Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Sets:

The problem with these pastels is they don't come in a bigger set. These are perfect for underpaintings. Sakura was the company that invented oil pastels, and this shows in the expressionist and the specialist lines. The Children's grade pastels are great for grade school and highschool classes, the expressionists are wonderful for college courses, and the specialists hold up right next to sennelier, neopastels and holbiens. Of course they do, its Cray-Pas!

These "Expressionist" are close to the professional grade "Specialists" level, but they are a bit harder, and they do not blend as smoothly. Sometimes you'll get that wax gunk glob in the middle of a hue stain when your blending. VERY VERY RARELY though. I mean, that happens with these pastels only if your sort-of new to oil pastels. If you know what your doing, and your professional with your work, you can use the Expressionists and Specialists to the full potential.

The Expressionists are great for blocking in color and underpainting, and the Specialists are great for each additional layer. These aren't lipstick soft, they are perfect soft. (in my opinion) I love these pastels. I hope Cray Pas NEVER changes the formulation of any of their lines, because I want to share these with my nieces and nephews and my kids and their kids for generations and generations!! :)

I will support them, as long as they take care of me! Please continue pumping these great pastels out and please, please, never go cheap-skate and change them up. They are perfection the way they are formulated right now! Love em!

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastels:

These are really close to the Specialists. They are also bigger compared to a lot of other brands as well, and I think it's an economical buy for a serious oil pastel artist. I use them for sketching, underlayer, or even a by themselves for finished works. I just love to play with these oil pastels.

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Sets:

I use oil pastels for mainly sketching, i bought them because I ran out of my pentel oil pastels which I really love and are way cheaper. First use was for a sketch of a palm tree I found that they really didn't blend too good and they were way too hard, not waxy enough. Will not be purchasing these again

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastels:

Gave them five stars because while there are better artist's quality OPs on the market, Expressionist is only marginally lower quality but far less costly. Great buy!

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Sets:

I usually work with artist-grade brands, but bought some of these thinking they might be good for underdrawing to layer under my Neopastels. They work fine for that purpose, and also are good enough to stand alone.

In a side-by-side drawing comparison with Neopastel, the Sakura Expressionist sticks are a bit harder, and the color doesn't spread or blend as easily. But if you use the colorless Sakura "extender" stick, they blend quite well. (This blender works with other brands too). When building up layers, the Sakuras can leave little crumbs of color on the surface, but this is easy to fix. It's not a huge difference, just one you will notice if you are used to the softer brands. Covering dark with light is harder with the Sakuras and doesn't look as good. So, not quite artist grade in my opinion. But not cheap junk either. You can do nice work with the Sakuras, and the price is a real bargain. If you are an artist with a tight budget, these are a worthwhile alternative to the expensive brands. For beginners or kids, you get a lot colors for a low price, and they are non-toxic.

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastels:

Animation is my game. I had a project that would look beautiful in pastel, so I got a hold of a pack of these. They are a reasonable price for many, many drawings. I was working with them on black paper. I ran through my first pack pretty quickly, so I went out to my local art store and couldn't find the same ones. I bought a comparably priced brand and boy was I disappointed. The color difference was astonishing. Cray-Pas Pastels are ten times brighter and so much smoother.

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastels:

I bought the large 50 count set of Sakura Cry-Pas Expressionist oil pastels to play with in-between projects and I am enjoying them very much. I love the large selection of colors. They go down smooth without flaking like the lesser grades. I do have to work a little harder blending them for full coverage, the extender helps some. In the end they get the job done and I am happy with the results. :)

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Sets:

Cray-Pas Expressionists are vibrant, extremely smooth and beautifully blendable. They hold their own even next to my Holbeins and Senneliers.

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Sets:

I bought these pastels to start painting. Used them together with the color pencil set of the same brand and the result surprised me. I was not awaiting the detail I got in the final state of the painting. I will continue using them.

Comments about Sakura Cray-Pas Expressionist Oil Pastel Sets:

I got these pastels as a gift and i haven't used them until now. They work nicely and they are very smooth. I am able to blend them without scratching the colors. I would not recommend them to children but to people who have experienced using oil pastels many times. I use them for my nicer project and keep a cheaper set for practice.