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Drawing with crayon for oil paintings ?

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stephen weight

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I have prepared some 4mm MDF , with Gesso , rubbed down with 180 grit sandpaper , and upon which I have a wash of burnt sienna . For my drawing I could use some diluted paint with a small brush , but I would prefer something "dry" . If I use a soft pencil this might bleed into the paint (?)  and chalk I think is not suitable for small details , so my question is could I use a Faber Castell Polychromo crayon " pencil"  in " burnt umber 280  " or would the crayon react with the paint ? . Comments appreciated . Stephen
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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It depends what's in the pencil - crayons often have either wax or graphite, the former being a bad thing to put under oil paint, the latter having a tendency to show through, because oil paint becomes gradually more transparent over time. You'd be better off with charcoal - vine charcoal, establishing the shapes, blown or dusted off to leave just a faint impression, and or overpainted with a touch of Burnt Sienna or Terre Verte oil paint, both of which dry fast and don't present overpainting problems. I don't know what the composition of Polychromos pencils is - if you want to use them, I'd suggest you ask the manufacturer.  
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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Their website says they're "oil based" pencils: yes, but WHAT oil?  And what else? I would stick to charcoal; you suggest you don't want to lose detail, but your paint will cover most of the detail anyway: preliminary drawing on canvas or board for oil paint really needs to be basic, to establish proportions, otherwise you run the risk of colouring-in.

stephen weight

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Robert - thanks , your point(s) duly noted .  Shame there's not such a thing as an "oil pen" for this purpose ( unless there is .....) . Stephen
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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I don't think there is - you never know, though!  That could be quite useful, couldn't it....?  As an alternative (perhaps not much of one..) how about a cocktail stick or matchstick, dipped in oil paint with a bit of Turpentine (or even Linseed Oil) to do your drawing?  Might work better than a pen dipped in paint, because they'd be a bit absorbent, whereas I can imagine a pen being very frustrating to try: the metal would just scrape through the paint.   
big hat

Collette Hughes

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You could use a needle bottle. You can get them in packs quite cheaply. They are used by crafters for precision glueing, huge choice on Amazon. I have used them successfully with acrylic. Filling the bottle is the hard bit. I think if you mixed your oil paint with a medium that would get it fluid enough to fill the bottle it would work. Liquin fine detail would be my choice for this task but I know a lot of people hate it.  
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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I hate the smell of it - but it MIGHT work as you suggest; certainly worth a try if one's committed to this way of working: I'm not and wouldn't be, so am only guessing at what might work.