A CONTEMPORARY MEDIUM

Oil pastels are a fairly new art medium. In the mid-1920s, the first soft pastel was developed. Called Cray-pas, this soft pastel was considered an improvement on crayons. It wasn’t until 1947, at the request of artists Pablo Picasso and Henri Goetz, that materials manufacturer Sennelier set out to create a smooth, artist-quality pastel.

Picasso wanted a pastel bar that could be used on a variety of surfaces, such as wood, clay, or canvas. Goetz wants a pastel that can be used frankly and immediately, and that allows him to work directly on a surface, without brushes, spatulas, or any other type of tool.

Sennelier introduced a smooth oil pastel in 1949. It had a desirable smooth consistency, was available in a wide range of brilliant colors, and the pigments were of an acid-free, permanent professional quality. Sennelier oil pastels were the seminal bars of oil pastels from which all other brands originated. More recently, a larger oil pastel stick was developed that allows artists to create large, colorful works, without the accoutrements of oil painting: turpentine, linseed oil, rags, brushes, palettes, and spatulas. The qualities of immediacy and directness have made large oil sticks popular with many contemporary artists.

The pigments in hard pastels, oil pastels, and oil sticks are the same as those used in oil paints. The essential difference between oil paints, hard and soft pastels, and oil sticks is the binding ingredient used to hold the pigments together. Oil paints are basically pigments in a linseed oil base and drying agents, liquid enough to be extruded from a tube. Hard pastels have less oil and wax binder than oil pastels. Oil pastels, having more oil and wax content, are softer in consistency and body. To date, oil pastels are available in two qualities: student and professional.

HARD AND SOFT – THE DIFFERENCE

Chalk or hard pastels have been around since the Renaissance. (Leonardo DaVinci wrote about pastels and many of his drawings were done in red chalk.) Hard pastels can be mixed with your finger or a small mixing stick to produce subtle, delicate shading and highlighting effects. Due to their hard, dry consistency, they are powdery, semi-transparent and excellent for creating smooth, “seamless” color transitions.

Because oil pastels are softer, they are semi-opaque in nature. One color can overlap another color and cover it successfully. Many overlapping layers can be created. the integration of two colors with oil pastels can be done with networks of small lines or strokes. Because oil pastels have great hiding power, they can replicate the process of painting with oil or acrylic paints.

Oil pastels, because of their wax and oil content, never dry out completely. For the finished artwork, an application of acrylic varnish will protect the surface of the oil pastel. An oil pastel artwork is best protected with a mat, glass, and frame. Diluted, the consistency of an oil pastel is very close to that of water color and can be used in transparent washes and overlays of colour. Oil pastels can be thinned with turpentine or mineral spirits. Oil pastels can be used on any porous surface. The best backing for durability and permanence is a heavyweight, acid-free, archival primed paper, board, or canvas.

CREATING A SUNSET – VIBRANT COLOR TRANSITIONS

When depicting a sunset, for example, where the colors may consist of a variety of shades of orange, red, purple, and blue, the integration of each color area can be done by mixing one color with another by layering them with small line networks. . Placing an area of ​​light orange, then going over it with small strokes of dark orange, will begin the gradation. The light orange can be placed back on top of the dark orange to introduce the necessary light/dark gradations. Then the darker orange can be incorporated to make the gradation more explicit. Through the use of small networks of lines, each color can be combined with other colors until the desired effect is achieved. By mixing colors in this way, transitions from one color to another are smooth, but the vibrant quality of intermixed color webs is preserved.

CREATING A SELF-PORTRAIT – SUBTLE COLOR TRANSITIONS

Another example of color integration with oil pastels can be demonstrated in the self-portrait. Upon close observation, the skin can be seen to have many subtle flesh colors. An area on the cheeks, for example, may be redder. Colored areas around the chin may have a yellow cast. The colored areas around the eyes can be blue or brown. Let’s take the cheek area, for example. In that area a basic skin tone has been applied. A redder skin tone blush can be produced by introducing a network of small light pink lines over this. Now the nude color can be overlaid with small lines on top of the light pink. The interaction between these two areas of color will produce the blush in the cheek area. By working with interchanges of these two colours, a third or even a fourth colour, for example light blue or light green, can be subtly intertwined with the flesh-tone and pink webs to produce subtle passages of color that further replicate the many colors exhibited in meat. .

PORTABILITY – THE PICASSO LEGACY

Whether you choose to head out into the woods, the seashore, or your backyard to create a colorful, painterly piece of art, there is definitely an advantage to using oil pastels. Just pack up your box of oil pastels, paper tablet, and head out! In your hand, oil pastels will work quickly to capture some tilt of sunlight. a coastline that rapidly changes from green to blue due to clouds rising from the horizon or shadows moving across a forest landscape.

In fact, you can see how the oil pastels were a product of Picasso’s need to work quickly, expressively, and using a wide range of wonderful colors. And he can use his oil pastel drawings and sketches as references for oil paintings because the colors of oil pastels translate well into the painting medium. Immediacy and directness are qualities of oil pastels that make them a truly contemporary medium.

STUDENT OR PROFESSIONAL STATUS?

If you are considering working with oil pastels, buy good quality (professional) pastels. They will have a dense pigment body and stronger layering qualities. Professional-grade pastels will more accurately duplicate the small line network color integration technique described in this article.

Cheaper student grade oil pastels have a higher wax content and because the pigment body is less dense, they often look more like crayons and won’t layer or cover well. In cheaper oil pastels, more expensive pigments often have more wax and oil binders. This keeps the price down, but also the quality. For the most part, student-grade oil pastels are much more transparent, and colors, even after heavy application, will appear washed out and washed out.

TO ENJOY!

The brilliance of colors, ease of use, and portability of oil pastels make this art medium a wonderful tool to try, whether you’re discovering your creative self or wanting to experiment with a new medium. Discover oil pastels for yourself and enjoy creating beautiful and colorful works of art!