My name is Robert Sloan. I’m a full time writer who used to be a full time street artist in New Orleans. I’ve also taught art to beginners who swore they couldn’t master the stick figure but grew to sell their art within six months to a year.

I joined the Oil Pastel Society late in 2008 when I discovered this fine art medium has some amazing professionals. Their works awed me with passion, skill, realism and light-drenched Impressionism. My skills began to grow by leaps and bounds, even in mediums I thought I’d mastered.

Yours can too. Follow along and we can explore oil pastels together. This page is the start of an artistic adventure, if you're new to my site, watch for more pages to appear. If you notice a typo, a misteak or anything that could be improved, don't hesitate to let me know!

I've removed the list of future topics because I may make some changes in how they're organized. Watch for new buttons on the left as I start doing new topics and add pages!

About This Site's Advertising

I was a proud Affiliate of Blick Art Materials until May 20, 2011. I've received incredible service from Blick including frequent research and detailed answers to questions on any of their vast range of products, good pricing and competitive shipping policies.

I still wholeheartedly endorse Dick Blick and will continue to shop there, however due to new Arkansas legislation I can no longer host Blick's affiliate ads. If the law is repealed or I relocate to another state, I will restore my Blick affiliate ads immediately. I did not violate the program and Blick has done nothing to lower my opinion of them - how they handled giving me the news was incredibly sensitive and supportive.

I changed the text links to Blick Art Materials to non-affiliate text links but retained them for reader convenience. I know I like being able to click on a link while I'm reading and check out more details on a product. They're also place holders in case I can ever return to Blick's affiliate program through relocation or repealed legislation.

I am also an Affiliate of Jerry's Artarama, another online art materials company which carries some supplies that Blick Art Materials doesn't, including the excellent Erengi artist grade oil pastels. On May 19, 2011, I also became an Affiliate of Daniel Smith, proprietary maker of some incredible watercolor, oil and acrylic paints and their great Watercolor Sticks as well as providing other brands of art supplies on their site.

These companies tend to get the lion's share of my spending money after necessities and savings. Between them I've wound up with about twice as much good art supplies for the same money if I'd spent it at offline stores. A few days of delay gives me a much bigger functional budget for all the toys I want. All three these companies also provide a lot of good product information and free instruction on their websites.

I've also added Google Ads to help support the site, these are topical and targeted. They pick up some keyword out of my articles, which may occasionally be a word with a double meaning. So when you click any of the ads on this site, you're helping to support it. Amazon ads are specifically targeted to books and/or products reviewed to help readers find the product and more reviews.

I'm a firm believer in relevant topical advertising. It's less annoying and more effective for the companies. Why spammers stay in business is completely beyond me since I've never clicked on ads that weren't for something I had a genuine interest in online. I have boycotted some products because of spamming and intrusive ads. Yet I bookmark ad pages in print magazines all the time if I spot something interesting like a new product or a workshop, book or DVD.

To the best of my ability, I'll try to keep my site advertising a neutral or useful part of the site's overall content. I may in future add a Classifieds section for individual oil pastelists, workshop teachers and smaller companies that carry interesting related products.

Enjoy! This site became self supporting in its thirteenth month. Many thanks to every reader who's helped improve my traffic!