by Kellie Hall

Created on: March 03, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Oil pastels are a marvelous compromise between our childhood crayons and traditional oil painting. If you are looking for a simple, portable, low-space-requirements, non-spill (though certainly not non-mess) way of creating beautifully colored artwork, then this is for you.

First, lets look at the material itself. The crayons I mentioned earlier were wax-based- pigment suspended in wax. That made for a much harder substance, creating less intensely colored, slicker, and cleaner result. Cheaper oil pastels do have some amount of wax in them, though considerably less than Crayolas. The nicer oil pastels will feel somewhat greasy to the touch, being more oil based. There are even oil sticks available in art stores, which are very high in pigment and oil content- think oil painting with a giant marker. It's fun, trust me.

Whatever you get, don't make the mistake of peeling all the paper off the stick at once- if you're not careful, pigment can get *all* over your hands.

Then there are the pigment-less oil pastels, which are wonderful for blending and scrumbled effects, softening edges and smoothing transitions.

Because of their composition, oil pastel paintings/drawing are slow to dry, but they will eventually. If you do have to transport them, a sheet of waxed paper or vellum over the front will protect the face of the painting without removing too much of the surface. The oil pastels will crumble if you use them too hard, but will not create any dust. I end up finger-painting with them, in a way, but that is not to be recommended unless you have gloves on.

Another very cool thing to play with- once you're somewhere that the potential mess or drying time won't be a problem- is to play with brushing the surface with linseed oil or a clear oil medium. It will soften the underlaying pigment and binder, allowing you to adjust the image and even add colors after the fact, creating more the effect of an oil painting.

I've found that colorful, high-contrast subjects work best with oil pastels, especially landscapes, still lifes, and somewhat abstracted human scenes- anything where you want to experiment with intuitive color, too.

If you layer wet-on-wet, the underlying color will come through what you are trying to add, so while the initial sketching can be very loose, the heavy application of colors should come at a stage where you are fairly sure of the eventual composition.

All of that said, work intuitively, and above all, have fun- this is a joyful medium!

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