Soft Pastels vs. Oil Pastels – What is the Difference?

Purpose of the Article: The article explores the differences between soft pastels and oil pastels, highlighting their composition, textures, blending capabilities, and suitable tools to guide artists in choosing the best option for their needs.
Entities: Soft pastels, oil pastels, artists.
Attributes: Composition, blending, tools.
Similarities Between Soft and Oil Pastels: Both types of pastels share similar price points, come in various pigment choices, are available in round or rectangular forms, and have water-soluble options for a watercolor-like effect.
Entities: Soft pastels, oil pastels.
Attributes: Price, pigment variety, shapes, water solubility.
Soft Pastels Composition: Made from chalk, gum Arabic, and pigment (sometimes clay), soft pastels produce a matte, dusty finish. They don’t stick firmly to surfaces and require fixatives to prevent smudging.
Entities: Chalk, gum Arabic, pigment.
Attributes: Dusty, matte finish, fragility.
Oil Pastels Composition: Composed of oil, wax, and pigment, oil pastels create a glossy, textured surface. They stick firmly to surfaces and don’t require fixatives but can bleed through unprimed paper over time.
Entities: Oil, wax, pigment.
Attributes: Glossy texture, adhesive quality.
Blending Differences: Soft pastels blend easily due to their chalky nature, offering a broad color range for smooth transitions. Oil pastels require more effort to blend but create a 3D-like effect with layered colors.
Entities: Soft pastels, oil pastels.
Attributes: Blendability, texture, layering.
Color Vibrancy: Oil pastels produce bolder and more vibrant hues compared to the softer, muted tones of soft pastels, akin to watercolor paintings.
Entities: Soft pastel hues, oil pastel hues.
Attributes: Color intensity, vibrancy.
Work Surfaces: Both pastels adhere best to textured surfaces like watercolor or mixed media paper. Oil pastels benefit from gesso-primed paper to prevent color bleeding.
Entities: Textured paper, gesso.
Attributes: Adhesion, surface preparation.
Tools for Pastel Art: Essential supplies include textured paper, blending tools, fixatives (for soft pastels), glassine for protection, and art boards. Artists may also use tape to secure the paper.
Entities: Fixatives, blending tools, glassine, tape.
Attributes: Adhesion, preservation, stability.
Advantages of Soft Pastels: Easy to blend, ideal for soft, watercolor-like effects, and provide a matte finish.
Entities: Soft pastels.
Attributes: Blendability, soft appearance.
Advantages of Oil Pastels: Bold, vibrant colors, firm adhesion to surfaces, and a textured, glossy finish.
Entities: Oil pastels.
Attributes: Vibrancy, adhesion, texture.

Historically, mediums like oil paint, watercolor, and acrylics have outshined soft and oil pastels. However, pastels offer the opportunity to blend colors and create textures that many other mediums can’t compete with.

If you’re wondering about the differences for soft pastels vs oil pastels, we applaud you for doing your research—some people assume they’re the same. As you’ll soon learn, this isn’t the case. So, it’s essential to know what art style you’re seeking to select the best-fit pastel for your needs.

An Overview of Soft Pastels vs Oil Pastels

Despite such similar names, soft pastels and oil pastels have massive differences. In fact, they’re so different that we’re going to start by listing their similarities. Doing so will help highlight just how unique these pastel types are.

So, below are the few items that different pastels have in common:

Similar price points
Various pigment choices
Round and rectangular forms
Water-soluble options for a watercolor-like appearance

With that under our belt, let’s explore where each type of pastel deviates from the other.

Fun Fact: Did you know mediums come in more than just raw paint? Check out these examples like Pastel Pencils, Watercolor Pencils and Watercolor Markers.

Soft Pastel Composition

Soft pastels are the most popular of these two mediums. They’re a great choice for a dry matte appearance, as they contain the following ingredients:

Chalk
Gum Arabic
Pigment

Sometimes, your soft pastels may also contain clay. Either way, you can expect them to crumble during use.

A downside to using soft pastels is that the environment you’re working in can get quite dusty. So, it’s best if you either use them in a well-ventilated space or wear a respirator.

You can think of soft pastels as you would chalk—this medium doesn’t stick firmly to the surface. As a result, you can brush it off easily.

Oil Pastels Composition

Oil pastels have a completely different texture than soft pastels; they never completely dry, giving the art a glossy surface. These pastels contain the following ingredients:

Oil
Way
Pigment

Although it’s easy to confuse oil paint and oil pastels, oil paint dries out. However, both have a waxy and greasy feel.

If you’re unsure whether to use oil pastels or oil paint, oil pastels are better for creating pieces that require large strokes and less detail.

As you may have guessed, given the nature of its composition, unlike soft pastels, oil pastels stick firmly to surfaces.

Comparing Colors

We’ve established that these pastels differ in their texture because of their composition. But what about the differences in their pigment?

Soft pastels have a less intense hue than oil pastels. When you think about how chalk looks on a chalkboard versus using other mediums on paper, you can see how this makes sense.

So, when choosing whether to use soft or oil pastels for your artwork, it’s essential to consider how vibrant you’d like the colors to be.

Choosing Your Work Surface

Technically, you can use soft and oil pastels on any surface. However, you should check how a company prepares the surface, as these pastels stick better to texture.

Furthermore, you should choose surfaces with gesso priming if you decide to work with oil pastels. Otherwise, the waxy binders in these pastels will slowly bleed through the paper fiber.

As a result, your artwork will lose some of its colors, making it appear more like the colors from soft pastel.

Understanding the Difference in Blending

Given the composition of soft and oil pastels, can you guess which one blends better? If you chose soft pastels, you’re right.

The chalky nature of soft pastels makes it easy to rub colors together, giving the artist a nearly unlimited field of blending colors to bring their artwork to life.

On the other hand, oil pastels take a lot more work to blend. It takes time and practice to learn how to layer the colors to create a blended appearance.

However, the advantage of doing so is that building up several layers of color gives the artwork a 3D-like appearance, adding a dimension that’s impossible to achieve with soft pastels.

Setting Yourself Up With the Right Tools

Hopefully, you have a better idea of whether soft or oil pastels are a better fit for your art goals. So now, we need to ensure you have the right supplies.

The good news is that you don’t need many supplies to create a pastel masterpiece. However, there are additional items we’ll share here that can help you become the next Odilon Redon or Edgar Degas.

Choosing the right paper: Both oil and soft pastels do best with paper that has a tooth, meaning that it has texture so that the pastels have something to adhere to. If you’re in a bind, you can use watercolor paper or mixed media paper.

Fixative for soft pastels: You already know that soft pastels don’t stick as well to a surface as oil pastels. So, a fixative will help hold your soft pastels in place. If you’re on a budget, consider using hairspray.

In addition to choosing paper and a fixative, you’ll need to purchase the pastels themselves. Buying pastels in a set is often best because you’ll have a wide range of colors for a lower price than if you buy them individually.

Some helpful extra tools for creating pastel pieces include:

Blending tools, which is especially useful for oil pastels
Glassine, which you can use instead of a fixative
Tape to hold your pastel paper in place
An art desk or drawing board

The Verdict: Soft Pastels vs Oil Pastels

When it comes to the different versions of pastels, the “best” pastel comes down to an artist’s preference. However, both pastels have undeniable advantages.

One of the biggest benefits of soft pastels is that they’re easy to blend. They also offer softer colors and appearances, akin to watercolor paintings.

In contrast, the advantages of oil pastels are that they have bolder colors and create a textured appearance. In addition, although they have a greasy feel, they don’t leave behind dust like soft pastels.

Regardless of the type of pastel you choose, we hope you’re inspired to start creating a pastel masterpiece.