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Author: carly_clements, Contributing Editor
| A Bit of History
The history of oil pastels is not a long one. Sakura of Japan started making the first oil pastels in 1925. Their "Cray-pas" were intended to combine the non-toxic, dustless consistency of crayons with the rich brilliance of soft pastels. Talens followed in 1930 with Panda Pastels, but it was not until 1949, that Henri Sennelier, influenced by Henri Goetz and Pablo Picasso, designed a professional version of the children's product. Goetz wanted a pastel he could use to start oil paintings. Working with the two artists, Sennelier formulated an oil pastel with a creamy consistency and a subtle color palette. Holbein entered the field in the 1980's with two grades of oil pastel. Their professional grade was designed to appeal to the serious artist with improved texture, palette, and permanence. Today's market offers a rich variety of color and texture to the serious artist who is still a pioneer in establishing oil pastels as a fine art medium. Professional grade oil pastels have ground pigments combined with a slight amount of wax, softened with a smaller amount of acid-free oil, which gives the product its archival, or long-lasting, quality. An oil pastel painting will harden slightly over time, but never form a hard outer skin. The versatility of oil pastels is one reason that I chose to paint with them. They adhere to almost any surface and the techniques for application are only limited by my own experience with the medium. This demonstration will show one method that I've chosen to use with a floral painting to achieve the rich glow of color and velvety smooth texture of the oleander petals. |
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| Let's Get to the Painting!
The above image is my reference photo of an oleander blossom taken at Hilton Head, South Carolina. I like to use images that I've taken myself and print them out as an 8x10 on copy paper. This makes it easy to sketch, block out, or change the color on the reference itself before I begin to work on the actual painting. To the right above, you'll see my layout of tools and oil pastels. A handtowel keeps my fingers clean during each session and is used to wipe off a stick if it becomes contaminated with another color. The 'ears' for my French Mistress (the open wooden box) are handy for blending stumps, a razor blade with holder, odorless turpenoid, a brush, and a small swatch of towel which I use for wiping out. Sennelier is my choice of brands, but I also utilize Holbein and Caran d'Ache Neopastel. |
 | For this technique, I'll begin by painting the Fredrix Watercolor Board with Liquitex Medium Viscosity Acrylic in Cadmium Red Med to establish a warm underpainting for the cooler tones of the oleander. Since the watercolor board does not buckle, I swiped on a brush load of color and sprayed it with water to create a watercolor wash effect with the acrylic paint. This will dry in a few minutes and if its not dark enough, just add another wash of color. You could use watercolors, gouache, or Createx Pure Pigments for an underpainting on the watercolor board.
The background is scumbled* with a deep thalo oil pastel and the contrast of shapes help me to see if the abstract background creates a pleasing design for the eye. Are shapes varied? Different in size and unequally placed around the plane? With oil pastels, it's easy to change shapes at any time during the painting because the pastel can be scraped off with the razor blade leaving the underpainting showing. *Scumble: lay the pastel on the side and use broad strokes to lay on color in a non-directional pattern. You can also use the tip for a less broad pattern but keep the strokes within your shape very abstract and don't try to cover the entire area with opaque color. When scumbling, you want other colors to show thru each layer. |
| This close-up will give a better view of the underpainting, the sketch and the background scumbled with oil pastel. The sketch is done with the Willow Hollow Oil Pencils in a light yellow. You'll notice that I don't erase lines....they can be re-stated to increase the size or change the shape as I sketch. The oil pastels will also cover the lines easily as I paint. |  |
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