Oil Pastels

Welcome to the 19th video in the secret to drawing video course brought to you by the virtue instructor dot com. And this video we’re going to continue our exploration of coloured media with oil pastels oil pastels are a drawing medium in which colored pigment is held together by an oil binder oil pastels are unique because oil pastels are part crayon and part oil paint. In fact finished oil pastel drawings look very much like paintings and are even sometimes referred to as paintings. So let’s go ahead and get started. I had my set of oil pastels here and the brand name of these oil pastels are cray pas expressionists oil pastels. Sometimes you’ll hear people refer to oil pastels is cray pas but cray pas is actually the brand name of a type of oil pastel. There’s other brand names as well in this drawing demonstration. I’m going to do a drawing of a landscape because the medium that I’m using are oil pastels. I’m able to layer colors on top of other colors. This allows me to start with the back ground work to the middle ground and do the foreground last just like if I was painting a painting. In this case the sky’s going to be blue. So I start with a light blue color that I’m going to layer on top of it and make it a little bit thicker . I’m leaving spaces where I know there is going to be clouds in this case. I’m using a Fodor reference so I’m looking at my photo reference and paying attention to where there’s darker blue and lighter blue. I notice that there’s lighter blue at the bottom of the sky. So I’m going to take some whitening of the top of the blue that I’ve already laid down. This is going to allow those colors to mix a bit. What’s great about oil pastels is the mixing of the colors happens right on the paper in front of you . If you get a little bit too light you can just layer on top of it with a little bit more blue and darken it up a bit the top of my skies a little bit darker. So I had some darker blue to the top of it and then mix that color and by using some of the light blue . It’s a good idea to have a brush handy to brush away the extra pieces of oil pastel that fall off when you make marks. If you try to use your hand you’re risking smearing and you’re drawing. Now I’m ready to start adding the clouds. I’m looking at my photo reference and I’m trying to copy the shape of the cloud that I see. I put more pressure on the oil pastel when I see that the value is lighter. I’ll continue to work across the sky. Adding shapes of clouds where I see them in my photo reference . They don’t go back with some of the blue and add some more contrast to make the cloud stand out just a bit more. Now I’m ready to put down some darker color to indicate some of the middle ground in my drawing. In this case I’m using a dark brown. Next I’ll burnish the area with some dark green . Now take a dark blue and I’ll start to define some of the shaded areas. After that I’ll take a light green and start to indicate some of the highlights. In this case it’s just the tip of the tops of the trees. I’ll continue working my way down. I’ll add yellow here and there and then some more blue in the shadowed areas. Again I’m just looking at color and I’m trying to match the colors that I see. I’m not really thinking about what I’m actually drawing instead I’m concentrating more on creating the illusion of what I’m drawing . While you work. Keep in mind that oil pastels are meant to be used loosely. What I mean by that is you can’t really get obsessed with creating details. You can create the illusion of those details by adding fields of color in the appropriate places. But don’t get burdened by the fact of creating actual details if you get the fields of color right and you get the values right. Those details will translate in your finished painting. It’s also important to be very patient when you work. A lot of students start drawing with oil pastels and they don’t really put the time in that they need to to create a finished oil pastel drawing. They expect immediate results in order to be successful with oil pastels. You have to put layers of colors on. You have to mix the colors on the surface by doing this. Being patient about it you’ll see success with oil pastels have continued to work here in the middle ground now and creating the illusion of a tree closer to the foreground I’m drawing the structure of the tree first. Once the structure is complete I’ll make marks over the top. The structure to create the illusion of leaves there there’s another tree right behind the tree right behind it however has white bark instead of the darker brown bark. So I ‘ll use a white oil pastel to indicate the majority of that tree . It’s important to keep your oil pastels clean while you work. It’s inevitable that you’ll get some color on the tip of your oil pastel by just making marks on the surface. If you don’t keep the tip of your oil pastel claiming when you make marks in other areas you could transfer those colors in areas that you didn’t mean to. So pay attention to the tips of your oil pastels. It’s easy to clean them off just make marks on a separate sheet of paper. Now I’m adding the illusion of leaves on top of the structure for the trees that I made previously. I’ve got to be careful here and not get too obsessed with creating details instead of just focusing on making lighter marks and darker marks . The second tree is slightly further back and has a different texture to it. I’m going to address it a little bit differently because of these reasons so need to add some cash that is on the side of the hill to help create the illusion of the light source . Oh I had different variations of green to make the drawing more interesting . Now I start to address the water. I’ll begin by making the dark brown like I did previously for the line of trees. Then I’ll go over the top of it with some dark blue Not once in this drawing while I use black. Black is a very strong color and can tend to make things look flat. If I’m not careful it’s sometimes better to just mix a black by mixing blue and brown together. Now I’m ready to address the illusion of the water. I’ve added a little bit of blue to mimic the color in the sky and I’ve gone on top of that color with some white oil pastel. I’m making marks in a horizontal motion to help further the illusion of water. Then I’ll take the tip of my finger and just pull down allowing some of the dark shaded areas to mix with the white. This will help create the illusion of a reflection in the water . Now I can continue to work down in the foreground area overlapping the watered areas how I’ll add a variety of different greens and different textures to help further the illusion of grass growing in the foreground. I had a bit of yellow to create the illusion of white and again create a variety of different greens. Now there are a few plants that are growing in the extreme foreground and we can see some of the details on them. I’m going to use a white oil pastel to create the branches and I use a dark oil pastel to create the illusion of the branches of the tree above beholding the oil pastel at an angle you can create more intricate lines . Now create some marks to create the illusion of leaves in the foreground as well . Now I can go back with an exacto knife and scrape some of the oil Passo away. In essence I’ll be creating lines on the surface and I’ll touch up a few extra areas just to make the drawing appear finished . So what do we learn in this video. Well first we learn that oil pastel drawings can actually resemble paintings. Sometimes they’re even called paintings. We also learned that patience and the layering in your colors is important for success in oil pastel drawing. Remember don’t get discouraged during the early stages. Stick with it and layer your colors. We also learned it’s important to keep oil pastels clean while you work. You don’t want to accidentally put one color in an area that you didn’t really mean to because it is on the end of your pastel and the next video. We’ll continue talking about color drawing media and we’ll take a look at one of my favorite mediums chalk pastels or soft