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Oil Sticks - Can You Use Them in Oil Paintings?
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Message
Posted
Jacksons have an oils promotion on at the moment - and as well as topping up my depleted stock of oil paint, I was tempted to buy some Sennelier oil sticks.
It looks as if you can use them with - or better still over - oil paint. I'd love to know if anyone has tried it; and if yes, do you need to let the paint dry first?
I'd also welcome some general advice on oil sticks with other media before parting with my hard earned cash!
Posted
Oil sticks, or oil bars as they are often referred to, are definitely not the stuff of detail!
I’ve got some Sennelier and R&F makes, I can’t get on with them at all, but I do believe that you can use them over dried oil paint… Robert will know, and other members perhaps who are familiar with them!
Caution is needed here before purchasing a lot of them, they are difficult to use, not to mention messy!
Posted
I gave my oil sticks to Fiona. I wasn’t keen on them, they are better suited to large work I feel, where you can “go to town” with bold strokes etc. They are messy too, you have to peel down the paper covering before you use them. No, not for me. Now if I had a lovely big studio…..
You can use them with other media, just as you would with oil pastels although not really over soft pastel when they would probably clog up a bit.
Edited
by Marjorie Firth
Posted
Thank you both. I can see oil sticks would be messy - but so is oil paint.
I'll wait to see what Robert has to say. Perhaps it might be worth purchasing a basic set of 6 oil sticks in primary colours or just one or two in black or white, to try them out. I'm not sure I'd have the patience to wait for an oil painting to dry fully before using them.
Posted
Well, have a go, but .... I do not like them one little bit; they're incredibly messy, but they can yield very vibrant, strong colour. If you go on YouTube and look up Andrew Barrowman, who paints in Cornwall, he's used them - he's a plein air artist for the most part, who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty - he could certainly show you how to use them and get the best out of them, but I can only say sooner him than me.
There's no technical reason for not using them; but if you like detail, sharp edges, clear shapes, you'll find them a challenge. Still: challenge is what we thrive on!
Posted
Quote: ‘Thank you both. I can see oil sticks would be messy - but so is oil paint’
I don’t find oil paint messy, I can never understand why some artists get covered in the stuff!
Working with a long handled brush keeps any paint at bay… okay, I admit that I do occasionally get a blob or two on my clothes, but not often!
Oil sticks on the other hand, are being held in your fingers… and the inevitable will happen, sticky oil bar everywhere…
One of a series of still life drawings using oil bars that I completed a while back…you can build up some interesting textures!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
That illustrates their strengths and their weaknesses - it's a bold, strong statement; but it isn't my favourite among Alan's work, because he achieves great subtlety with the brush.
Totally agree with him about oil paint being not messy - yes, I've seen painters who wear smocks, and make a point of smearing them with paint, but that's either because they're lazy or trying to show how artistic they are: my mistake with oils happened when I used the handle end of a brush to incise marks, forgot I'd done it, leaned into the picture when I employed the brush end, and of course stabbed my shirt with the painty point..... But that was just me being stupid,
There's a photo I wish I could find of an artist at his easel, out doors, wearing a suit jacket, waistcoat, and bow tie: I do suspect it was a posed photo and he wouldn't have painted like that in reality, but even so - it can be done; long handled brushes help.
Thinking more about oil bars, bearing in mind the original question - I don't think I'd employ them on top of any more than a broad sketch thinned down with Turps or oil; best to stain your canvas to your personal preference, then go straight in with your oil bars; they could work if applied in the same process and time as brushes or knives, I'm not so sure they'd be a good idea on cured or partially cured paint. And - I still don't want paint all over my fingers: I'd be bound to run my hands through my hair at some point, and that wouldn't give me a look I'd be at all crazy about: even if it did make me look artistic.
Posted
I agree with much of that… I like to see brush marks within a painting, I deliberately leave them - that’s what I refer to as a ‘painterly’ style and I’m less keen on paintings that have been brushed out to the enth degree! Leaving an almost flat surface.
Yes! Think Bob Ross here of course, he starts off with some serious brushing out in his skies and in fact just about everywhere else, followed by that dreadful stippling of course! but I’m also referring to decent artists that adopt that style of working.
I’m not knocking it, but it’s not for me!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
My thought too was that oil paint isn’t messy - ok, the odd blob maybe and I did tread cad yellow into a carpet but, on the whole, not really messy at all. All down to how you work I suppose. My main point is that oil sticks are more suited to large bold marks, if you want detail…then no. Alan’s word “ sticky” is a good description and they certainly become that with the heat of your hand.
Edited
by Marjorie Firth
Posted
PS - Having said they're not messy, I was touching up an old painting this afternoon, and when I had a break, looked in the bathroom mirror - a blue-black smudge decorated the left side of my face - how I did that, I don't know! Perhaps oils are a bit messier than I was thinking when I posted earlier..
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