Review on Sakura Cray-Pas Junior Artist Oil Pastels - Set of 25, Assorted Colors by Lori Aguirre

A friend recommended that I try these Cray-Pas for some of my art projects; I didn't know such pens for oil pastels. This starter kit has enough colors for my needs, but I can imagine real artists want even more variety. I love the creamy feel of the pencils and the bold pigment they apply. I'll probably switch to expressionist 48-color cray-pas once I have more experience with this type of color. I'm still experimenting with using pastel colors on different types of paper and other surfaces; So far I've only rejected regular notebook paper (too smooth?). I love drawing with them in my sketchbook and also on canvas. The Sakura website has a lot of very cool techniques to try with these pastels; I really like the dot painting and masking methods. My only starlet is that they are completely loose in their box (there is no inner plastic wrap to keep them in place) and they were in a mess: different colors rubbed off against each other leaving no 'clean' Points on the chopsticks. I've tried brushing some off by hand, but mostly I just have to waste the product and draw lines until the smudged dots are rubbed away. I understand this is a junior range so these sticks are not packaged as carefully as expensive artist supplies, but it was still frustrating to see my new paints treated so poorly.