For flash back Thursday today I have a a quick 10 min drawing when I began working in oil pastels. When I began experimenting with pastels I learned the quality of materials mattered . The pastels I started using were not high quality pastels but student grade pastels. Student quality pastels aren't terrible, I just wanted a pastel that was like oil paint., something easy to manipulate. The lower quality pastels didn't apply as smoothly as I would have liked and didn't blend as oil. When I did invest in more expensive pastels I did so with sennelier and noticed the difference immensely. Senelier pastels were vibrant , had a smooth application, and were easy to blend. If our looking for a higher grade of artist pastels I defiantly recommend sennelier pastels. The first image below shows student grade pastels vs the second image created with sennelier oil and soft pastels.