Oil pastels are scholastic, student, and professional grades of crayons made of pure pigments bound with wax and oil. Oil pastels don’t need to be primed and can be used on a variety of surfaces. They’re also easier to work with than oil paints, and they can be manipulated to achieve many of the same effects.
In the 1920s, the first oil pastels were created. They were created to encourage Japanese children to use colors and shapes to express themselves. This type of oil pastel had a deeper color and behaved more like a crayon than a chalk pastel. Its use in art education grew in popularity.
Pablo Picasso and fellow artist Henri Goetz approached a French art supply manufacturer in the late 1940s with their plans to develop an artist-quality version of the oil pastel. The fact that these pastels could be used on a variety of surfaces, including unprimed canvas, piqued Picasso’s interest. Goetz was looking for a medium that could be applied directly to a painting surface without the use of brushes or palette knives.
As the demand for artist-quality oil pastels grew, a number of other art supply companies began making their own. Oil pastels that are soft and creamy or more like a crayon in consistency are now available to artists. When desired, the harder ones can be warmed in the hand to make them more pliable. Artist-grade pastels are acid-free and made with archival-quality pigments.
Oil pastels can be used on a variety of surfaces, including glass, metal, canvas, art boards, and various grades of paper. They’re used in a variety of ways to apply them directly to the surface. Some artists apply the oil pastels first, then blend with brushes.
Many of the techniques used oil painters can also be applied to oil pastel work. They can create glazes layering color and mixing oil pastels with turpentine, mineral oils, or other solvents. Over a dried oil painting, oil pastels can be used. They can also be used with watercolors or acrylics in mixed-media paintings.
These pigment crayons are ideal for use in the outdoors. Only the artist’s oil pastels, drawing surface, and any pencils or tools that he or she uses are required. Brushes and solvents are not required. The wax and oil binders create a surface that never completely dries, allowing the artist to work on the painting in his or her studio.
To protect the surface of an oil pastel piece, it is usually covered in glass. Oil pastels do not harden to the same degree as oils or acrylics. As an alternative to glass framing, some people use varnish.