Oil Pastel Primer
By Ann Tucker
WORKING ON PANELS – FRAMING WITHOUT GLASS
(April 2006)
by Marilynn Brandenburger
Full Moon – 18 x 18, oil pastel over gouache and Claybord Smooth primed with Colourfix
I have been researching the use of panels as a viable support for oil pastel for the past year. Here's the formula for a finishing treatment I am using successfully on my own oil pastel paintings:
What you will need:
- Support: Ampersand's Claybord Smooth
- Surface: 4 thin coats of Art Spectrum's Colourfix
primer. (You can thin with water) This will adhere beautifully to the Claybord
and provide a really nice tooth for the oil pastel.
- Fixative: Sennelier's fixative for Oil Pastels
(See the Oil Pastel Primer article on using fixatives.)
- Varnish: Golden's Archival Varnish #7736-X (Mineral Spirit Acrylic
Aerosol with UVLS) This comes in satin, matte and gloss finishes.
I’ve probably tested about 20 different surfaces — all the panels Ampersand makes, gessoed plywood, hardboard, MultiMedia Artboard, regular canvas in a variety of surfaces, watercolor canvas, etc. I’ll share this info in future articles.
I settled on Claybord Smooth because it has such a silken
surface, and on some of my pieces I like to show that surface as a white border.
I tape off a 3/4” border, then lay down the Colourfix inside the border. I
like the Colourfix, because it has the finest tooth I’ve found. I’ve tried
Liquitex’s Fine Pumice Gel and Golden’s Acrylic Ground for Pastels, too. They
work OK, but they’re a little too rough for my taste.
Susan Bennerstrom is working on different combinations of fix and varnish, too,
so maybe I’ll have some more to report after taking her workshop later this
month.
Twilight, Tobin Harbor – 24x30, oil pastel over acrylic, on Claybord Textured panel
To create your panels:
Prepare the Claybord panel by brushing on the Colourfix.
I’ve tried both a brush and a sponge applicator. A bristle brush will leave
brush-marks; a sponge is a little smoother, so I use a sponge brush. I may try
a sponge roller one of these days, though, because I’d really like to get the
same surface as Colourfix paper, but haven’t been able to yet. I intend to
contact the Colourfix people about this and ask them how to get that beautiful
surface of their papers.
Use your oil pastels directly on the Colourfix or under-paint with
acrylic and then add the oil pastel.
After you finish the painting, let it "gas off" and dry for 4 to 6 weeks.
After the drying stage, fix the oil pastel by applying 4 light coats of the Sennelier fixative for oil pastel, allowing the painting to dry thoroughly between each coat. After the fixative layer is thoroughly dry, spray the painting again, with 4 coats of the Golden varnish, letting the painting dry thoroughly between each coat of varnish.
This varnish is a new product from Golden and they really
test their stuff and stand by it and I trust them when they say it will not
yellow. It’s an acrylic, so I wouldn’t expect it to yellow.
Frame like an oil painting.....without glass!
Warning: This finish is still experimental. However, my research -- with fellow
oil pastelists and with the Golden company -- convinced me that the Golden
varnish is compatible with both the Sennelier fixative and the oil pastels. I
have been using it for all my recent work and I am quite happy with the results.
I’ll be sharing more of my research on panels in upcoming newsletters.
The Part Harmony – 18x12, oil pastel over acrylic on Claybord Textured panel
Melting Some New Colors (March 2006)
by Wendy Manning
I wanted some paler colors, so I picked up some extra Holbein whites and went on a bit of a mixing spree. Thought you might like to see.
1. Put pieces in a foil-wrapped gravy
ladle, in a foil-lined saucepan
2. Melted them together, stirred with a disposable chopstick
3. Poured into a foil mold in an old cheapo softies box
4. Four new colors, lumpy shapes but they work fine
The colors mixed easily, and I
didn't notice any smell. They were all Holbeins. I have done this with my
Specialists, too, to get some rich dark greens. I haven't mixed brands.
The heat source was the electric stove. I had the burner on medium and
watched it pretty closely. It took 5 min or so for them to melt, and
I did one at a time. This was my second go- first try was also successful, with
dark Cray-Pas Specialists.
They hardened very quickly, in minutes. I took them out of the molds within half an hour, left them overnight but probably could have used them right away.
Holbeins are quite uniform in consistency and hardness, as are Specialists. I do not know how well Sennelliers would work... there is such a variety of consistency and hardness with them.
After discussing this, Carly Clements tried melting some new colors. Here is her experience.
I picked up was some large 'soft crayons' in a roll up stick that looks like a big fat lipstick tube. I rolled the crayon up and took it out of the tube.
I melted a white Specialist with
a bit of opera pink in the foil. It was the consistency of creamy whipped cream
so it didn't pour really well but I scooped it into the tube with a plastic
spoon.
You're right about the drying....it dries almost too fast! I can roll the new
stick up out of the tube but I decided to wait an hour or so before taking it
out to see how it works but the color is really nice....a pale clear pink! I've
needed that for my sky colors but didn't have one light enough in value. Hope
this one works!!
One thing I learned when putting the softened oil pastel into the tube, you have
to bump it on the table each time to make it all settle to the bottom.
Please be careful with any heat around oil pastels!!
Dry Brush Blending (January 2006)
Majestic
A client asked me to do a painting that is very soft, kind of foggy and loose. Since none of these could be found in my current style of painting. I had to discover a different style of painting.
“Majestic” is one of several paintings I developed to present to this client.
I’ve done a demo of the Dry Brush Technique with the painting House in the Fog.
House
in the Fog
My supplies include a paper that can withstand some abuse. I used Art Spectrum. I used Sennelier oil pastels and 2 sizes of hard bristle brushes. I also needed a rag to wipe the brush on to keep it clean.
I work my colors in layers. Putting some color down then wiping hard with the brush to eliminate the marks and blend the color. This is done by rubbing the brush in many directions.
To give the haze of the fog that I wanted in this house painting, after I had the major shapes where I wanted them, I began adding white. (White on top was not used on Majestic.)
The main thing to remember in this technique is to build up layers and keep blending (often rubbing hard) with the brush to soften all edges.
PROTECTING THE FINISHED OIL PASTEL PAINTING (July 2005)
Painting by Becky McConnell
An issue that most Oil Pastelists think about early in their exploration of the Oil Pastel is: What to do when the piece is finished.
Does it need to be protected?
Should it be varnished?
The answer to whether or not the painting needs protection is a very emphatic YES!
Unfortunately, that is the last easy answer on the subject.
There are a variety of ways to protect your oil pastel work. Each of those methods has plenty of people who love it, and people who have had horrible, disastrous experiences and would never try it again.
I will discuss four methods of protecting oil pastel work:
1. framing under glass,
2. protective paper,
3. acrylic gel medium and
4. spray fixative.
A truly safe way to protect your painting is to put it under a mat and glass (or acrylic). If you put your oil pastel work under glass, you need a way of spacing it off of the glass to prevent the glass from sticking to the work or pushing the oil pastel around. A mat is used as a spacer. Another way to get that needed space is a product by Frametek that holds the glass up off the surface of the artwork. This is a strip that fits around the edge of the glass. Since both glass and acrylic panels can come in slightly carrying thickness, this methods sometimes works nicely and other times it can be a problem to make it stay in place while you are trying to assemble everything into the frame. Once framed, the Frametek spacer does not move and is a nice way to keep the size of the frame down.
Whether using a mat or spacer, framing has two disadvantages for me. One, it gets expensive. Two, if I framed every oil pastel piece I worked on, I would run out of storage space. So I use framing only on special pieces.
For unfinished pieces or pieces that I’m not fond of but don’t want to throw away, I wrap the painting with protective paper and tape the paper to the back of the painting. I also use this method if I need to transport a painting. Protective paper is any non-stick paper. I use Freezer Paper which is a paper with plastic on one side and found in the grocery store with the other types of food wrap. Other artists use wax paper or glasseine.
I have had both good and bad experiences with acrylic gel medium. The bad experience I had with it was when I tried to put more pastel over a painting coated with the AGM. When I rubbed on the pastel stick, the coating rubbed off as if it were Rubber Cement and took some layers of pigment with it. The artwork could not be saved. And yet I still use this on some paintings. Why? Because I find that AGM is good where I need protection from dust and any light accidental touch.
Another method of protecting oil pastel paintings is with a spray fixative. Sennelier puts out a spray fixative made especially for oil pastels. Member Rebecca McConnell, Texas, USA, has been using this product.
Here is what Becky has to say about it:
I've been using the Sennelier Oil Pastel spray fixative about a year, as long as I've been using Oil Pastels. I use it on everything that I want to preserve and have framed a couple of paintings without glass, using just the fixative. Both of these were egg tempera with Oil Pastel on RealGesso panels.
As far as using the Sennelier fixative, I'm very careful to ensure that the nozzle is clear before I apply it to my painting, usually testing it on paper, especially if it's been awhile since I've "fixed" anything. I'll usually spray several pieces at a time, making sure that I get even smooth coverage. To clear the nozzle, I've done all the usual tricks - warm water on the nozzle, spraying upside down a few squirts after I'm through fixing so that nothing remains in the nozzle, etc. If I use water, I'm careful to get all the water off, before use the fixative. I didn't find any instructions on doing these things, but I'm concerned about pooling on my paintings, especially if I haven't used the spray in several weeks.
It
does leave a very shiny finish to your painting and I would not use it on
anything other than Sennelier Oil Pastels, without being very careful to test
thoroughly on any other brands. I think ideally one should varnish over the
fixative, but I have yet to test that out. I fix everything that I want to save,
as I'm too disorganized to mess with glasseine or waxed paper!
I would use this product with caution, until one is very comfortable, as I have
heard some unfavorable comments. This has not been my experience, however.
Becky has examples of an Oil Pastel without fixative (on the left) and with fixative (on the right). You can see the gloss finish on the “fixed” one catch the camera light.
As I said in the beginning of this article, each of these methods has people who have had good experiences with them and people who have had bad experiences with them. Because we are still exploring what we can do with oil pastels and how they can be used, there are no rules.
The best advice is to test some of these methods (and others you may have heard of) on scrap paintings. And hopefully, you will find a method that works for you.
Additional reading and resources:
FrameTek - http://www.frametek.com/HTML/Articles/pastel.html
For more discussions on protecting a finished oil pastel, go to the Oil Pastel Studio in WetCanvas.com and do a search with the key words “varnish” and “fixative”.
CHOOSING AN OIL PASTEL BRAND (June 2005)
"A Long Hot Line"
I discovered Oil Pastels a little less than a year ago. I was frustrated with the colors I got from mixing oil paints. It seemed no matter what I tried, there was some degree of muddiness to my oil paint colors. I could not get the vibrancy of the color I wanted.
One day I was rummaging through my “odd box of supplies”. (You know that box in the back corner of the closet that has the odd art supply you picked up on a whim and never got around to using.) In that box I came upon a small set of Sennelier Oil Pastels. I did a quick sketch with those pastels, and I was in love! Here was a medium that gave me the vibrancy of color I wanted. But, I wondered, how do I use them? What techniques do I need to learn? Who could I ask for guidance? Were there books on the medium?
So many questions swirled in my mind as I held those precious sticks of vibrant color. The first thing I did was a search on the computer for the words “oil pastel”. Luckily for me, one of the first websites to come up in my search was the Oil Pastel Forum on WetCanvas.com. It has been and still is my main source of information and inspiration for Oil Pastels.
"Calm Harbour"
Since such a wealth of information exists on that forum in WetCanvas.com, I thought I would occasionally put together links to threads on the forum that I’ve found informative or interesting.
WetCanvas! - Which oil pastel brand ? http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263657&highlight=canvas+varnish
WetCanvas! - Which oil pastel brand do you use ? http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204616&highlight=brand
WetCanvas! - Van Gogh and Cray Pas specialist Cretacolor oil pastels? http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220106&highlight=specialist+Cretacolor
WetCanvas! - Papers and Holbiens http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204210&highlight=papers+holbiens
WetCanvas! - Choosing a brand of OP's http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183229&highlight=choosing+brand
WetCanvas! - Beginners questions and frustrations http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245620&highlight=beginners+questions
If, after reading the threads above, you are still unsure which brand or set of Oil Pastels to buy, consider this. You could buy a few sticks of several brands from open stock and do your own experimenting. To find sources for open stock, see the Oil Pastel Society Links (http://www.oilpastelsociety.com/linkspage.htm) page.