Artists... The Unknown Type of Pastel

What are these sticks except for cheap? Only 2,99 euros for 24 sticks. It is unknown what they are. One thing is for sure these are not soft pastels like mentioned on the box. Btw, if I check the receipt it says "oil pastels".

They feel a bit sticky but it isn't said these are oil pastels, it can be wax as well.
The question is, if it possible to paint with it. Is it meant for children or can a certain result be achieved?

If it comes to the choice of colours it is a bit strange. White is absent and there are 5 different types of blue, t5 types of green, two red, two orange....
Since white is absent is is questional how add this colour.

Box and label say nothing about the product, how to use it not if it toxit, meant for children or adults and what to use to draw on. I bought this at Xenos, but if I am right Action did sell this brand laat year as well (no pastels for sale since months at Action).

I decided to try it out on white and black paper.
I made a sketch of the cat's head with the soft pastel sticks on the white paper and with the white Derwent coloursift pencils on the black paper.

I used the side of the grey stick to apply the cat basket that the cat is lying in, and later added a second layer whilst pressing down harder. This leaves bits of the stick on the paper. The result isn’t actually that bad because of the texture of the paper, but can I touch it up or cover the paper more thoroughly?

I used cotton buds to try and blend it all together a bit more, tried adding details over the pastel with a white ColourSoft coloured pencil, and then used Pental’s white oil pastel chalk without achieving the desired result.

I tried using a kneaded eraser to wipe away the chalk and pencil to add highlights, and then tried scraping away the chalk with a palette knife to reveal the white of the paper, but none of that worked. If you want to be able to scrape anything away, you need thicker layers of chalk than I used.
And what about my hands? They’ve stayed fairly clean, although they do feel a bit greasy.

I’ve added a bit more black to the cat on the white sheet because I can’t seem to make it any whiter.
Another thing that doesn’t work is mixing a new colour by blending. If you want to achieve that, you have to use optical illusions: hatching different colours on top of each other, or perhaps pointillism might work.
The lack of pigment also plays a part. The shade of green that matches the cat’s eyes isn’t visible, so there’s no choice but to use a darker colour.

The overall effect remains somewhat flat because this medium doesn’t really take well. If you’re buying this for a child, it’s not a suitable gift. It may be cheap, but you’ll need a lot of perseverance to try out different things and pull out all the stops.
It is hard to make any corrections and the kneading eraser doesn't do the job.

I get the feeling that the colours in the photo are duller than in real life, and that’s a bad sign when it comes to the quality of colours.

Note the white eyes on the black paper are made with the Derwent coloursift colour pencil and not with Artist whatsoever (hard to believe they exist since 1937).

Let's see if I can make layers, blend, scrape and what happens if I use... terpentine.

I had to rub a colour hard into the paper at least 20 to 40 times. Some colours left a mark more easily than others. The harder I rubbed, the more bits were left behind. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily have to look bad, depending on what you’re creating and the style you’re using. You certainly can’t do realistic drawing or painting with this. It’s impossible to blend colours. Light over dark is possible to a certain extent, as you can see with yellow over blue – and yes, that does look green. Shading didn’t work very well.
Scratching worked particularly well with the black chalk and, with some difficulty, on the pink over which I’d applied blue (though you can barely see the effect there).

And then there’s the turpentine… It dissolves the colours with difficulty, and once again, black comes off more easily than other colours. Once the turpentine has dried, those areas feel less greasy than the untreated surface. It might be worth dabbing the drawing with a cloth soaked in turpentine as a way of protecting it.

Are these soft pastels? No!
Are these oil pastels? No!
Most likely, these are simple wax crayons. Although I’ve been using them for about four hours, my hands are still clean and just feel a bit greasy. The crayons haven’t softened whilst I’ve been working either. It remains to be seen to what extent they can be smudged onto paper or another surface using a palette knife. Who knows, I might give that a go another time.

Do you want to find out more and learn something? Then give it a go and try to ignore the idea that you’re wasting materials.

Is it worth your money? No.
A suitable present for children? No, do not frustratie them. There are way better oilpastels like Pental and some Chinese brands available at AliExpress.

_{Materials: artist Softpastels 24 pieces by Free & Easy - Coldfield, UK. White paper same as I used for the frog and given by the Art Café in Amsterdam, black paper (Via Chassé: 120 GR (black). Cotton buds, kneading eraser, Derwent colour soft pencil: white, dark brown, black. Palette knife to scratch. Terpentine and flat brush.
17-7-2026}