Oil Pastels

[Wargoul]

earlier this semester we did a drawing of a pear and an apple using oil pastels in my art class. i never really used them before but i throught they were wicked fun. my mom recently found an old box of oil pastels of mine and i thought i should get to using them...

i was wondering what kinda stuff i should check out for inspiration or to better an understanding of how theyre used. once i get my picture back ill post it...

[ArlandoBattle]

Search around for Mentler I think he uses oil pastels/soft pastels in some of his figure drawings. It doesnt really matter how you use them as long as they look tolerable; oh ya and they can take up to seven year to completel dry ;x (atlaeast thats what my art teacher told me )

[dbclemons]

There aren't many books out there on the medium. These pastels are made of wax and a non-drying oil that keeps them from ever drying out; although, the wax will harden somewhat over time. Caran d'arche and Sennelier make the the ones I like. You can use solvents or oils to manipulate them a little. In fact, I like to sometimes draw them on a surface prepared with a oil medium first. The wax content makes them useful for resist techniques. Don't use oil paint on top of them, since again that bottom layer never dries. They're very handy for sketching outdoors, so you're not caring around wet paint. Not very easy to do small details with them though. I recommend using a paper that has been poperly sized. Unsized paper can be damaged over time by their oil content. Oil Bars are similar to the pastels but have a drying oil in them, that makes them more like paint, and can be mixed with paint.