Drawing a blue iris flower using oil pastel. Step-by-step demonstration.

In this post I will demonstrate a drawing process of a blue iris flower using oil pastel. Oil Pastels is a very interesting graphic material. Drawings created using it are preserved for many years without loosing its brightness. Oil pastel has a rich color palette and allows you to create vivid works with clear bright strokes. 

We will need the following:

1. Oil pastel set. I use Gioconda produced by KOH-I-NOOR.
2. Pastel paper. I have a grey sheet of  FABRIANO pastel paper.
3. A pencil or chock for sketching (I use a white chock pencil).

First, I made a detailed sketch using chock pencil. I like to use chock for sketching, as thin chock lines can be easily removed with fingers, if necessary. If you find it difficult to sketch on a pastel paper, you can make on a normal white sheet of paper and then transfer the drawing to pastel paper using a  carbon paper. 

Then we define a set of crayons that we are going to use. I used the colors that you see in the picture below. It is also convenient to test each of the colors on a separate sheet to get a better idea of ​​how it will look in the work. 

Oil pastel cannot be blended easily, unlike dry pastel. So, we will apply strokes regarding the shape of petals and choosing the right colors from the beginning. Strokes can partially overlap with other colors, but it is better to choose the final color you want and not to press on the crayons very strongly in order to prevent complete filling of paper pores. So, there will be a chance to apply another color above, if necessary. 

First, I fill the darkest areas with color using blue, dark blue and violet crayons.

Then I start to add other colors. I mark the lightest areas using white. I am working around the whole upper part of the flower. The upper petals will be much lighter than lower ones. 

I fill the paper gradually.  First, I mark shadows and light areas with mild strokes, then fill the paper pores pressing stronger on the crayons.  

Continue drawing the lower petals of the flower. Their color will be more saturated and darker. The veins on the petals are especially vivid near the center of the flower. In order to make them clear, I drew the lines of veins with blue and violet pastel and then filled the area between them with white and light blue.  The stamen I also drew before the area around it. For the stamen I used dark red crayon in the shade, orange in the middle and white towards the end.

Fill empty areas on the lower petals.

The iris looks complete, but the background is empty. I filled it with some waved lines of green and ocher color, imitating grass.  

I would like to add that the process of oil pastel drawing is very long, similar to other graphic techniques. I spent around 7 days (2 hours per day) to complete this work. I hope, this demonstration will be useful.