Oil Pastels - Over Watercolor

[kelly]

Are there any obvious concerns about using pastel(oil) over watercolor?

Thanks,
Kelly

[Rod]

I have used soft chalk pastels over watercour with no problems.I would say it would be ok,
Rod

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Watercolours from New Zealand

[aspiring artist]

Kelly, I've used oil pastel on top of watercolor without any problem whatsoever. I've found the heavier watercolor papers are much more receptive to oil pastel than say Canson, for instance. Plus, it's nice to do away with that stark white by floating on a little bit of color. Good luck!

[4vincent]

I haven't used oil pastel in quite a while. I used to experiment with it, blending it with some turp on a brush, getting some wild stuff, but anymore I work in soft pastel. When I block in or underpaint, I use either washes in watercolor, acryllic, water-thinned pastel, casein (ala Shikler) for my lay-in. One advantage of doing this is that it saves the tooth of the support for later applications of pastel. I suppose (haven't tried) for oil pastel, you could also use acryllic washes or thinned oil colors for your block-ins also. 4vincent

[Briar Rose]

I just asked my teacher this question today and she said that I am use water color under acrylic. Then she said, watercolor but not arcylic.

And then tonight I saw on this forum and some other threads that artists have used acrylics and oil pastels together.

[Pat Isaac]

Welcome, Briar Rose......acrylics can definitely be used as an underpainting for oil pastels as well as watercolors. Do you use oil pastels?

Pat

[truck driver]

heck you can even use a watercolor underpainting, go over it with acrylic, and add oil pastel on top of that.

RG

[halthepainter]

Watercolor as an underpainting for oil pastels is just fine.

I have found a heavy application of acrylic as an underpainting creates a slick surface for oil pastels that were, for me at least, were too slick and hard to work with. Acrylic washes are fine and acrylic gesso with some marble dust makes an excellent surface for oil pastel.

My standard surface is a toned watercolor paper or canvas, toned with a colored acrylic gesso with marble dust mixed in the top coat of gesso.

[hask2004]

Hi Kelly,
There is no problem, you can get best results by using these mix media, here one works for me by using watercolor and oil pastels.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=939050

good luck

[vhere]

I use oil pastels with watercolour all the time - more usually under the watercolour as a resist - the wet paint falls off it and the OP pops through. I also add it over. If you look at my blog you'll see lots of examples.

It's no problem at all. Sennelier work best.

Coloured pencil over watercolour is something else I use a lot.

I've also frequently used them over acrylics. Being oily, if you use them under acrylics, the colour would eventually peel off.


Have fun experimenting

[CarlaG]

Good ideas here - love VHERE's ideas of using watercolour over oils - Ive been struggling with an idea for a sea-scape and this may be the best way to approach it - thanks!

[vhere]

Sennelier white oil pastels are very useful for surf - I use them a lot when sketching at the coast . It frees you up to look at all the colours in the water and the underside of the waves.







these are some really scribbly demos of OP's as a resist for watercolour that I did for my class - hope they help with your experiments