Two sparrows by oil pastels

Here it is my attempt to paint birds: sparrows - restless, funny, smart sparrows - these ordinary city birds.
Brown sheet of paper is fixed



Here it is making pencil sketch of the first sparrow.



As usual I am starting from light colors – they will be treasured and for the most part not mixed during the oil pastels painting.

Adding of blue color will make white color to shine on the brown background.

I am adding some warm brown and orange colors.

Areas covered by dark blue will look black. Orange color is not seen more, but it makes dark blue warmer.

Shadow and ground appear. The second sparrow was also started.

The second sparrow is shaking itself.

I also add a puddle. Now it is ready.

Saint-Petersburg view by oil pastels

Oil pastel sometimes is called “hard pastel” - it differs a lot from the “soft” one. It doesn’t need coating and doesn’t crumble as soft pastel, but it needs some skill in painting and some rules to keep in mind. I like oil pastels, so my lesson will be on oil pastels painting.

We will keep in mind few general rules:
1. In case of mistake oil pastel is not easy to take away, so think about composition and make few sketches before you start painting!
2. Start from the light colors. I think it is impossible to cover dark colors by light ones, so start from light and treasure light colors and background.
3. Yes, we will paint layer by layer as in classical oil painting but will keep in mind that it is better to apply not more than 3 colors one upon another. More than 3 colors may produce mud.
4. Yes, we will use colored cardboard as a background for oil pastels painting.

Well, let’s start!
I took a sheet of light brown cardboard (20 x 28 inches) and fixed it on the board by paper tape.
I started this picture painting in the street trying to fix the main forms and proper correlation between dark and light colors. I also made a photo of the view to continue my painting in studio.

Take a look, here it is the photo of the city view I was painting, then goes a sketch made in the street. It took me 30 min to do this work.