A CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENT
Oil pastels are a fairly new art medium. In the mid-1920s, the first soft cake 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, material manufacturer Sennelier set out to create a smooth, artistic-quality pastel.
Picasso wanted a cake stick that could be used on a variety of surfaces, such as wood, clay, or canvas. Goetz wanted a cake that could be used frankly and immediately, allowing him to work directly on a surface, without brushes, spatulas, or any other tools.
Sennelier introduced a soft oil pastel in 1949. It had a desirable smooth consistency, was available in a wide range of brilliant colors, and the pigments were of a permanent, acid-free professional quality. Sennelier oil pastels were the seminal oil pastel sticks from which all other brands originated. More recently, a larger oil pastel bar was developed that allows artists to create large, colorful works, without the equipment of oil painting: turpentine, linseed oil, rags, brushes, palettes, and spatulas. The qualities of immediacy and directness have made the oversized oil stick 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 binder ingredient used to hold the pigments together. Oil paints are basically pigments based on linseed oil and drying agents, liquid enough to be extruded from a tube. Hard pastels have less wax and oil binder than oil pastels. Oil pastels, which have higher 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 the longest since the Renaissance. (Leonardo Da Vinci wrote about pastels and many of his drawings were done with red chalk.) Hard pastels can be mixed with your finger or a small mixing stick to produce subtle nuances of subtle and delicate hues and highlight effects. Due to their hard, dry consistency, they are powdery, semi-transparent, and excellent for creating smooth, “smooth” color transitions.
Because oil pastels are softer, they are semi-opaque in nature. One color can be overlaid on another color and successfully covered. 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 a great covering ability, they can replicate the painting process with oil or acrylic paints.
Oil pastels, due to their wax and oil content, never dry completely. For the finished artwork, an application of acrylic varnish will protect the oil pastel surface. An oil pastel artwork is best protected with a mat, glass, and a frame. Diluted, the consistency of an oil pastel is very similar to the color of water, and can be used in washes and transparent color overlays. Oil pastels can be diluted with turpentine or mineral spirits. Oil pastels can be used on any porous surface. The best support for durability and permanence is a heavyweight, acid-free, archival primed paper, cardboard or canvas.
CREATING A SUNSET – VIBRANT COLOR TRANSITIONS
When depicting a sunset, for example, where the colors can 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 networks of small lines. . If you place a light orange area and then go over it with small dark orange strokes, gradation will begin. The light orange can be repositioned over the dark orange to introduce the necessary light / dark gradations. The darkest orange can then be incorporated to make the gradation more explicit. By using small grids of lines, each color can be worked 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 grids 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, it can be seen that the skin has many subtle flesh colors. An area of the cheeks, for example, may be redder. The colored areas around the chin may have a yellow hue. The areas of color around the eyes can be blue or brown. Let’s take the cheek area, for example. A basic skin tone has been established in that area. A redder blush of the skin tone can be produced by introducing a network of small lines of a light pink color over it. Now the skin tone color can be overlaid with little lines on the light pink. The interaction between these two areas of color will produce the blush in the cheek area. Working with interchanges of these two colors, a third or even fourth color, for example light blue or light green, can be subtly intertwined with the flesh tone and pink webs to produce subtle color passages that further replicate the many colors. exhibited in the flesh. .
PORTABILITY – THE PICASSO LEGACY
If you choose to go out into the woods, seaside, or backyard to create a colorful, painterly piece of art, there is a distinct advantage to using oil pastels. Just pack your box of oil pastels, paper tablet, and salt! In your hand, the oil pastels will act quickly to capture a certain tilt from the sunlight. a coastline that changes rapidly 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 the product of Picasso’s need to work quickly, with expression, and using a wide range of wonderful colors. And you can use your 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 QUALITY?
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 mesh color integration technique described in this article.
Cheaper student oil pastels have a higher wax content, and because the body of the pigment is less dense, they often look more like crayons and don’t overlap or cover well. In cheaper oil pastels, more expensive pigments often have more wax and oil binders. This keeps the price low, but also the quality. For the most part, student quality oil pastels are much more transparent and colors, even with heavy application, will appear washed out and washed out.
TO ENJOY!
The brilliance of the colors, the ease of use and the portability of oil pastels make this art medium a wonderful tool to try, whether you are discovering your creative self or want to experiment with a new medium. Discover oil pastels for yourself and enjoy creating beautiful and colorful works of art!