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Using oil pastels
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Message
Posted
What's the best way of drawing with oil pastels? I've used them on and off for many years without ever really getting good results from them.
I tried them at a life class today. If you use heavy pressure when holding the pastels, you get a thick claggy mix on the paper and it looks a bit crude. I think it may be that mixing colours on top of each other may not be that effective. I've tried using lighter pressure and not drawing with one colour over another. This looks better although the picture lacks crisp sharp edges where you need it.
I've occasionally used special coated paper made for oil pastels. This improves the finished drawing, especially if you paint the surface with warm grey acrylic gesso before starting.
I've tried landscape painting outside with oil pastels and the pictures look odd because it's difficult to mix convincing screens. I've bought about ten different shades of green pastels, none of them look right. Yet I get good greens when mixing blue and yellows with oil paint or acrylic.
Has anybody any advice please.
Posted
Neither fish nor fowl . I have had exactly the same disappointments with oil pastels . Claggy , yucky and generaly a mess, well in my case. Don’t ever use them outside on a warm day...oh my ! .
More or less relegated them to the scrap heap then realised they are great in mixed media [ using them in an ink painting I think they work. But they have to be put under glass as no way can you put varnish on them as they just dissolve into more clagg.
Edited
by SylviaEvans
Posted
Don't know about 'advice' as such - I think you've hit the limitations of oil pastel. There are basic sets, with fairly crude colours, they're not easy to mix - I don't think I'd try, generally - and they can get extremely grubby, and oxidize, so you can no longer tell what colour they are unless you scrape the coating that forms on them back. They're OK for broad stretches of colour, and yes, they do work with mixed media. You can sharpen them, to some extent at least, with a craft knife; you can mix a bit of solvent with them, to make them flow and brush out - but do you want to go playing about with solvents?
I tend to keep a few of them, in order to make instant colour notes - eg, blue goes there, green goes there: but don't rely on the colours they offer as any kind of useful guide. Used on their sides, on a relatively absorbent paper, used on the point as a strong colour element in a drawing, or on toned paper, they can produce interesting results: but I can't pretend to be very keen; and as Sylvia says, they never dry - because they're wax, basically. So if you do get a decent result, it's best framed under glass.
I have seen more advanced sets of oil pastels, with a much wider range of colours, including more pastel shades - I have the remains of a box by Sennelier, although the colours have long gone past their best; and the most successful paintings I've seen using them were those in which the pure colour from the stick was just laid down on the support without mixing, or trying to, but rather laying one colour next to another: that can be quite effective on toned paper; and you can scratch into them, so you could for example lay a wash of acrylic, let it dry obviously, add oil pastel on top, and scratch or carve back into it. So you could do a street scene, in broad, blocky tones, eg using ink or acrylic as a base. But detail will be very difficult.
I remember trying them with a drop of oil - didn't work: yuck ..... loathsome mess!
I bet Alan Bickley's tried them with success, if anybody on POL has - and will shame us all with his work.... I don't think I have any of my own with OP to share; probably as well.
Posted
These examples all look great I must say. I have got some oil pastels, and they are a bit tricky to get to grips with at first. I actually like using them, but I can't get any degree of detail as in Marjorie's postings. That probably doesn't matter in my subject matter mind you, which have generally been industrial subjects, usually worked on heavy cartridge over acrylic ink, often with a wax resist.
I'm away at present so can't access my portfolio to dig some examples out to photograph, they are not one's that I've posted on the gallery.
Perseverance is the key word I feel, they are quite popular but not as easy to use as one might first think - in my case anyway!
Posted
Thank you for all your replies, I thought the paintings using oil pastels were very good.
I'll persist with oil pastels, as when drawing large pictures in a life class, I can quickly fill in large areas with colour. If I try coloured pencil or acrylic paint it takes longer.
The pastels I use are made by Caran d'Ache, which are good, although I believe the best ones are made by Sennelier, which were developed with Pablo Picasso's advice.
Posted
I'd agree with Marjorie re cross-hatching, and also use a light touch. I used to have nearly a whole set of Sennelier ones, but having my fingers into too many other media I eventually Ebay'd them. I did try them on papers like Colourfix, the sanded surface grabs the oil-pastel. This tree was done on Sennelier card, but never finished. I still rather like the medium, I must admit.
Posted
I bought a cheap pack of oil pastels as a try out sometime in the last couple of years. Only ever did one work, a sort of line and pastel, as I didn't know what to expect or what I was doing. Wife wasn't too enamoured with the smell of turps either (yes, I found out my error late). I may still have them somewhere...? For what it's worth......
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