How To Use Oil Pastels On Canvas

By Robert Sloan in Enquiry> Art Products

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The outset time I saw a set of oil pastels was at a drugstore in a very small display of art supplies. Information technology price a dollar and change for a fix of 24, two dollars and change for a larger set of 36. The colors looked bright, the oil sticks were short, round and wrapped, and the box cheerily announced that everything inside was non toxic and safety for children.

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I lumped it in with children's watercolor sets and crayons, just from its price and presentation, and passed it by.

Later on in New Orleans when I was first starting out as a street artist, I reconsidered the medium. Compared to creative person-grade colored pencils, oil pastels were very cheap.

After studying a parcel, I discovered that I could sparse them with oil mediums and decided that it would be an inexpensive way to do some oil paintings, then I picked upwards a set of 24, along with a bottle of turpentine and some canvass boards, and got started.

I wasn't a very expert painter but the resulting thin-wash paintings were, as promoted, genuine oil paintings. I priced them appropriately between $v and $x and used the proceeds to buy tube oils and stretched canvases, soon leaving oil pastels behind.

I had no thought that professional-course oil pastels had existed since 1949 when Henri Sennelier created a soft creamy oil pastel stick for Pablo Picasso.

A brusque history of oil pastels

The very showtime oil pastels were made in 1925 by Sakura and named Cray-Pas because they were a cross between the clean dustless ease of crayons and the brilliant saturated colors of traditional soft pastels.

Talens of The netherlands also created some Panda oil pastels in 1930, but the medium really took off when Picasso and painter Henri Goetz spoke to Henri Sennelier well-nigh creating something with traditional artist pigments.

Goetz wanted something he could employ to outset an oil painting: a sketch medium that would blend right in with painted layers. Picasso on the other hand merely wanted to get out his brush behind and draw or pigment direct on the canvas.

Sennelier ended upward making a range of 48 colors that were heavy on the subtle grays and earth tones that Picasso requested. He produced 40 sticks of each colour, and Picasso bought three/4ths of those, so Sennelier put the remaining 10 of each in his shop where they sold out fast. Naturally, he continued to make them, and Senneliers became the first artist grade oil pastel bachelor.

Oil pastel brands for sale today

Unlike soft pastels or colored pencils, professional oil pastels are not available from dozens of manufacturers. At that place are simply a few good creative person-class brands, each of which has its ain proprietary formula.

Sakura still produces Cray-Pas oil pastels, only in several grades—children's Cray-Pas Inferior Creative person; student-class round wrapped Expressionists, which many artists utilize for sketching to save money; and the last and all-time are artist-class Cray-Pas Specialists, which are foursquare wrapped sticks.

Cray-Pas Specialist pastels are the hardest oil pastel sticks yous tin find, followed in order of hardness by Cretacolor Aqua Stic, Erengi Art Aspirer, Caran d'Ache Neopastel and Holbein. The softest are Sennelier Oil Pastels which are now bachelor in 120 colors.

Van Gogh Extra Fine Artist Oil Pastels are usually billed every bit good student-grade oil pastels, simply share many qualities with these artist-course brands. Depending on your application, they may be good enough to include in the list above.

Oil pastel prices are comparable to creative person-grade colored pencils or soft pastels without quite reaching the price of high-terminate soft pastels.

In addition, just two brands, Holbein and Sennelier, include toxic mineral pigments such every bit Cadmiums and Cobalt. All others utilise strictly nontoxic hues.

What to purchase when starting out

If you're interested in trying artist-grade oil pastels you should either look for an inexpensive small set in i of the major artist-grade brands, or choose your favorite painting colors and put together your own palette from open stock.

Compare open up stock prices to the toll of sets—for some brands there's no real bargain to buying large sets other than getting the box or tin designed to store them.

Two skilful books are available for oil pastels: Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner and Oil Pastel: Materials and Techniques for Today's Creative person. The first is by John Elliott and the 2d is past Kenneth Leslie.

Either one is a good beginning book for artists interested in oil pastels, but Kenneth Leslie'south book is much more than exhaustive and varied in its handling of the medium.

To my pleasant surprise, both of these books demonstrated the gorgeous realism that tin can be achieved with creative person-grade oil pastels. Just equally with traditional oil paints or colored pencil, yous can create strong Impressionist effects, layer colors, and re-work areas as necessary to become the fine particular of realism or hyper-realism.

Tips and techniques for using oil pastels

Similar colored pencils, the hardness of each stick contributes to a different purpose. Many artists combine different brands of oil pastels to reach different furnishings.

Firm brands like Cray-Pas Specialist or Erengi are ameliorate for early layers, fine details and control. Softer products similar Holbein or Sennelier tin be used when the surface tooth is fully saturated over heavy layers of the firm oil pastels.

Oil pastels tin can be used moisture or dry on any back up: paper, board, canvas, glass, metal, forest. . . even rock. Some surfaces work better with a coat of gesso, for preservation or more than tooth, just you lot can be confident in using an oil pastel over whatsoever kind of plant objects in a collage or mixed media piece.

Colors may be blended completely on the surface, scumbled over each other in layers, or blended on the palette and then practical with a knife or Color Shaper tool.

Keep in mind that they should not be practical heavily under a traditional oil painting without a skilful thinning of turpentine, equally oil pastels accept mineral oils in the binder that never completely dry out. Treat them as "extra fat" in relation to oils in mixed media—the oil pastels layers should be the outermost.

Equally I plant out in New Orleans, information technology's also piece of cake to use a wet brush to mix thin washes and paint directly from the oil pastel sticks, or only wash medium over areas already drawn for that blended wait.

New tools have also made it easier to get fine detail and painterly effects. Safe-tipped Colour Shapers in both the gray firm texture or the dark gray Clay Shaper extra firm texture are very skillful for pushing color around and applying pocket-sized details. (The soft white-tipped colour shapers are ameliorate with soft pastels and should be kept separate.)

Sgraffito effects are much easier with oil pastels than with crayon. Laying a potent layer of white or a lighter color on first and and then post-obit it with other opaque layers allows you to scrape it back to reveal small-scale details or create abrupt lines in the piece of work.

This is an onetime oil painter'southward play a trick on—often accomplished with the end of a castor—only information technology works just besides in oil pastels and is one of the important keys to realism.

Temperature affects the firmness of all oil pastels, pupil or artist-form. When warm, they'll be softer and menstruation more easily. When cooled, they get more firm.

This can help in both directions—if your surface is saturated and won't accept more color, y'all can warm the pastels in your paw while the painting is in the fridge cooling to compactness. If your oil pastels are too soft to control (a common complaint about Senneliers) spooky them for a while should make them easier to handle.

Thin washes are also possible with whatever oil painting medium, from linseed oil to odorless turpentine or alcohol.

One oil pastel brand, Cretacolor Aqua Stic, is watersoluble and has a medium-business firm texture with a range of lxxx colors. This allows artists to create fractional-wash effects within the aforementioned painting. An surface area painted with any of the other oil pastel brands won't melt when h2o is sprayed on to dissolve the Aqua Stic passages.

Another major advantage of Cretacolor's Aqua Stic brand is that artists with a strong sensitivity to oil painting mediums can notwithstanding utilize them. Aqua Stic oil pastels can besides be combined with any other water-based mediums, however are still business firm plenty to sharpen with a crayon sharpener or pocketknife to get fine details.

Supports, glazes, travel considerations, etc.

Oil pastel paintings should e'er be glazed when finished, dissimilar traditional oil paints which cure hard inside a few months later finishing a painting. Some brands of oil pastels practice harden somewhat, but non to the level that an oil or acrylic painting volition, which means the surface tin't exist dusted without smearing the paint.

Two brands of fixative are formulated specifically for oil pastels: Caran d'Ache Protector Fixative is useful for preventing wax bloom, something that Neopastels may endure from but every bit most colored pencils paintings do.

Sennelier D'Artigny Oil Pastel Fixative forms a hard clear varnish with several thin applications and some artists will use it to just varnish heavily rather than glaze their finished paintings.

Traditional pastel papers and supports work just too for oil pastels, especially the sanded pastel supports like Ampersand Pastelbord, Wallis Sanded Pastel Paper and Colourfix Sanded Pastel Paper. Any actress tooth helps the artist add more layers and depth to the painting.

My personal favorite is Colourfix. Using clear Colourfix primer as a barrier over my sketches, I can keep my graphite or charcoal from blending into the lighter oil colors.

Other advantages of oil pastels (as well being dustless) are their size, portability and ease of employ—peculiarly for plein air applications. Many artists utilise oil pastels for field studies because the color ranges are just every bit vibrant as traditional oil paints, only much more handy for carrying around.

If you are flying to an exotic location and want to bring some art supplies, oil pastels should always be described as "creative person crayons" to the customs people. (They're nonflammable, non-explosive and completely safe).

You'll desire to leave your mineral spirits at home, of course, and and then option some up once you arrive at your destination.

The more that I discover about oil pastels, the more than interesting they become—and the more I realize that what you tin do with this medium is just express by your imagination and skill.

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