Pigment and Fiber: White Cat in Oil Pastels

Jerry's Artarama had a sale on Sennelier oil pastels around Christmas time. Such rich oil pastels! I'd heard of them and then at an art store felt their honey-like richness, but just wasn't going to pay $2.80 per stick, so when someone told me I should give some oil pastels to try, I settled for a 48-piece Louvre set. Hmmm. Waxy and disappointing. I'm not sure how Crayola crayons layer on a paper or board, but I'm certain they go on with less wax. Anyway, the 48-piece Louvre set was significantly cheaper than the much touted Sennelier: the Louvre set, around $22 or $23, while a single Sennelier oil pastel stick is $2.80. Nope. But with Jerry's Artarama Christmas sale, thought I would take the plunge and buy the 24-piece Still Life set that was marked way down to $29.95, even $10-15 cheaper than the on-sale Portrait, Landscape and other 24-piece set.

So here's my little test drive of the oil pastels. Since this was such a large canvas for such a small set, for background I first used the Louvre set to save my precious expensive Sennelier. Then over that I applied the creamier Mungyo oil pastels, which in South Korea cost me under $10 for a set of I think 24. They are pretty creamy and apply quite smoothly with moderate build-up. (I do recommend this brand! Quite smooth and blend fairly well.) Only then, on top of the cheaper oil pastels did I start to apply the richer, even more buttery Sennelier brand.

I'm amazed at how quickly a picture can be created with this medium. The layering is fast and easy, and adjusting and disguising mistakes is a piece of cake. However, my big issue with oil pastels is .... I can't create finer detail. To finalize on a picture I want to flick out a long thin whisker or put in a specific broken moon reflection in the eye, but oil pastels are more for impressionistic painting. Fun, but my first art medium is still definitely the wildness and unpredictableness of water color!