Tag: country road

Today I decided to do some oil pastels. This is my second – no, third – painting in the medium. The cat and mandarin were on Strathmore 300 watercolor paper; this is on an 8×8 cotton canvas panel, the kind used for oils or acrylics. I read you could use oil pastels on nearly any kind of surface, so I grabbed this just to try it out.

To tell the truth, oil pastels are fun to use, but they are also tricky. Blending colors makes sense – layer this with that to make thus – but the blending itself is a rather creative experience. I used stumps (tortillons) for the most part, but toward the end I used my finger tips. Also, I found out that if I put on too many layers, eventually the newer layers pull off the underlying colors. While this could work for some desired effect, it was problematic in other ways. Live and learn, right?

I scanned this canvas on my Epson V600 (one of my best purchases!) as photographing paintings is time consuming, tedious, and usually worthless the way I do it. Two scans were needed, and in between I had to wipe of the glass platen to remove little oil pastel bits. Apparently oil pastels never really dry out, but you can apply a finishing spray to them. Sennelier makes one, which I bought along with my pastels, which I will try probably next week.