Premium Caran D'ache Neopastel Oil Pastels Set - 48 Vibrant Colors (7400.348) for Professional Artists & Sketching | Ideal for Drawing, Blending & Mixed Media Art Projects

I love these oil pastels and am glad I got the 96 color set. These oil pastels are firmer than the Sennelier and Mungyo, which is great because they are easier to layer and there is less mess, especially if you work in a warm climate. They are hard enough I believe it is possible to take them out for plein air work, even in Singapore.The color selection is perfect - as you can see from my pictures, I can use them to represent just about anything I want. When you start using these, you'll realize how genius the color selection is. I often only need to pick out less than 20 sticks to represent a scene. The lay on is very smooth and it is easy to blend.My only wish is that there are more muted colors - but for that the Hwawon is a good compliment to this set as this set has quite a lot of blues and the Hwawon does not. The Caran d' ache also has a large amount of greens so it is perfect for landscape painting.The whites do not layer down very brightly, so you need to lay down the light colors and the saturated colours first. The saturated colors are quite transparent so once you put down a dark color, you won't be able to regain the saturation - so put them down first.Simply wonderful. The price seems a bit steep, but it's actually really cheap considering that for oil pastels - you don't need other things. No brushes, no mediums, no solvents. And you got 96 colors! For the amount of art work you can create, it's definitely worth it. I think it's the perfect set for getting quick daily practice in and you learn a lot about color relationships.