Blending and mixing
Dry oil pastel on blended pastel
Because of their waxy texture, only a minimal amount of blending is possible with oil pastels. The colours can, however, be applied to the support and then spread and blended with a brush, rag or tissue which has been dipped in white (mineral) spirit or turpentine. As the pastel mixes with the turpentine it dissolves and takes on the quality of thinned oil paint, and the colours become richer and darker. When they are dry, you can work over the painted’ areas with linear strokes of dry oil pastel to add textural variety.
Finger blending
Blended with a wet finger
The drawn surface can be smoothed and blended with a wet finger. Because oil and water are incompatible, a dampened finger will not pick up the colour from the paper but will just smooth and blend the surface of the oil pastel.
Sgraffito
Scratched back or sgraffito
A layer of solid colour can be built up, and the waxy surface scratched into with a sharp tool to create lively patterns and textures – a technique known as sgraffito. Further interest is added by applying one colour over another and then scratching back through the top layer to reveal the colour below.
Wax resist
Wax resist
Blended oil pastel
Oil pastel can be used with watercolour paint to build up a lively surface or to suggest natural textures. The paint adheres to the paper but is resisted by the waxy pastel marks, and results in a random, mottled effect. A more pronounced pattern can be achieved by working on rough-surfaced paper.
Diluents for oil pastels
Turpentine and white (mineral) spirit dissolve oil pastel and can be used for blending colours and obtaining painterly surface effects. Your initial drawing can be modified using a brush which has been dipped in a diluent and worked over the surface.
Simon Jennings
Upstream Greenwich
Oil pastel and graphite pencil on paper
41 × 57.5cm (16½ × 23in)
Oil pastels work particularly well in combination with other media. Here, the artist emphasized the sky and the dramatic sweep of the river with lines and flecks of oil pastel, which were then blended with turpentine. The details of the buildings in the foreground were added with graphite pencil, which glides over an oil pastel ground.
Simon Jennings
Portrait of a Tulip Oil pastel on paper 58.7 × 41cm (23½ x16½in)
A painterly surface was built up in the image above by using oil painting techniques, which included blending into thick layers of colour, scraping back with a knife, blending and smudging with fingers and scratching in lines with a pointed paintbrush handle. The oil-paint shine that resulted can be seen in the surface reflection.
SEE ALSO
| CONTÉ CRAYONS | These crayons were invented by the Frenchman Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who was also responsible for inventing the modern lead pencil in the eighteenth century Made from pigment and graphite bound together with gum and a little grease, conté crayons are similar to pastels in their consistency and appearance, but are slightly harder and oilier. They are available in pencil form, and in the original form of square-section sticks about 75mm (3in) long. |
Types and colours
Conté crayons are similar in effect to charcoal, but because they are harder they can be used for rendering fine lines as well as broad tonal areas. Although conté crayons are now available in a wide range of colours, many artists still favour the restrained harmony of the traditional combination of black, white, grey and earth colours – sepia, sanguine (terracotta red) and bistre (cool brown). These colours impart a unique warmth and softness to a drawing, and are particularly appropriate to portraits and nude figure studies. The traditional colours also lend to drawings an antique look, reminiscent of the chalk drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens or Claude.
Fine and broad strokes
Modern, pencil-form colours
As with pastels, the most practical method of using conté crayons is to snap off small pieces about 25mm (1in) long. This way, you can rapidly block in tonal areas with the side of the stick and use a sharp corner at the end for drawing expressive lines.
Blending conté
Snap off small pieces
Conté is soft enough to blend colours by rubbing them together with a finger, a soft rag or a paper stump. However, because they are less powdery than chalk and charcoal, conté colours can be mixed by laying one colour over another, so that the colours beneath show through.
Conté work
Blending by laying and rubbing colours
Like pastels, conté crayons are used to their best advantage on tinted paper with a textured surface, which brings out the distinctive qualities of the marks.
John Raynes
Portrait of a Girl Coloured and white conté crayon on tinted paper 51 × 34cm (20½ × 13½in)
John Raynes uses white conté skilfully to capture crisp highlights on his model’s white shirt.
Victor Ambrus
Dorothy’s Dog Lalla Black conté crayon, on paper 76 × 56.5cm (30 × 22¼in)