Oil pastel artists

[Farvus]

Hey. I have one question.

I got as a present for Christmas small set of oil pastels and I already experimented with them a bit. They are really nice but to me this medium is even more distant than for example watercolors. I never got any satisfying results with it. Of course it's not something complicated and I also know that you can use turpentine to get oil painting look or smoothen it with moist fingers but maybe it would be easier if I saw some good examples. Do any of you know some artist that use this medium at it's full potential? I searched through google and found few interesting ones but it's still wandering in the dark. I wonder if there is something much better than what I've seen so far.

Thanks in advance.

[TASmith]

what brand did you get? I prefer Van Gogh. I have a couple tutorials on my DA account.

[Farvus]

I got Koh-I-Noor pastels. Thanks for the tutorials. Very helpful.

[TASmith]

I don't know about Koh-I-Noor, but I know all pastels are a mix of oil, wax, and pigment. The crappier brands are more wax than oil, and don't mix well. Rub two colors together on paper and see if they mix. That'll tell you if they're good.

I should add, Dos Santos suggested using just one stick to draw out a painting, then use terpentine and a brush over it to make a watercolor-like underpainting. Just a thought.

[Black Spot]

I used to use oil pastels a fair bit and I liked the way you had to think hard about the colours before laying them down next to each other. They lend themselves well to exaggerated colouring.

Below is a life drawing I did 30 years ago - head removed because it was crap, but I used to enjoy the limitations they placed on me.

578099

[Psypomp]

I like Cray-pas pastels. Not waxy at all, and it spreads easily. I sometimes make preliminary drawings in oil pastels right on the canvas if I'm painting in oils- they blend right in.

[Farvus]

Thanks everyone. I asked about some pastel artist links rather than how to use them but every advice is useful.

[RyerOrdStar]

Unfortunately I can't show any examples, but my old art teacher used oil pastels to great results. They looked very realistic. The problem is that most people don't know how to use them properly, not that they have limitations.

But you may be able to start here: http://www.oilpastelsociety.com/

[TASmith]

cray-pas has two types - artist and student series. The student ones are crap - they're waxy ones for little kids. They don't mix.

[Gokoi]

I think craig mullins has some pastels on his website.

Here are some examples from Horst Janssen (not 100% sure if it's oil pastels tough).

[Farvus]

Thanks for all suggestions.

I just found a good use for those oil pastels. They seem to be good for sketching some big format environments. I can work with them from general to specific where the thick lines can be smudged with paper towel and then I can draw on top with some pastel pencil to get more accurate. Of course enviros are nowdays done mostly digitally but I like to try some oldshchool techniques :).

[Psypomp]

It sounds like you got what you wanted (maybe), but I looked around for some actual artists..
I have a book called Pure Color: The Best of Pastel (http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Color-Pastel-Maureen-Bloomfield/dp/1581807643) and it has a bunch of talented artists. Here are a few..

Ron Monsma (http://ronmonsma.com/)

Chris Rush (http://www.chrisrushartist.com/)

Nancy Macdonald (http://www.nancymacdonald.com/)

Daniel Greene (http://www.danielgreeneartist.com/)


Sheldon Berkowitz (http://www.artnet.com/artist/425182562/sheldon-berkowitz.html)

.. I'm sorry I didn't show examples! But these artists are all pretty talented, even if their subject matter is a little dry at times. Good luck!