Year 6 have gone back to basics, developing their repertoire of drawing skills. Their tool of choice were the oil pastels. Oil pastels are like an oily wax crayon and they manifest in a myriad of marvellous colours to inspire the artist. One of the biggest appeals of oil pastels is their diversity – they can be bold, blended, smudged and layered to create textural and tonal variation. Year 6 focused on blending their oil pastels, layering two or three colours so they combined to create different shimmering shades.

A little wary at first, they tentatively touched the oil pastels to their paper, but their confidence grew as they felt the magic of the oil pastel on paper. Wonderful mark making and clever colour choices added to their enthusiasm and skilful blending techniques. Using their oil pastels like this will support their next project’s painting skills, where they will have to blend colours subtly and vibrantly. Oil pastels are like double agents and the perfect partner for Year 6’s arty missions.