Yowza. This is my first oil pastel painting. Literally the first time I picked a stick of color up and used it. I’m pretty darn happy with it. I have a lot to learn though. It was incredibly fun moving the creamy pastels around! And BACKGROUNDS! Yay, I can do backgrounds without worrying. Watercolor backgrounds have always intimidated me.
I love the textural aspect of oil pastels.
I immediately wanted to go all impasto (definition: The process of laying down paint thickly so it stands out from the surface). Yep, LOVE that part, getting in there and being wild, pushing color around, being aggressive with the pastel stick. It’s so different from watercolors and I love that too. Now I have three totally different mediums: watercolor, colored pencils and oil pastels. They all give totally different experiences when using them. Oil pastels are the most immediate. There is no brush between you and the medium.
This piece was done using Sennelier and Sakura Cray-Pas Specialist oil pastels. I used a piece of Expression Hahnemühle watercolor paper as my substrate. It’s 140lb, 100% cotton, cold pressed and archival but because I didn’t know it needed a primer, this piece is NOT archival. Over months, the oil in the pastels will eventually soak through the excellent paper and render the piece non-salable. A friend, Tracy, already requested it from me so I promised her I’d redo it with the primer so it won’t fall apart over time. Yep, so much to learn, so little time, hehehehe. The pastels moved beautifully over the cold pressed surface so with the addition of a little primer, I’m good to go!
Tomorrow I have a full set of Caran D’Ache Neopastels being delivered from Amazon.com. Thank you to all who bought mugs, you helped me purchase these gorgeous new art supplies.
It’s so much fun learning a whole new medium!
I have bushels of stuff to tell you all! I can’t wait to share. I’ll be spilling out information rapidly in the next six weeks as I start finally painting with these wonderful sticks and I’ll be fitting extra posts in between watercolor paintings. So expect many more posts coming SOON.
Finding out information about this medium is much more arduous than watercolors are. There just isn’t a huge amount of information out there. Oil pastels seem to be quite unique and finding artists who use them is more difficult than I thought it would be. Wet Canvas has a section on oil pastels, I keep getting lost in all the posts, lol. There are a few bloggers I’ve found and a few books out there. I’ll be telling you everything I find on the subject.
I’ll be telling you about:
- What are oil pastels?
- Which ones are artist quality?
- What tools do you need?
- How I’m storing my oil pastels.
- Techniques on getting the results you want.
- Resources like blogs, books, forums etc.
- My struggles, successes and favorite things as I learn.
Having information that is solid is my goal so I’m planning on learning as I go. I hope you’ll join me on my journey and enjoy watching me grow as an artist. There’s something so stimulating about adding new techniques to one’s repertoire. Do you love learning new things too? Does it feed your imagination, knowing you’re growing your brain by stuffing it with new knowledge? It makes me giddily, ridiculously happy. Does it make you feel smarter, stronger, more fulfilled? Does it help you feel more like an artist?
I admit, learning stuff also kinda panics me too, lol. It’s kind of a yin-yang thing, I guess. I always wonder if I’ll be able to figure it all out. That’s my monkey. Danny Gregory talks all about his monkey who beats him up and tells him he’s not a good artist. I suspect we all have a monkey of some sort. Mine tells me that maybe I won’t learn or figure out what I want to about a subject. I shove a banana in his mouth and continue on. ;o)
My monkey and I are NOT friends. He’s annoying. I aggressively ignore him. Ok, I try and ignore him.
Onto the learning:
The first thing I learned is that I’ll need to prime any watercolor paper I use for my oil pastels. I’m lucky that you can use watercolor paper as the surface. I have LOTS of watercolor paper, lol. (see all the kinds here) So, what I have to do is cover a piece of 140lb watercolor paper with either gesso or a pastel primer. This one by Art Spectrum is pretty darn cool. This colorful primer comes in at least 20 color and two sizes, 250ml and 1000ml. It gives anything you paint it on a texture like sandpaper. It also comes in a supertooth which has even more texture but only comes in clear.
I also get to try Hahnemühle’s Velour pastel paper. It comes in ten colors. I think I like the grey best but we’ll see. I have SO MUCH to learn!
For instance:
- Are there any low priced Artist or Student grade oil pastels out there that are good?
- Which paper do I like best?
- Will I like to paint on canvases with oil pastels?
- Do I have to mount the paper on a board, how do I do that?
- How do I protect my work after it’s finished?
- I wonder if it’ll work if I pour acrylic medium over an oil pastel painting as a way to seal it so it can be hung without glass?
- Which oil pastel is hardest/softest, Holbein, Sennelier, Caran D’Ache etc.?
Oh, all the possibilities, my mind is gonna explode, lol. Ok, I’m off to bed to dream in color. Just so you know, I dream of painting a six foot pear in wild colors and I see some gorgeous guy in my future who decides it’ll look great in his dining room. Of course he’s gorgeous. It’s MY dream. hahahaha. And yes, I dream about painting fruit. Don’t look at me like that. It doesn’t have any hidden meaning. I just like paint fruit. You hadn’t figured that out yet??
Later Gator. More flowers (daffodils specifically) coming soon. This time with PAINT. Woohoo!
Learning: Duh, oil pastels, silly.
Anticipating: Organizing all my colorful sticks into their own container, one container for each major color group. Reds, yellows, blues, greens, turquoises, pinks, browns, greys etc.
Planning: To add more hours in the day so I can make ridiculous amounts of art. Ok, maybe I’ll just sleep less. ;o)
Loving: COLOR. All the color at my fingertips. That and the veggie soup I made today. Ya, color and soup.
Carol Boss
I really enjoy your work and learning from you
Linda
Thanks for sharing! I’ve just bought a small set of oil pastels last week and have many of the same questions, so I’m looking forward to see what you discover. Beautiful first painting!
sandra strait
Your pears are incredible, but then I would have been surprised if they weren’t. I know you’re going to be coming up with some marvelous artwork and can’t wait to see it!
Helen Wilding
Oh what delicious fun you are going to have! I love the pears (yes I can imagine you dreaming about painting them) and I had no idea that you would need to prime the paper. I’m looking forward to hearing the results of your exploration- obviously there is a need for someone to experiment and share the results. Enjoy!
Kari
I’ve gotten a few oil pastels through SketchBox and Scrawler. I mostly look at them because I’m not sure what to do with their lusciousness. I can’t wait to follow along and pick up some info from you!!! I had no idea about having to prime the paper. Cool Beans! Love the pears…
nordljus
Lovely pears! I’m looking forward to seeing/reading more about oil pastels, as I’ve always wanted to try them out but somehow never have. I’ve started painting in oils recently, I’ve used oil bars and Neocolors and all kinds of other materials but just never oil pastels. I’ve had at least two boxes of them for years, I think it’s finally time to try them out!
Susan
Wow! Your 1st oil pastel painting is fabulous! I’m looking forward to seeing more wonderful art, and learning more about your oil pastel journey. While I love the look of oil pastels, it’s not something I intend to pursue, but I shall enjoy watching as you explore.
Louise
Lots of great information in this newsletter. I recently added to my supplies with oil pastels and I experimented but was not sure if I was happy with the results. Whenever that happens, I stash the art away for a while and then revisit it weeks, or perhaps months later. So you remind me here to have a second look at what I painted.
Your pears are LUSCIOUS!
Jean Marmo
This is just beautiful! Wonder if I have any oil pastels hanging around. You make me want to try!
Linda Kunsman
your painting of the pears is gorgeous!! You are so good at sharing your tips and techniques very generously too-so, thank you!
Jennifer Rose
good job with the pastels 🙂
i really like using oil pastels, but usually use canvas and turps/thinners of some kind to move the pastels around, messy but works for me 🙂
Jennifer Rose
Replying to your email:
I don’t just use oil pastels, I don’t have the time to use them as much as I would like to sadly. Too much to do, so little time. but they are nice to use once you practice with them and find a style of working that suits you 🙂
Brenda Mohr
These pears make me hungry for a pear! Beautiful work Jenn. Do you have to wear gloves when using oil pastels? Thanks for all the great info above,
Poppy Li
Thank you so much for your info. I am interested in learning about oil pastels. I have not started yet. Actually don’t know where to start 😊