Wax pencils and oil pastels. Oil pastels: use

Oil pastel

Oil pastel

Graphic material produced in the form of colored bars of round or square shape or pencils, with a so-called pastel core. Another name for pastel bars is pastel crayons. There are three types of pastels in stores - oil pastels, dry pastels and wax pastels. This article will focus specifically on the oil form. Before buy oil pastels for the first time, you need to understand how it differs from other types and why it is right for you.

These pastels are made by pressing pigment and oil, usually linseed or other mineral oil. More often oil pastel intended for beginners, but experienced artists also love it.

Benefits of oil pastels

- Drawing with oil pastels will be nice for those who love bright and rich colors, since dry pastel is more matte.

Unlike dry pastels, oil pastels make it possible to store finished works without using a fixative (paint fixative)

Brightness of colors and freshness of tone

The ability to shade creates a wide range of possibilities: from creating a drawing to painting

Oil pastel price varies - there are high-quality but inexpensive options piece by piece And in sets. Such options exist, for example, in Sonnet, Koh-i-noor and Mungyo. The famous Sennelier pastels are more expensive and are positioned as professional. The oil pastels in the set are a good start for those who want to try pastel painting and immediately have a ready-made set of basic colors. Pastels are sold in sets for 12, 24, 36 colors. There are also more expanded palettes of 74 and 120 colors.

What to draw on with oil pastels

Pastels can be used to paint on textured paper, sandpaper, velvet or watercolor paper, as well as on a pastel board made from cork.

The surface of pastel paper should be textured, since pastel is not absorbed into its surface and, accordingly, should be fixed in “cells” on the surface of the paper. This requirement applies to pastels in general, and not just to the oil type. Another requirement for pastel paper is its density. It is desirable that it starts from 160 g/sq.m. But there is pastel paper with a density of 100 and 130 g/sq.m. For pastels, you need fairly thick and durable paper that will be resistant to mechanical stress, since the technique of drawing with pastels involves constant friction of the sheet, both at the stage of drawing and shading and adjusting the image.

The surface on which the drawing or painting is created, its color, also have an impact on what the drawing will be like. For example, velvet paper gives a natural “blur” and softness of the image. The color of the surface affects the advantage of color, the transfer of shades and the overall effect of the design. That's why many artists tint pastel paper with coffee or tea to create browns and grays that make bright colors pop. Or they buy it right away colored paper for pastels.

Pastel is a compromise between graphics and painting. Depending on what you want to see on finished work it also becomes paint or a graphic tool. Degas, Levitan, Delacroix, Serov, Kustodiev painted with pastels. Try it too! Discover bright, easy-to-use material!

Pastel is considered one of the oldest materials used for creativity. Degas, Renoir, Leonardo da Vinci and other artists wrote their works with it. Pastel can be used as an independent means of depiction or as an auxiliary material in other techniques. The latter includes modeling from polymer clay and decoupage. Pastel stands out alive, bright colors, as well as a velvety structure.

Pastel is made from a coloring pigment and a special binder. The latter can be wax, mineral oils or gum arabic. In stores you can buy pastels in the form of rimless pencils or colored crayons. There are currently three types of pastels: dry, watercolor and oil. We will look in more detail at oil pastels, as well as ways to use them in drawing.

Oil pastels are similar to wax crayons, which are quite soft. In addition, the colors are highly saturated. Pastel crayons today are produced in the form of small bars with a round or square section. They differ from wax ones by the presence of many pigments, high elasticity and resilience. It is worth noting that oil pastels hardly get dirty; after applying it to the surface of the sheet, there is no need for auxiliary fixation in the form of varnish.

If you know how to paint with oil pastels for beginners, then you know that almost any surface is suitable for painting with such paint. The main advantages of this product include its good ability to blur. To do this, the artist needs to have a special solvent for oil paints, as well as a shading tool - a special stick made of pressed paper. The latter is dipped in a solvent and then washed out to obtain the desired shade. Painting with solvent must be done in a room that is properly ventilated.


The texture of oil pastels makes it possible to create effects that are simply impossible to achieve with other drawing techniques. Oil pastels are often used for various decorative paintings. The technique of its application allows you to convey the deep and rich tones of the depicted object. Various artistic drawings It is recommended to store designs made in this way in frames and under glass, and there must be a small gap between the design and the glass. This is necessary to preserve the image, since drawings made in pastels are highly susceptible to minor damage, shedding, and are easily erased.

Oil pastels require a rough base, as they do not adhere well to the surface. This technique requires special paper, for example, sandpaper, suede, canvas, loose fleecy cardboard, parchment or torchon paper. The advantages of the material in question include the ability to remove and cover several layers at the same time.

Oil pastels today are represented by many shades, of which there are over one and a half thousand. Such diversity makes it possible to implement virtually any creative ideas V different genres. The pastel technique has done quite a job long haul from the usual three-color drawing to real painting, which became especially popular during the Baroque period, and is now preferred by the impressionists.

Today, oil pastels are made in stick form from pigments, a pure synthetic binder and mineral wax. The pigments are crushed with an inert binding dryer, so it does not oxidize and has no effect on the stability of the painting, drawing, still life or landscape.

The oil pastel base is mixed with wax - which provides a unique oiliness and paste-like texture.

Types of pencils

Main types:

Dry

There are three main types - dry pastel, which uses gum arabic and tragacanth, water-soluble and fat and soft oil. Dry pastels include;

Soft

Soft Crayons – Sticks contain a high proportion of pigment and little binder, resulting in brighter colors. When working with a landscape or still life, mixing occurs by rubbing into the surface.

How to draw a painting by Claude Monet still life with sunflowers

Solid

Hard crayons have a significant amount of binder and little pigment, so they are used for small details, sketches in a painting, drawing.

Leaded pastel pencils are useful for beginners in attaching small parts.
Water-soluble pastels belong to a special category, similar to the soft subtype, but contain a water-soluble component - glycol. This allows you to change color in still lifes and landscapes using water.

Properties

Oil pastels are distinguished by their soft consistency and intense oily palette. They are used in painting and graphics, where the medium has characteristics similar to pastel:

Unlike "soft" or "Japanese" pastel sticks, which are made with methylcellulose, oil crayons consist of pigment mixed with a non-drying oil and wax binder.

Paintings and drawings have a less powdery surface, but are difficult to protect with fixing agents.

Sanguina drawing with red crayons

Oil pastels provide a harder edge than "soft" or "French" crayons, are difficult to mix, but are diluted with solvents and do not require a fixer.

Wax and inert oils are used as a binder - as a result, paintings and drawings do not turn yellow and have excellent adhesion to paper, cardboard, plywood and other materials.

They are completely acid free and never harden or crack.

Oil crayons can be used on any paper, rigid support (wood, hardboard, metal, MDF, glass) or canvas - without technical restrictions, which provides the artist with complete freedom of expression while maintaining stability during storage.

How to draw correctly

In painting, oil pastels help create unique color in still lifes or landscapes. Many artists prefer to use them together with other paints. Oil chalks are similar to traditional dry chalks. Strokes can be layered, applied in stages, as with soft crayons, but only to a certain extent. If too much material is applied to a painting or drawing, the colors may become dull.

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The technique for working with oil crayons is similar to colored pencils:

• Creating underpainting for beginners helps highlight the free zone and zones of local colors.
• Multi-layered layers to achieve depth and shade.
• Slowly adding strokes in stages will not spoil the shade.
• Cleaning up the edges of the background to define the edges of the imaged subject, the background.

Universal oil pastels adhere well to the surface of the painting. They respond to a wide variety of methods - from direct drawing to special painting techniques. They are rubbed in, used on a colorless base, washed with turpentine, and some areas are scraped off. They have a vegetable, mineral or synthetic base oil, rather than linseed, as in oil paints, so they do not require a primed painting surface.

Gouache painting technique

Combination with paint

Easy to combine oil paints and oil pastels in one painting, still lifes, but the paint should be the first layer. This is because oil pastels never really dry and always remain pasty, so a layer of oil paint on top of the pastel will be unstable.

An exception to the rule “paint with the first layer of paint” is if a sketch is made with pastels. The colors are bright or translucent, depending on the technique used to work with them.

Drying

Do not dry out by oxidation when exposed to air. Instead, they harden over time. Thin strokes in a painting dry quickly, but for heavier layers the process takes several months.

Surfaces

Almost any surface - canvas, wood panels, sheets of metal, watercolor paper, sanded paper surfaces or any other on which you can experiment step by step.

Dry brush technique in painting

Consolidation of work

A pre-made base of vinyl resin and alcohol creates a completely clear seal layer and leaves a clear film to protect the surface from dust and smudges. Several incremental coats increase shine but require sufficient drying time to avoid stickiness. The synthetic resin starter protector is suitable as a final or working sealer and has excellent oil adhesion. Multi-layer protector maintains satin texture.

In painting

Oil pastel is a relatively new technique in painting:

• It was not until 1921 that it was developed by the artist and theorist Yamamoto.
• In 1947, artists Henri Goetz and Pablo Picasso proposed the idea of ​​developing a professional version of oil pastel.
• In 1949, the first professional oil pastels appeared with a brilliant color palette.
• The unusually wide range of shades of gray were specifically chosen by Picasso.

Oil Pastel is relatively new artistic medium, given the fact that traditional painting materials have existed and been used for centuries.

In 1921, two Yamomoto half-brothers, one an artist and the other a theorist, developed high-quality crayons that contained the softness and smoothness of paints, but at the same time the texture and appearance corresponded to traditional pastels. For some time they worked on improving the formulation of crayons at the Sakura Cryon company, where after a while the Cray-Pas brand was “born”.

The final recipe appeared in 1927, and was positioned new material only for children's creativity. In 1947, artists Henry Goetz and Pablo Picasso approached Henry Sennelier with the idea of ​​creating a professional version of this children's product.

Picasso formulated his wishes something like this: “I want a colored pastel that I could use on any surface: wood, paper, canvas, metal, etc. without any preparation of the foundation." Henry Goetz wanted a pastel that could be used for underpainting oil painting. His request to Sennelier was as follows: “Pastel is most similar to a painting technique. This tool (chalk), unlike a brush, palette knife and palette, does not stand between the artist and his idea.”

Two years later, in 1949, at the instigation of two artists, Sennelier invented the first professional oil pastel. It had a creamy consistency and rich colors. An unusually wide palette of shades of gray was developed specifically for Picasso. Later an assortment of crayons with decorative effects- iridescent and metallic - was complemented by fluorescent colors. Sennelier was the first to produce large-sized crayons. The latest addition to the crayons' range of sizes is the Le Grande pastel, which comes in the same color palette, as standard size crayons. Years later, other companies began to produce oil pastels. The first oil pastel from the Caran d’Ache company appeared in 1981. In the early 80s, Holbein introduced two series of oil pastels to the market: student quality and professional. Then the companies Talens and Grumbacher mastered the production of oil pastels.

Oil pastels contain wax. Inert oils are used as a binder, due to which the paint layer does not turn yellow and acquires very good adhesion. All oil pastels are acid free. Oil pastel applied to the base does not harden, maintaining the flexibility of the paint layer, and, therefore, is not subject to cracking. What is the difference between oil pastels, soft pastels, hard pastels, oil bars and oil sticks? All of these materials are made from the same pigments that are used in the production of oil paints.

The difference is in the binder and the shape of the chalk. In addition to pigment, oil pastels contain wax and mineral oils. Soft and hard pastels have the same composition, the only difference is the hardness. Soft pastels are mixed with pigments and resin. Oil sticks and Oil bars are actually oil paints that contain pigments and linseed oil, coupled with a drying accelerator. Oil pastels can be used using the impasto technique. When working with oil pastels, mediums traditional for oil painting can be used, such as turpentine, mineral spirits and gloss additives, as well as non-water-based acrylic mediums. You can work with oil pastels on any substrate: paper, cardboard and canvas, as well as metal and glass.

The paste of this artistic material can be taken with a brush dipped in turpentine, white spirit, linseed oil or other oils and thinners. Oil pastels have a hard texture, but due to the presence of wax and oil in the composition, it never dries completely. Therefore, finished works need framed frames with glass. Some artists coat the finished work with acrylic varnish, then a film appears on the surface, which helps protect the paint layer. Varnished pastel painting You can even clean it from dust, although very carefully with a soft, dry cloth. Oil pastel is a material that gives artists complete freedom to express feelings and guarantees the safety of their works.

Some artists recommend using oil pastels when painting their textile toys. In several stores I asked what kind of animal this was, and could not find out. Today, in one store I came across several boxes of this pastel, and asked the seller to look. It looked like wax crayons. I just have them. I prime my dolls' eyes with them before painting them. I decided to look on the Internet to see what the difference is, here’s the article I found:

"Pencil and Brush". Oil pastels and wax pencils. Compare and draw.

Hello, dear mothers. The May holidays have passed. We returned from Yekaterinburg, where we relaxed, walked, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The little boys played with their cousins, of whom they have many. Everyone just had a great time. Now you can work with new strength.

Today I will talk about wonderful materials: oil pastels and wax crayons. What is this? Above is the work of my eldest son, made as a gift to his beloved aunt, it was her birthday yesterday. The drawing was made with Indian oil pastels.
You may have read my previous articles about art materials: “Buy for children good watercolor", "Watercolor and Gouache - comparing. How to work" And “About pastels, or “dry painting” with soft colored chalks”. And now it's the wax's turn.
I think everyone is familiar with wax pencils (crayons). We drew with them more than once with the children. But what is oil pastel, how are they similar, and how does it differ from dry (soft) pastel, do you know? Why didn’t I write about her next to dry pastels?
1.Pastel- these are multi-colored crayons, composition: colored pigments, chalk and binders. The word pastel ( pastello) from Italian pasta- dough or paste.
Pastel is a drawing material and technique. Pastel combines the possibilities of painting and drawing.
Let's compare what these different pastels represent.
Types of pastels:

• Dry pastel(soft pastel) - has a fairly wide range of colors, consisting of approximately 110 shades, mixes well with each other. Has a velvety effect.
• Oil pastel- made from wax and mineral oil with the addition of pigments. Unlike dry pastels, traces from oil pastels are more intense and bright.
• Wax pastel- the main component is wax with the addition of the same pigments, it has good color fastness, the strokes are bright and intense

That is, you already understand that oil and wax pastels differ from dry pastels in composition - the presence of wax.
Wax, particularly colored beeswax, has been used as a painting medium since ancient times. Subsequently, the Romans adopted it from the Greeks for portraiture.
2.Wax pencils (crayons)- composition: natural or synthetic wax + colored pigments
Wax pencils leave bright strokes and are suitable for working in various techniques.

What is the difference between oil pastels and wax crayons? By the way, I'm talking about good crayons. It seems to contain wax everywhere. Here is a photo for comparison. You see that visually there is no difference. But if you rub it with your finger, wax crayons do not get dirty, but oil pastels do. Moreover, the softer it is, the more dirty it gets. But soft ones are much more interesting to draw, write and create effects.
Oil pastels are soft and bright. Although good wax crayons are also quite soft. And recently we were given Indian oil pastels. I really liked her. It is even softer and brighter, but gets even more dirty. The box of this pastel is in the photo. Highly recommend. And there are cheap wax crayons lying around - they are of poor quality and scratch.
Difference between wax materials:

• Wax crayons are harder and hardly smear.
• Oil pastels can be rubbed (smeared) with your finger or something else.
• And Indian oil pastels are generally very soft, very similar to dry pastels, only much greasier - they smear and rub well, and of course, get dirty more.

Properties of oil pastels and wax crayons:

• Fast and easy to use
• Rich, bright, ragged trace
• Almost does not get dirty, compared to dry pastel
• It smears less too
• Failure to fix
• Doesn't wash well
• Cannot be washed off with water

As you understand all this - greasy wax crayons that do not wash off leave a rather thick mark. At the same time bright, juicy. Of course, this is an excellent material for creativity. From the “easy” series. The child and mother take pencils and immediately draw. It turns out bright and beautiful. Any paper is suitable: smooth and rough, thin and thick, cardboard - whatever. It is also great for painting on walls and various objects and surfaces.
It seems that everything is known, buy, take and draw. But... often the result is not very good, although this is not due to the creator of the picture, but because of the quality of the materials. We have a set of cheap wax crayons at home - they scratch, scratch - not work, but torture. Therefore, when buying wax crayons for your child, pay attention to the quality, try to draw on some piece of paper. Does it write smoothly or get stuck? Vivid color or barely visible? Well, so far I’ve only come across good oil pastels. But it doesn’t hurt to check before purchasing.

How to paint with wax materials? And also like dry pastel: you can work with the tip, end or side of the chalk - you get different marks. Wax strokes are rubbed with fingers and soft swabs. You can use it to draw and write, to work with strokes or a painterly spot.
Wax pencil and oil pastel - cool and very painting material for quick sketches and sketches.
Interesting effect It will work if you go over the wax with watercolors or gouache - only those places where there is no wax trace on the paper will be painted. It will already be mixed media . It is often used in children's works.
Tip #1. To sharpen a wax pencil, dip it in hot water, then roll it between your fingers. Or sharpen with a paring knife.
What else can you do with wax materials:

• You can make a two-color wax pencil by removing the paper wrappings from two pencils, melting one side of each over a candle flame, and molding them together. And if you want a multi-lead pencil, secure three or four pencils with an elastic band.
• You can melt old wax pencils and pour them into molds to make pencils for kids.

You ask, Is it possible to mix dry pastels, regular (slate) pencils and oil pastels or wax crayons in one drawing? After all, sometimes you want to. Opinions vary, it's up to you to choose. They don't seem to suit each other at all. But... in creativity everything is possible and has the right to be realized. Therefore...
Tip #2. If you decide to mix these materials in one work, then the order is as follows: this is important! First pastel, then regular pencils, and on top of everything wax or oil pastels. Since working with ordinary pencils or pastels on top of wax ones will not work physically (you can try :)) Firstly, they don’t draw on top of wax, and secondly, if you fill the lead or pastel with wax, you won’t be able to write. By the way, ordinary lead pencils also leave a fairly smooth mark, so they draw with dry pastels first. Otherwise, the pencil mark will show through the pastel.
Tip #3. How to erase wax crayons from wallpaper?! - Finally, advice from moms. I haven’t tried it; my son hasn’t decorated new wallpaper with wax pencils yet. Although, of course, on the wallpaper - this is creativity that has a right to exist.
Moms advise how to erase wax crayons from wallpaper:

• eraser from a piece white bread
• try softening the pattern with a hair dryer and then erase with toilet paper
• cover the design with paper and run an iron over it
• cover the place blank slate paper and roll with something hard (a rolling pin)
• melamine sponge

Melamine sponge is a white sponge, it is certain type soft plastic. Like an eraser for dirt. They say it's a magical remedy. Just lightly moisten a sponge from a spray bottle and rub it over the dirt and it will be erased. Removes marks from markers, felt-tip pens, pens; black marks from shoes and bicycle tires on the linoleum; limescale, yellow deposits in the refrigerator; a plastic window sill from old brown stains of dried water from under bowls with flowers; tiles, bath, sink and this without other means - just a sponge; stainless steel hood, microwave to new condition. However, you should not touch polished surfaces with it. Try it on an inconspicuous area first. It quickly wears out and crumbles. It is advised to divide it in half, and for a small area just tear off a piece.
Perhaps I’ll buy us such a sponge, it will come in handy. This eldest son is quiet and calm with us, and the youngest, it seems, will be a storm of wallpaper and everything that his paws can reach. Such a smart guy. We need to prepare in advance.
This is what I wanted to tell you about wax materials: pastels and pencils. Of course, children really like these crayons. They are very convenient, easy and practical to use. I recommend!