Little Copper Watering Can

 

 

I finally got a chance to try out my new oil pastels by entering the Daily Paint Works "Copper Challenge." I decided to do a small still life with a small copper watering can. I almost gave up--oil pastels are difficult enough, but the copper was even harder. But I persisted and I think the can came out looking like copper. Not sure about the perspective and flower though.

September Seascape

I did the small seascape again slightly larger on oil pastel paper, the smoother side. I was determined that I was going to learn how to use oil pastels in a more realistic style. I watched a few demonstrations on oil pastel on YouTube and then tried again. I think I learned a few things in the attempt. I used Cray Pas Expressionist, Mungyo and Sennelier oil pastels. The Expressionist and Mungyo sets have a nice selection of colors, but they aren't as easy to blend as the Sennelier; of course the Sennelier are more expensive. The secret to getting a smooth painting is blending. I tried a paper blender, paper towel wadded up, a Q-Tip, and my finger. Using my finger works best for me, but I used a latex glove so I didn't have to worry about absorbing any chemicals that way. I also learned that oil pastels do dry some so if you want to go back and do white highlights, it's best to wait a few hours or overnight to do that. I may have gotten too much green in the foreground.  Since I only have twenty-four colors in the Sennelier set I was limited in my choice of blues and greens. I will need to get more of those if I want to do more oil pastels. Not sure about that yet. My inspiration is an oil pastel painter who does animals very realistically. Her web site is petsinpastels.com and her name is Sarah Theophillus (not sure of the spelling). I also like the seascapes of Oriana Kacicek on the Daily Paintworks website, but her paintings are done in oils. I forgot to mention that I did some underpainting with watercolor, but most of that got covered up anyway.

ACEO Seascape

 

Here's a small ACEO to add to my vacation journal. It's a seascape done in oil pastel on a canvas textured paper from an assorted pack of artist trading cards by Strathmore. It's not from the same batch of vacation pictures as Beach Ballerina. It's from this September's trip to Florida. I think I'm going to have to combine photos for the journal from both trips since I didn't get very many photos this time. (I spent too much time and energy trying to keep up with my sons and their offspring at Disney World. If I stopped to take pictures, I'd get lost.) I really like the blending feel of oil pastels, but they are hard for me to control. I couldn't get the white very white if I tried to go over a darker area. I think, if I try this again in a larger size, I would leave areas where I want to put white, sort of like watercolor. I think acrylic paper would work too. The canvas and acrylic paper have a plastic type coating that lets the oil pastels blend without being absorbed into the paper. I haven't figured out how to put this in the journal since it can get smeared. I would have to find something that wouldn't stick either, like waxed paper.

Grandma's Vase with Tulip, Oil Pastel 7x9

I'm still playing around with oil pastel to see what I can get it to do. I'd really like to get it to look like regular oil paints. (I should probably give up and just use oils, but I don't like the smell.) It's painted on tinted watercolor paper with a coat of Art Spectrum Colourfix primer, clear. I think if I used a smoother paper it would look more like an oil painting, but I sort of like the effect of the texture of the paper that shows through in the background. I might enter this in the Color Challenge of Daily Paintworks if I can figure out if it qualifies for one of the color schemes. That was the original intent when I started, but where is brown on the color wheel?