New Materials to swatch and play with | Mixed Media Sketching 

Love these❤❤

Gorgeous ❤❤❤

I’m impressed with your self control! There’s no way I could let that sit unopened for more than a day 😂

I always appreciate that other than simply swatching u do art work also. Very informative. Thank you

The Neocolor palette you’ve chosen for spring is well suited to the landscape and your style, and I like that the transfer of other colours to your sky on the final sketch became an asset to the page, adding a gentle wisp of cirrus clouds. I work with oil pastels as a second or third layer after sketchy washes or underpainting, sometimes as bold staccato like marks, or blended so that the underpainting glows through. They’re vibrant and versatile, but if I don’t fix/finish or clean up the studio properly afterwards, my little ones and I leave a trail of chaos in our wake. 😂 I hope that you get on well with the new addition to your kit; please give us an update after you’ve taken them in the field! 🌼🐝

Yes I watched to the end Melanie 😊 Lizard Landscape Thank-you it was lovely. I am on Vancouver Island BC Canada and have similar weather and lots of forest. It's nice to see your part of the world. Charlene from Canada ❤

Thank you, I love your works so much!!

Thank you for this, Mel - very enjoyable! I was working I my sketchbook alongside you this morning. :) Love the Spring colours, and so glad that you bought a Faber-Castell Earth Green pencil! Still one of my faves and one of the first coloured pencils I ever bought about 6 years ago now. Just a perfect natural greyish green.

Really love the last one, for me it just has a great feel!

I never used oil pastels but those are the best and I am totally addicted!

Oil pastels are the smoochiest, as I'm sure you found out by now. Such fun exploring materials.

Fun to watch you work! I always use them as a last layer as they cause so much resist to the other materials and really dictate so much of your sketch if you put them down first! So messy for storage in a sketch book too. So now, as I noticed this video is five months old, do you find you have been using them in 'the field'?!! If so, do you find after time they're messing up your sketches?

Fun way to review. Your paintings are awesome

Those yellows pop! The first yellow does seem perfect for gorse, nice pick. That bright yellow green reminds me of your art, maybe a personal style thing? Who cares if other people don't see it in the landscape, I love it when artists have their own interpretation and colour preferences. Lovely pictures you created.

I enjoy watching other artists "play" with their new mediums. If you have wax paper, or parchment paper, that will keep pages from "smooshing". Have a great day!

How exciting Mel! Has been a while since I used (and also disliked) oil pastels. Maybe it is time to re-visit....Thank you for the inspo 💚💙💛

Thank you for sharing your experiments! Always fun to watch how else one can use art materials! It never came into my mind to put oil pastels on top of Neocolor “base” which is absolutely logical because oil pastels go on top of everything! But like using them as a first layer before watercolor. It creates wonderful texture especially when there is a lot of green outside! Any view can be sketched quicker. I use oil pastels for objects that I’d love to see with much of texture the rest can be left with one wash of watercolor. Details with pencils. For me it is the simplest and fastest. And as I am always under time pressure - this is the way! I am not sure about neopastels in terms how greasy they are. I use some hard oil pastels not to ruin the watercolor brush. Sennelier, for example, are very oily and do not fit for this type of painting. As for fixing oil pastels, glassier paper is best. Fixing helps but not 100% for very oily and soft oil pastels, as for harder types it is ok. Especially if you use thin layer. Have a nice day! Always enjoy watching your videos! I have become a huge fan!

Absolutely loving this ....l have never tried the pastels before. Loving what you do with them. Thanks for sharing. 🌿💞🌿

Love these pages!

it was lovely thank you so much. Yes I've stopped working with oil pastels because they never dry and even if I put a fixitif on them they fade away with the years (on a canvas I'm sure not on a closed sketchbook) so that was a problem and I stopped using them. Have you tried the solid oil by Sennelier (baton - stick) they are amazing and dry in 2 or 3 days and they are real oil paint but on a stick, they exist in 2 sizes (at least here in France they do - small one like those oil pastels and a bigger stick for big canvas), I absolutely love them but oh my they are a mess to work with.

Thank you for sharing your thought processes and the challenges you have mapped out for yourself. One thought I had is you might use a blending pencil for the neopastels. To protect the pages you could try inserting leaves of baking parchment paper or wax paper? Cheers! ❤

Such pretty sketches.... love these vids thanks😊

Baby oil takes off the oil pastels immediately if that helps

Thank you for your video. I was under the impression that you have been using neocolor ii for some time. What is the difference between the oil pastels you use and the neocolor ii. I thought neocolor ii was an oil pastel. This is a great video and I'm definitely going to try it although my set doesn't include all the colors you have used.

I love this exploration Mel! I got the pastels for my birthday and you just helped me learn how to use them! Guess I was intimidated…thank you. 🥰🫶🏼