If you’re on the lookout for all of the best oil pastels, we don’t blame you. They’re magical tools that help any creative bring ideas to life. While they’re not always the most celebrated medium, we think these art materials bring a unique energy to illustrations.
Oil pastels have a wonderful smooth quality when applied to a canvas surface, resembling the likes of colored pencils but in a creamy and luscious way. That’s because they’re made with wax and oil, so even after years on end, they remain a premium sight to behold. Additionally, they dry quickly, allowing drawings to be stable and adhere to the surfaces competently.
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All that said, we hope this roundup helps you find the most effective oil pastels—sometimes referred to as pastel crayons—and make you more efficient storytellers!
8+ Best Oil Pastels Overview
- Sennelier Wooden Box Oil Pastel Set – The best oil pastels overall
- MUNGYO Gallery Soft Oil Pastels — The best value oil pastels
- Caran d’Ache Neopastel — The best extensive oil pastel set
- Paul Rubens Oil Pastels Set — The best budget extensive oil pastel set
- SAKURA Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Set — The best oil pastel set for beginners
- Pentel Oil Pastels – The best budget oil pastel set
- Faber-Castel FC127024 Creative Studio Oil Pastel — A trusted brand of oil pastels
- Crayola Oil Pastels Classpack — The best oil pastels for classrooms
Now that you’re here, feel free to check out our features on the best pastel pencils, the best watercolor paints, and the best chairs for artists
Our Top 3 Oil Pastel Picks
Right off the bat, our number one choice in this category is Sennelier Wooden Box Oil Pastel Set. Read on to see why!
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Best Oil Pastels Overall
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Best Value Oil Pastels
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Best Budget Oil Pastels
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The Sennelier Wooden Box Oil Pastel Set comes at a hefty tag, but its premium quality easily justifies the three-digit price. Maximized by seasoned artists all around the globe, its oil pastels are creamy, vibrant, and provide a smooth consistency you don't get from competing brands. |
We thoroughly enjoyed using Mungyo Gallery Soft Oil Pastels. They're easy on the hands and blend colors seamlessly and marvelously. Overall, this bundle offers a wonderful range of bursting colors and a dreamy textures. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, this Mungyo set is sure to deliver. |
Pentel Oil Pastels sell like pancakes, and it's easy to understand why. These oil pastels are texture-rich, provide bright, airy colors, and are incredibly affordable. They're not produced for professional work per se, but any artist—skilled or otherwise—will like how creamy these pastels are. |
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The Sennelier Wooden Box Oil Pastel Set comes at a hefty tag, but its premium quality easily justifies the three-digit price. Maximized by seasoned artists all around the globe, its oil pastels are creamy, vibrant, and provide a smooth consistency you don't get from competing brands.
We thoroughly enjoyed using Mungyo Gallery Soft Oil Pastels. They're easy on the hands and blend colors seamlessly and marvelously. Overall, this bundle offers a wonderful range of bursting colors and a dreamy textures. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, this Mungyo set is sure to deliver.
Pentel Oil Pastels sell like pancakes, and it's easy to understand why. These oil pastels are texture-rich, provide bright, airy colors, and are incredibly affordable. They're not produced for professional work per se, but any artist—skilled or otherwise—will like how creamy these pastels are.
8+ Best Oil Pastels for beginners and pros
1. Sennelier Wooden Box Oil Pastel Set
The best oil pastels for seasoned artists
There are hundreds of oil pastel brands online, but tenured artists can argue that the Sennelier Wooden Box Oil Pastel Set is the best. And we totally agree! Sennelier Oil Pastels are pigment-rich and have excellent lightfastness, making them blend easily with other colors. It also helps that the brand has been around since 1949, easily helping them cement their place under the sun.
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And while they might not be the firmest picks we’ve played with texture-wise (some find this to be a downer), we like that these pastels encourage you to experiment with color and styles. If you’re an artist who specializes on drawing landscapes, sunset, oceans, and other scenic visuals, you can’t go wrong with this one!
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- Usable on wood, paper, canvas and metal
- Extremely lightfast
- Non-toxic
2. MUNGYO Gallery Soft Oil Pastels
The best value oil pastels
When it comes to artist-grade oil pastels, many artists agree that Mungyo‘s are the most cost-effective option.
They’re soft on the hands, coast on really easily, and mix perfectly. We also like that the 48-piece set accompanies a magnificent scope of pinks and blues (this is more of a personal bias, but, hey, pinks and blues are useful for drawing sceneries). On that note, these pastels are perfect for amateur artists as well as creative pros. Each one is smooth and doesn’t feel waxy at all.
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If you’re on a budget but are committed to spending on oil pastels that look good and feel nice to hold, this set’s the way to go.
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- Mungyo Gallery Soft Oil Pastels Set of 48 - Assorted Colors
3. Caran d’Ache Neopastel
The best extensive oil pastel set
Another favorite brand of ours is Caran d’Ache Neopastel. This is on the grounds that all of the artist-grade oil pastels share high color saturation, smooth surface, lightfastness, and simplicity of mixing.
While they don’t produce the softest colors, they’re a decent competitor for the smoothest (dare we say, giving Sennelier a run for their money) with a simple, rich surface that makes blending such a dreamy experience. They can be used alone or in combination with other oil pastels because of their high level of transparency.
Furthermore, it’s only fair to say that Caran D’Ache Neo-Pastel is one of the top three most trusted brands in this category. Yes, their cost reflects their quality, but they are well worth it.
Are you willing to spend a whopping three digits for an oil pastel bundle? If you are, consider this one.
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- Oil pastel. I use the pigment of high quality, purity of color is excellent in light resistance high. Pastel itself is very soft.
- Supplies
- Quality Art Products
4. Paul Rubens Oil Pastels Set
The best budget extensive oil pastel set
If you’re an oil pastel enthusiast, looking to get the most number of oil pastels on a budget, then we recommend starting with the Paul Rubens Oil Pastels Set.
Paul Rubens offers a rich range of pastels that stand as a reference point of budding artists and new comers who simply want to try their hand at the medium. That said, these particular pastels are dynamic and varieties felt rich, ensuring that you’re getting decent quality shades. One benefit to working with oil pastels is the capacity to layer one pastel over another, too.
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5. SAKURA Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Set
The best oil pastel set for beginners
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Given its price-to-quantity ratio, it’s only fair to say that SAKURA Cray-Pas provides quality oil pastels. They offer great color variations too. And while their oil pastels don’t always have the smoothest application, we still enjoyed how creamy they were. It may also take time to build colored layers because of how stiff they can be, but that isn’t so much a deal breaker if utmost speed isn’t a priority for you. That said, we recommend this bundle for starters.
If you’re someone who’s committed to being better at using oil pastels but don’t have the budget for Sennelier, go for this bundle instead!
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- The Original Oil Pastels: Sakura color pastels are the standard by which all other pastels are measured
- Expressionist Range for Painterly Effects: This oil pastels set creates beautiful effects on paper, cardboard, canvas, and wood
- Extremely Smooth Application and Blending: Oil pastel art supplies apply smoothly, build texture, and blend well
- Non-Toxic: This artist set meets non-toxicity standards; safe for use
- Premium-Quality Pastels: In 1925, Sakura invented oil pastels; Sakura continues to produce innovative, quality products
6. Pentel Oil Pastels
The best budget oil pastel set
Pentel is an established brand when it comes to budget art materials. As such, it would be nearly impossible for us to have written a list about the best oil pastels without them. Overall, we enjoyed using Pentel Oil Pastels. Their larger packs contain a diverse set of colors, and their fewer packs have all the basics you need allowing you to blend and layer as much as you need to.
Compared to Paul Rubens and MUNGYO, they feel much smaller to hold. As a result, they shrink pretty quickly too. Still, we think this one’s a steal when you’re on the lookout for affordable oil pastels with good to decent quality. We suggest you use these only on lighter shades (if not only on white canvases) as they don’t really appear opaque on darker shades. Also made for beginners and intermediate learners, there’s plenty to enjoy here. Just manage your expectations.
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7. Faber-Castel FC127024 Creative Studio Oil Pastel
A trusted brand of oil pastels
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Are you brand-conscious? If you are, you might want to check out the Faber-Castel FC127024 Creative Studio Oil Pastel. As they’re also known to put out great colored pencils and watercolor pencils, to name a few, you can expect the same kind of quality with their oil pastels. They’re easy to blend, work great on grained paper (we suggest you don’t use it on smooth paper), and are incredibly easy to hold. That said, their 24-pack bundle is a promising set that’s perfect for both starters and mid-career artists.
While they don’t produce the richest or creamiest colors, we still think this pick provides enough bang for its buck.
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- COMPLETE OIL PASTEL SET – Includes 24 Faber-Castell Creative Studio Oil Pastel Crayons that are available in white, light cadmium yellow, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, dark cadmium orange, pink...
- DIVERSE OIL PASTELS – Faber-Castell Creative Oil Pastel Crayons have excellent color opacity and provide smooth color laydown for rich pastel effects. The vivid colors are ideal for encaustic,...
- BLEND AND MIX – Oil pastel crayons are very soft and easy to blend with other mediums! Simply blend with your fingers, white spirit or baby oil for great mixed media projects
- TESTED AND SAFE – Oil pastels are extremely lightfast (resist fading) and are acid-free, providing archival quality for your art drawings
- PREMIUM SKETCHING SUPPLIES – Since 1761, Faber-Castell has proudly created art and school supplies for kids, adults and professional artists alike. Faber-Castell Creative Studio Oil Pastel Crayons...
8. Crayola Oil Pastels Classpack
The best oil pastels for classrooms
In the context of sharing art materials with kids and large groups, quantity is the name of the game, and Crayola Oil Pastels Classpack does a spectacular job in that department without sacrificing quality. Designed primarily for children, each of Crayola’s oil pastels are easy told hold and don’t break quickly. In other words, they’re some of the thickest and sturdiest oil pastels around!
In our case, we like that its colors are rich and vibrant. But if you’re looking for creamy texture, you may want to skip this. Still, we like that blending is arguably easy here and basic artworks are a breeze to make.
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- CRAYOLA OIL PASTELS: This oil pastel collection features 336 sticks in 12 vibrant colors.
- OIL PASTEL COLORS: Red, Pink, Orange, Peach, Yellow, Yellow Green, Green, Blue, Violet, and Brown.
- ORGANIZED STORAGE: This Bulk Oil Pastel Set is designed for the classroom with organized storage sections, each separated by color.
- SCHOOL SUPPLIES: Prepare classrooms and craft rooms with creative school supplies for crafts and art projects. Classpacks are perfect for teachers wanting to ensure every child has the art supplies...
- SAFE AND NONTOXIC: Safe for ages 4 & up.
Best Oil Pastels in 2024 Summary
All in all, the best oil pastels for artists can differ, depending on budget and priority. Nonetheless, we also believe that different types of creatives require different kinds of art materials and quality levels. Wherever you are in your art journey, we hope that our roundup helps you find the best oil pastel set that works for you!
What’s your favorite oil pastel brand, and why? Let us know in the comments! Until then, keep artsy and stay creative!
