APRIL Summary of Oil Pastel FUN
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Hello dear artistic souls,
Be Creative. It's Good for the Soul!
Blessings, Joanie
This past month we ventured into the oh so wonderful, smooshy and fun world of
oil pastels. What a grand experiment!
Here are a few things we learned:
PROS
- oil pastels are fun!
- messy, yep, it's true, but there are always rubber gloves if you wish
- colorful, vibrant
- are 3D - yes, quite sculptural, able to create luscous impasto marks
- layering!
- "scratchy scratch" watch this delightful oil pastel artist for more on that, thanks BlackBean for YOU!
- like all media, it has it's own unique surface quality....
- applies to many surfaces, glass, wood, canvas, paper....
CONS
- messy! And honestly, is this really a negative as all art making is messy! Discovered that if you spray or rub your hands with some oil BEFORE you wash your hands, the oily residue comes off much more easily.
-
supposedly never really dries, but there are workable fixatives that can
seal the work in progress. AND then you can use a finishing varnish to
totally seal it.
Here is a collection of a few of my oil pastel pieces this month. Some started
with ink, followed by gouache, then oil pastel and many also built out of oil
pastel entirely. We also had loads of fun with laying ink over our pastels in
the Resist Technique, my absolute favorite. (Photographs kinda glarey as they
were taken through the clear envelopes, sorry.)
It's really awesome to create in community, as we all benefit by what each
artist is learning...and so collectively we all learn so much more than we
could ever figure out on our own, or in a much shorter time.
And on Week 4 I did a demo during our Zoom class throwing the kitchen sink at
this piece - everything I have learned this month about oil pastels - an
Elizabethan Mixed Media gal, haven't named her yet.
If you miss creating, and want to have full permission to experiment and
create YOUR WAY, consider joining us for a month of classes and join either
via Zoom live each week, or like many of my students - be a part of our
community but receive each of the 4 weeks a month and watch the videos on your
own time. Each video has everything you need to fully create your own works -
tip, tricks, demos, questions answered....you name it. Participate in our
Facebook Group (private) and upload your works in progress, and meet and
converse with other artists in my classes and share feedback with them, too.
Contact me if interested.....May starts up next week!
I will be sending another blog post tomorrow with May's Theme......prepare for more fun and creativity this coming month of May.
Be Creative. It's Good for the Soul!
Blessings, Joanie