Oil Pastels

froggee501 · 03-12-2003, 09:38 PM

I hate oil pastels.

I can't do anything with them! I'm prolly bringing home my art project tomorrow, so I'll show it to you then if I do, but I hate it!

froggee501 · 03-12-2003, 09:39 PM

oh yeah... to promote discussion... what do y'all think about oil pastels? any works of (good or bad) art that you care to share?

Grasshopper359 · 03-12-2003, 09:40 PM

Well, I actually like them. I'll post some of my stuff.

Grasshopper359 · 03-12-2003, 09:41 PM

Another one.

Grasshopper359 · 03-12-2003, 09:43 PM

And the last one.

Dublin Castle. The previous one was the grave and monument to M/Gen. Sir Isaac Brock in Queenston.

froggee501 · 03-13-2003, 07:03 AM

Well, okay, but you are actually good at it! I'm not... I spent such a long time trying to get technique that I only had one week left to do my project, and I still don't really have good technique.

I need to stop being such a perfectionist about it!

One thing thats really bad though... I was going to bring it home from school tonight and work on it all evening, but now I can't. School is closed today because we had freezing rain last night, icing everything over... which I only found out AFTER I slipped and hurt my bum.

just don't know what I'm gonna do about that art project. I did email my art teacher about it though, so we'll see.

Grasshopper359 · 03-13-2003, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by froggee501
... which I only found out AFTER I slipped and hurt my bum.

I should teach you how to breakfall.

Each of those oil pastel plates took about a day to do (they're about 8" by 10"), start to finish, maybe a little more if you count the time it took the polyurethane laminate to dry. The idea with oil anything isn't to come out with amazing detail, like you can with pencil, but it's to show colours, and to blend them. Oil pastels smear quite easily for this reason. I used a kleenex to smear colours, and it worked pretty well. It takes some getting used to, especially if you're like me - a pencil person.

froggee501 · 03-13-2003, 07:58 PM

If you want to teach me, feel free.... does it work with a 30 pound pack on the back and books in the arm though? That was part of my problem.

As for the oil pastels, it really doesn't help that we are doing self-potraits. That means I am really picky about the way it looks, because I've seen myself so often! I like blending my pastels a lot, with my finger, because I am REALLY big on fingerpainting! To me, if I can't use my fingers, it's no good. Well, one of the things our teacher told us was "Don't use your fingers, because you'll muddy the colors." Too bad... I'm using my fingers anyway, and so are others.

One thing that my art teacher came up with that really helps though is soaking the paper with mineral spirit, and then painting. It really destroys the oil pastels, but it works much better with my style. I love it so much better! I did my hair using that technique, and I think it looks really cool. I just need to go back in and finish adding contrast. Of course, I can't do that today....

Oh, and my church was originally a mission church off of St. Luke's in the next city... well, I found out this weekend that my art teacher goes to St. Luke's. How cool is that?

SoccerAaron · 03-13-2003, 08:02 PM

I like'em. I don't like fine pastels though.

froggee501 · 03-16-2003, 06:18 PM

Okay, I brought it home for the weekend, and did it periodically over the afternoon... What do you think? I'll post the full picture first, although I think it looks MUCH better in person... I did a better job on this than I thought I would.

froggee501 · 03-16-2003, 06:22 PM

This is a close up of the blue face, cropped to be pretty close to where the picture edge will be. I like how I did this one so much better than the other one... probably because I didn't have the limitations of trying to make it look so real.

froggee501 · 03-16-2003, 06:27 PM

in case you couldn't tell, the blue shouldn't be that dark... it's actually a very light blue with sea green accents, which I think makes it look very fairie like. The failings of a digital camera.

This shot is of select portions of the natural face, trying to highlight what I like best: the lips, that eye, and the hair. Of course, colors don't show up very well in the picture, so the hair looks much flatter than it should, but oh well. This side of the face turned out fairly well in my opinion, although not half as good as I'd like it. The other side of my face, well, I'd just like to junk that!

oh well.

froggee501 · 03-16-2003, 06:33 PM

Well, I guess I know which side is my good side.

I think part of the problem is that my reference was a little weird looking. The purpose of these pictures was to do a self portrait in oil pastel that signified something about yourself. We were allowed to alter ourselves in anyway we wanted to for the picture, as long as it was still recognizeable as the artist.

I originally had both faces planned to look natural colored, but then I got to play around, because my picture was so predominately warm colors, and this is what I ended up. No, I don't have hair that red in real life, it's an effect of all the photoshop stuff that I did to it, ie brightening. And, no, I most certainly do not have blue skin!

Anyway, here is the official and final photo reference I was working from.

froggee501 · 03-16-2003, 06:35 PM

now that my long monologue is done, any questions/comments/compliments/hate mail?

DreamChaser · 03-16-2003, 06:55 PM

Heya,

I'm no artist or nothing.. but I must say, that looks really cool!