Experiments in Oil Pastel

...and the jury is still out

In May, so far, I’ve been doing some sketchbook drawings using oil pastel. I was thinking it would be a good exercise that would feed into my renewed practice of oil painting - a quick way of sketching ideas, experimenting with color, leaving detail aside because the thick sticks make it impossible to fuss over anything or make small marks. All of these drawings are in a fairly large (11” x 14”) Canson sketchbook, and they’re approximately 9 inches wide.

I like:

• the sketchiness

• the irregular edges

• the feel of the medium: the pigment is heavy-bodied, you can blend it with your fingers, and build it up in layers

I don’t like:

• the limited color selection - I have two sets of 24 colors each, but the selection they give you is all too close in value

• the expense - Sennelier oil pastels cost CD$5.99/stick

• feeling like the results don’t suit my style or show my abilities to best advantage

This one, which appeared in a previous post, is perhaps the most successful, because it’s the simplest. It’s also hard to photograph these pages, for some reason - the photos lose a lot of luminosity and subtlety of the originals.

These details are more accurate and you can see how oil-like the surface is.

I’m not giving up, but not entirely convinced either. Oddly enough, I’ve always loved working in dry pastels, where I have a huge color selection and the pigments are easily blended and layered. There’s also more control — but I’m deliberately trying to give away some of that control here.

Maybe I’m pushing the medium to do landscapes like this, at this size. But the expense of the oil pastel sticks discourages me from working larger. Why not just use big brushes and oil paint on prepared board or gessoed card? Or even a mixed media approach?

What I’ve found is that each of us needs to find the media, the specific types of paper or canvas, and the tools that suit us and that we love using. It’s worth fighting with your tools sometimes — to shake up your technique, get out of a rut, push yourself to try new things and learn from them. But if it’s not satisfying, or doesn’t feel right after a while, then it’s better to use your time with the media and materials that feel natural and satisfying under your hands.