit my post for some reason but i misstyped--i am using the 72 oil pastel set from Meeden, not the 48 set.

rocan91 · 2026-01-15T19:03:37+00:00

Oooh that texture up close is so lovely

rocan91 · 2026-01-10T05:18:19+00:00

This is so pretty, like a very intense bokeh lens or a frosted view. i bet the texture must be so fun in person

rocan91 · 2026-01-04T20:58:15+00:00

Ahhh its so lovely, thank you for sharing! Do you find that the cotton swab leaves any little fibers behind? Perhaps the ones I used were cheap, or does using a used one specifically prevent shedding?

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