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The Oil Sticks enigma.

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Norrette Moore

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Posted
Having just opened an email this morning with a special offer on these, I wonder does anyone use them.  Is there a demo on you tube perhaps? They are so blunt looking I can't imagine trying them. I'm surprised they're not shaped to a point at least at one end. What can they achieve which a paintbrush and tube of oil, cannot?  How are they mixed? Please, someone stop me from buying something that will just sit in a cupboard.
IMG_3630

Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Posted
I had some given and tried then a few times , definitely not for me , to messy , can’t blend then very easily etc . Let my granddaughter use the as crayons , they are still in the draw hardly use as she didn’t like them and as a five year old said they are too messy. I’m sure there are some people who use them very effectively.

Norrette Moore

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Posted
Glad you said that, Paul. I have resisted them! I can imagine they feel like crayons.  I have oil pastels, and they feel like that too.

Tessa Gwynne

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I have a lovely set of oil pastels received as a present some years ago and I didn’t get on with them either. They do come out for the grandchildren occasionally but not for me.

Alan Bickley

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I’ve got some Sennelier and R&F brands of oil sticks, or bars as they are often called, which I used for a feature on oil bars and oil pastels for the magazine a while back now. They ain’t easy, I can confirm that for sure, and I’ve never used them since. They aren’t the stuff of detail! To blend/mix them, you do that directly on the support by working over areas. Doo they have any advantages over traditional oils and a brush? Certainly nothing that I can see - dreadful things in my opinion. It might be me, I’m sure others can work with them better than me. I’ve shown a couple of examples taken from my feature below…the first two using just oil bars, the last one a combination of oil bars and oil pastels. The oil pastels are thinner and slightly easier to use in my opinion.

Norrette Moore

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Posted
Amazing results, Alan.   I would feel like painting with an elbow, I reckon.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Call me unimaginative - though actually I WILL try new things if they look interesting - but I'd never invest in oil bars; they look incredibly messy, and how Alan achieved those results I shall never know.  Oil pastels on the other hand - are fairly versatile, in more competent hands than mine; the ones I have are old (Sennelier and Guitar brands) and very well past their  best; and they don't work too well on some papers.  But I'll buy another set one of these days, at least for quick colour notes. Never say never, though: I thought I could never get on with regular pastels, but in recent months I've found I seem to have discovered the knack - I don't claim to be good, but am getting better.  So - hope for all of us.