I have been continuing my love affair with oil pastels, exploring the subject of lakes and mountains. I am trying out different sizes and substrates to see which I prefer to work on. So far I am liking heavy drawing paper/light watercolor paper the most, working in 7 x 10 or 10 x 14 inch formats. My larger pieces have been done on illustration board, which seems to take the oil pastel very well, although it takes a lot more work to cover the larger surface (16 x 22 inches)! It's hard to do fine detail in oil pastels, but I have found that drawing with pen before adding the oil pastel is a good way to go. Also if you plan your colors you can use Liquin to dilute oil pastel and create a thin layer which you can then scratch back into to create fine lines.
Storm clouds over the lake (16 x 22 inches)
Evening light at Park #3 (7 x 10)