Oil pastels can be used in a variety of techniques including stenciling, blending, impasto, hatching and cross-hatching, parallel brush strokes, using fragmented colors, and scratching. The stencil technique involves using oil pastel as a backdrop covered by an ink wash, watercolor, or diluted acrylic paint, allowing the pastel to show through. Blending involves mixing colors using fingers, stumps, or solvents. Impasto creates thick, dense lines that bring out texture and intensity. Hatching and cross-hatching underline relief and create varied hues and textures.

1. OIL PASTELS

2. Technique Oil pastels are actually a pretty old type of art material. They have a wide variety of uses, and can be used in a wide variety of ways. On the following slides we’ll look at a few different oil pastel tecniques.

3. Stencil Technique The pastel is used for the backdrops , it is covered with an ink wash, watercolour or diluted acrylic. The pastel repels the shade and shows through.

4. Blending Technique based on the blending of colours using the finger, stump or mineral spirits/turpentine/turpenoid.

5. Impasto Thick and dense lines that bring out the texture and the intensity of the colour of the pastel. The paper is quickly saturated.

6. Hatching and Cross-Hatching It underlines the relief and enables to obtain special effects of hues, colours and textures.

7. Parallel Brush Strokes Parallel brush strokes with the tip of the pastel.

8. Fragmented Colors Slight brush strokes overlaps (of various colours).

9. Scratching This technique enables to reduce the excess of paint on a surface, to uncover previous colour layers or the paper background. An engraving point or a painting knife may be used, or a scratchboard, or an acrylic background covered with pastel pasting.