Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastel Sets:

Honestly, I'm surprised how many brick and mortar art stores carry open stock only of Van Gogh OPs (and sometimes Sennelier for the "high end"). These just do not seem that soft or blendable to me, and I'd think people trying OPs for the first time could be discouraged. I'd highly recommend looking into the Cra Pas Expressionist line over these. Their colors have individual lightfast ratings given online and are a real bargain. The even softer, (and lightfast) Gallery Artist line of Soft OPs is also a much better buy.

Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastels:

These pastels are wonderful! They are very blendable, smooth and are friendly to accompanying pastels (I use several brands in one piece). Best of all they are almost more-pigment saturated than the most expensive OPs. The colors are punchy, bright and subtle all at the same time. I read somewhere that, though they are lightfast, these are considered "student grade"...no way. I consider myself to be somewhat of an OP snob and am on a constant hunt for great, reasonably priced ones and these more than live up to my high standards for both! DIve in!

Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastel Sets:

How I use them: drawing/painting on tinted pastel paper

PROS: excellent range of colors, labels are easy to read, moderate price, available in open stock, most colors look as good on paper as the more expensive brands, not much crumbling, the white is very opaque and shows up well on medium to dark backgrounds

CONS: some variation among colors in terms of permanence, texture and opacity compared to other brands. In fact, Van Gogh is the most inconsistent of any student or artist level oil pastel I have tried. This isn't necessarily bad, just something to be aware of.

Individual colors may be quite smooth and spreadable,almost like Neopastel. Others may be dry and scratchy, and are more difficult to blend. Opacity can vary quite a bit as well, with some colors giving complete coverage on the first layer, and others giving a thinner coating of pigment. If you are aware of this, it's easy to work around the differences but it does make this brand a bit different. If permanence is a concern, you can check the pigment information provided by Blick and order from open stock to avoid the weaker colors. (Just look up the colors in open stock, and click on the icon to the left to get a lot of very valuable information. Thanks, Blick)!

BOTTOM LINE: The manufacturer rates these as advanced student level pastels, and I think that is fair. To me these are closest to Sakura Expressionist. Would recommend for students, or for advanced artists who can work around the variability in permanence and texture. There are a lot of beautiful colors in the Van Gogh palette, and the price of the larger sets is a real bargain.

Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastels:

These oil pastels can be used to color and add affect to your drawings. The best thing about them is you can use your finger or a paper towel and rub the oil pastel to create a better effect.

Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastels:

I know very well this oil pastel "Van Gogh".
It's very good and light resistent.

Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastel Sets:

this set of pastels offered a wide variety of color- 48- for a very good price. I have two other brands of oil pastels that have their ''pros and cons'', so now have choices depending on the style of work I want to do. glad that I can buy replacement individual colors.

Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastel Sets:

I'm an art student and have worked with these pastels. I love the bright colors and the varieties! They're not too bad for blending and layering. Overall, they're great if money is tight.

Comments about Van Gogh Oil Pastels:

I usually paint and wanted to try oil pastels...I bought six different brands and here is my consensus: The Caran d'ache and the Erengi went down beautifully but when blending they are hard to control like watercolors and bleed into each other uncontrollably, and then leave a greasy look around the colors like too much oil (like french fries leave behind).....Holbein do not come wrapped in paper and they are like drawing with glue sticks....Cray Pas go on nicely, but when blending they lose their color drastically...Creatacolor really have it together with the pointed head and easy to hold size but they were a little hard to blend and broke easily....The Van Gogh Oil Pastels won hands down....they go on paper and even smooth canvas nicely, they blend easily and don't smear into each other uncontrollably, and the colors are beautiful just like his paintings.