StretchLearn Course
From your first buttery stroke to a framed, varnished painting on the wall.
Course Overview
Oil pastels reward direct, physical mark-making, but their waxy, never-fully-drying nature trips up most beginners. This course teaches the material on its own terms: how to layer without muddying, blend with fingers and Gamsol, carve light back in with sgraffito, and protect finished pieces with fixative and framing. Every module ends in completed work, not just exercises.
Learning Outcomes
Blend oil pastels cleanly using fingers, tortillons, and odourless mineral spirits without lifting underlayers
Layer warm and cool colours in correct order to build luminous, mud-free passages
Carve highlights and texture with sgraffito using a range of scraping tools
Compose a painting using the rule of thirds, value structure, and a deliberate focal point
Select and prepare the right surface, from sanded pastel paper to gessoed board
Fix, varnish, mat, and frame finished oil pastel work for archival display
Curriculum Preview
Preview the course structure, see how the modules build on one another, and understand the path this program is designed to take you through.
Understand what oil pastels actually are, how they differ from soft pastels and crayons, and how to choose sticks, surfaces, and a starter kit that sets you up to succeed.
The technical heart of the course: how to blend with fingers and solvents, stack layers in the right order, and keep colours clean and luminous.
Add expressive texture by carving into thick layers, master sgraffito, and structure your image with sound composition and value design.
Take a painting from final stroke to wall: clean correction, fixing and varnishing the soft surface, and framing for archival protection.
Built for Application
This program is designed around progression: focused lessons, structured modules, applied resources, assessments, and a course rhythm that turns information into usable capability.