Paul Rubens Oil Pastel Set, Artist Oil Pastels, Oil Art Kit, Includes 48 Brightly Colored HAIYA Soft Oil Pastels + 1 Palette Knife+ 1 Roll of Masking Tape+ 1 Acrylic Marker + 10 Oil Pastel Paper

Wonderful choice of oil pastels, especially for a first timer. This set is within reach of the quality of very expensive sets, like Caran D’ache or Sennelier. Those top shelf brands are very good, but their cost is not proportionate to their quality. These Paul Rubens are 96% as good for a fraction of the price.. A few thoughts about oil pastels, especially for beginners and first time users. 1. Relative to many other art supplies (graphite pencils, charcoal, oil-based colored pencils, watercolor paint), you will go through oil pastels very quickly. I use them daily, and depending on the size of my artwork, I go through most of a set in a month or two. So, start out with something affordable. Especially when you first start using oil pastels, you will be experimenting/making drafts and practice studies/making mistakes. Affordable art supplies will encourage you to not be too conservative. Buy them to USE them and to USE THEM UP. This Paul Rubens set is perfect for getting into oil pastel art work. When you get good enough to sell your art for a couple thousand dollars per piece, you can shift up to the slightly better and outrageously more expensive brands. 2. DO NOT GET SETS IN WOODEN BOXES OR FANCY METAL TRAYS. You are getting charged for that stuff! Put your money into the oil pastels, not the snobby packaging. I keep mine in the case they came in, which is perfectly suitable until they get worn down and I need a new set, Then the older ones go in a drawer or shoe box. A fancy wooden case is wasteful and unnecessary. 3. Do not buy sets of more than 48 or 60 colors. Part of the fun of oil pastels is playing with color mixing and blending: making your own colors. You’ll never need 100 or 120 colors. Instead, buy (or make) a small glass palette (buy a little $4 sheet of 10”x12” cut glass at the hardware store and a piece of white formcore and wrap them together on the edges with white duct tape). Now you have a perfect palette to mix thousands of hues with just a set of 48 colors. Make notes and swatches of your mixes for later reference. 4. Oil pastels are very sensitive to room temperature. In a warm room with lots of natural light they will be extra creamy (and a little messy on your hands, which is a huge part of the fun of using them). In the wintertime or in a cooler AC room, they will be stiffer and a little harder to work with. 5. Someone in the comments complained that these Paul Rubens tend to leak oil through the paper wrapping. To which I say: of course. They are oil pastels. This happens, especially if the room is warm, and more so with the darker colors (which absorb more light and room temperature). I use them so quickly that the wrapping gets peeled off soon anyway. Having lots of non-latex gloves around is helpful. Leaking oil is not really an issue with oil pastels. If it’s really bothersome, work in a cooler room. 6. Get a brand of oil pastels that allows you to buy individual sticks, especially of white. You will go through a single stick of white 10x faster than any other color. Paul Rubens sells an inexpensive box of 6 additional stick of white. Buy that now! 7. A couple other things you will want to get now: a good quality, slightly-textured art paper/notebook. Don’t use printer paper. Some smooth Bristol card stock is nice, too. Have lots and lots of paper towels on hand for constant clean-up. Get some precision-tipped cotton squabs, not just rounded bathroom Q-tips. Get the ones that look like little arrowheads of cotton. And if color mixing on a palette is a thing you want to try, get a tiny little bottle of linseed oil. Just a tiny single drop will make your color mixing easier. Do not use food oil or baby oil. Use traditional oil painter’s linseed oil. Again, these are a great set, especially for starters. I’ve been using oil pastels professionally for years, and I buy and use this Paul Rubens high-quality and inexpensive brand regularly. Enjoy them! Use them! Use them up! It will bring joy (and some fun, creative messiness) in to your life!!

They are soft and smooth with beautiful pigmentation. They blend amazingly. I absolutely love them.

Amazing quality. Super super creamy and smooth.

Beautiful set of pastels! Smooth, glorious texture gorgeous colors. Fantastic selection of colors for the price.

I LOVE these oil pastels! Their easy to use, creamy and very versatile. They blend well and layer well. This brand has become a staple for my work and I've gone through two boxes so far. (Not because of bad quality, but because I make a lot of art.) Highly recommend. Worth the purchase.

They are very soft but they get a bit greesy and wet (ie, the oil melts into the paper wrapping) it has an odor too which tends to bother me at first when working. I have the sennieler ones and I was looking for something cheaper with a similar feel and texture. These are soft and they have great colors, but I wouldn’t get them again. The packaging feels cheap with a plastic holder that gets the pastels messy after putting them back. I’m also pretty sure they gave me a repeat of one of the colors. Not a big deal but for $40 that’s kinda… Not that I wouldn’t use them when working, but my impression of it is would not get again. If you’re looking for something soft artist quality I would suggest lighwish oil pastels as they are cheaper and better quality with better packaging too.

I love these. Wonderfully soft and creamy, but they set up and firm really nicely on the paper. I also have Sennelier oil pastels and there seems to be very little difference between the two. I wish the Paul Rubens had open stock sticks as I use a lot of white and I would really like it if oil pastels makers would include 2 sticks of white or a set of cool white and a warm white in their sets. These make me almost as happy as the Senneliar brand. I will buy more of the Paul Ruebens pastels for sure.

The packaging was outstanding. I was expecting some broken pastels but they were all intact. And what was even more lovely was that it came with some nice and useful presents! I love them <3 In my country it is super hot (more than 35°C) . Yes, some pastels are very oily and they "sweat" but nothing you can't fix with a paper towel. There is a strong smell that I didn't find bad at all. Pigments are not that strong but I love to use it as a base and for the details I use some harder pastels like Pentel. I am super super happy with these pastels... so creamy! I love to smudge/blend them with my fingers.