Oil Pastel Demonstration
    by Carly Clements-Hardy

The painting was executed from the still life subject, but I've included a reference photo to give you an idea of the set up and you can see that I seldom follow a photographic image even if I do use one as a reference. Painting from life opens the eye to nuances of color that the camera can't possibly capture and enthuses the painting with vibrancy and richer color.

A Walnut Hollow oil pencil in light orange was used to sketch out my composition onto the Black Arches Coverstock. The Arches has a dominant tooth pattern on each side of the paper. One side is smoother and the other side is more waffled in a definite pattern. For this painting, I worked on the more definite patterned side. The Lemons painting which is pictured at the end of the demo was worked on the smoother, less structured side of the Arches.

With the sketch in place (you'll notice that I freehand the circular plate shape....I don't want a perfect circle), the first layer of oil pastels is laid down using the sticks on their "sides". This means that you'll need to remove all the paper wrappers when working with the oil pastels. I usually break mine in half and leave one half wrapped and one half unwrapped. When I use up the first half of a stick, I unwrap the second half and make a note of the brand and # or name of the color on an index card for an easy reminder when I go shopping for new sticks.

Above, I've laid down the first layer of color to establish the shapes. At this point the composition can be changed. In the second stage, I begin to add color to create value and add form to the shapes. The lightest yellow is a Holbein which appears rather white in the first image, but later if you need to scrape back, it will let you know when to stop so that you don't scrape into your paper surface. In the second layer, I've lightened the darkest blue laid down in the first layer with a deep red. This creates the red/blue royal color. You can also see the texture of the paper effecting how the oil pastel adheres to the surface.

With the third layer of paint, the values are establish even more. The bananas have an abstract appearance at this stage because of the strong changes of value. I've also introduced a rich blue green along the sides to create shading. This color applied over the yellows, when blended, will create more shape.

The third layer of paint is completed and the background has cross hatched strokes applied.

Notice how cross hatched strokes allow previous layers to show creating "broken color".  The eye will blend these colors but I'm using the large blending stump because I want a smoother, more local color appearance

The key to blending with a stump is having enough paint applied to the surface so that the stump doesn't touch the substrate surface. If the stump drags on the paper, you don't have enough paint applied. Blending should have a floating feel when using the stump. I blend in one direction at a time....then I blend in the opposite direction if needed. Rubbing back and forth with the stump can muddy the colors. Blend only enough to mix the bottom layers of paint into the top layers...then STOP. Overblending can dull your vibrant colors, too.

 I decided to lighten the colors of the plate and the background using a very light turquoise blue Craypas. You can see the strokes I used around the rim of the plate. I always use the sticks on the side unless I want a definite line. When painting with the end of the stick, I use a jabbing stroke....which achieves a pointillism effect. The background is lightened with strokes of the lightest yellow over the deep ochre used earlier. This image was taken outside and isn't effected by the indoor lighting which accounts for some of the warmer tones in the other images.

More color is added as strokes to the background and the lightest yellow is used for the details on the plate rim. I lightly scumble over the plate again with a light turquoise color to tone down the red/blue even more and utilize the paper surface to achieve more texture. More color is added to the bananas also to increase form and create texture which is smoother on their surfaces. I rotated the image as I worked which achieves more balance with composition and variety in strokes.

Below is "Bananas on Mexican Plate" and "Lemons on Paper Plate".  "Lemons" was the first of this series of "three yellow objects on a plate".  If you've never given a black substrate a try, I hope this demo will challenge you to test it out. I'm thinking "grapefruits" next!!

As an update....this series turned into five paintings which were sold all together!!

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