I discovered oil pastels around 2010. Before that, I was an acrylic and oil painter. For me, Oil pastels are the perfect hybrid medium in that you can draw and paint with, and produce amazing artworks that have that "painterly" look. Might be most versatile and immediate medium I've used.
This channel is all about discovery, exploration and mastery of oil pastels, and I offer full length, unedited tutorials where we dive deep into this medium and learn how to get around some hurdles when trying to use oil pastels.
I use up to 5 brands of oil pastel (Sakura CrayPas Expressionist, Mungyo, Van Gogh, Neopastel and Sennelier). I also occasionally use Nupastel (hard pastel) for underpainting. I also test and experiment with different surfaces, and I go over fixatives and how to protect Oil pastel artwork
Patreon page - www.patreon.com/rapaintings I appreciate your support and comments very much!
I've used Rust-Oleum matt finish on my oil pastel piece and it worked fine. I applied few coats in my backyard and didn't leave any odor when brought in. I just wanted to try it before I decide to buy any fixative.
Only good experiences for me with the Krylon Clear varnish. The smell also dissipates quickly here in the tropics. Also dries quickly. I don't need to apply many coats either.
Wonderful informative video, Rich. I'll be buying some glassine paper, for sure. I also use pastelmat but for pastel pencil applications. I think that surface might eat my neopastels too quickly! Yet, I'll give it a try after seeing your success. Was looking at Sennelier fixative but so so expensive. Was wondering if you've tried Dorland's Wax? Again, an expensive initial outlay but goes a long way and protects watercolour and gouache too! A bonus all-rounder and can be used in home without the need for dry and temperate weather that sprays need. My country is cold and wet 8 months of the year! I just searched youtube and no one seems to have tried it on oil pastels as far as I can see. Just a suggestion. I'm considering buying a pot. Love your channel! You should have way many more subscribers. Thank you! 😊
Yay, I was hoping the one on the left is Haiya because I love the vibrancy of the colors, and I just purchased the exact Haiya set you've got, and I can see from the comments that it is indeed Haiya - how cool!! (long sentence, haha) I will definitely check out your patreon!
Hi! I got to know about your channel. And it is honesty so underrated, i am a beginner artust so i hope you can upload for vids like this with explanation. I really like works, thx!
Thanks for this Rich, I agree with the last comment, finally found the info I wanted. All aspects clear and helpful. So now I can go ahead with oil pastels confidently knowing I won't need glass, especially as I have some on stretched canvas which aren't practical to put behind glass. Please can you tell me more about the cork surface you're using? Is it an art board or something more utilitarian? Did you use gesso? Hope you don't mind the questions. (By the way, for info, I tried cold wax to seal oil pastels on pastelmat. Not ideal as it definitely took some of the life out of the colours and I also didn't really like the even finish.)
Fabulous demo. I’m a long time Sennelier user. Recently I’ve tried to transition to Neopastels - Georgia summer heat and humidity does make Sennelier gooey. Love the colors , layering of Neos , but no matter how hard I try , they just aren’t Sennelier ! Thank you for showing me that I’m not just being picky. Neos are delightful but they are not the Gold !
I enjoyed this for what it was. And learned a little something. Wish you could have said which of your pastel varieties you were using, but i guess you can't do that now. Hope your Patreon channel is doing well. ❤
Thanks! I started off with van goghs, craypas and mungyo. Then used solvent to spread it out. Then continued on with mostly neopastel, mungyo. Also used a little sennelier
Your painting is gorgeous. I agree that using 100% Sennelier is magical. It works wonderfully on to of other brands. But I think Sennelier truly shines when used on its own.
Great tips!! I have a question… after letting my Sennelier oil pastels, gas off for about 6 weeks after finishing painting, I then apply a thin coat (spray) of Sennelier fixative, once a day for three days. On one painting, after the three days, I applied a coat of Liquitex matte medium. Horror of horrors, the painting has started to crackle. Should I just use the Sennelier fixative and be done? And can we rest assured that that alone is protection enough? I use wood panel that I gesso before beginning painting. Thank you so much in advance for your feedback. Cheers, Nicola
Yep just the fixative and be done. Might take many applications 10-12…. I have a couple large paintings that I’m letting sit out for a few months before I apply the fixative. I imagine it’s gonna take a few cans to get them both protected. I use either sennelier fixative or krylon matte fixative majority of the time.
@@raizes much appreciated! I, too, after finishing painting, let my pieces “gas off” for several weeks before applying fixative. Happy arting to you. Cheers! Nicola
Could be because of learning curve with them. They don’t act like soft pastels. Blending can be difficult at first try. They take a little time to get used to. They take long time to dry.
@raizes true. But as for drying time I did do what you suggested in earlier videos: using fixative and then varnish and I can run the wood end over my oil pastel painting and nothing rubs off or scrapes off....nothing comes off on my hands. I do have a very small set of sennelier now too along with my other ones.
Oh man so great you are doing these tutorials again!! I still love the oil pastel painting i did of the fall trees with one of your tutorials. It made me love oil pastels and showed me how to use them!!❤❤❤❤
great work!! Im struggling....I love my piece I did on wood, alot of layered, but I sprayed sennelier fix on it, two lightish coats, and things just changed, darken too much and strokes appear less meshed and blended, and sort of seperate themselves. Any recommendations?
Was it 100% oil pastel? Was there gesso on the wood? I’ve had fixative darken my colors too, but it does that when I use a dry pastel as the under painting. How long did you wait for the painting to sit before using the fixative?
@@raizes thanks for the response, I did put Liquitex Gesso, then only Sennelier oil pastel. Im sure I made the mistake by spraying to early, I let it sit for 4 hours, but I only did 2 light coatings, I did check it yesterday and it had dried decently well actually so Im in a bit of a better mood about it now. Im going to let it sit in the basement for 2 to 3 weeks...is that ok? thanks agin
@@oldben1800 I would for sure let it sit as long as you can. I’ll wait a couple months on some of mine, depending on how thick of application I use with sennelier. I have a feeling that something underneath the oil pastels is affected by the fixative. It could be the surface, maybe not enough gesso? Perhaps the wood panel or whatever you used is affected by the fixative. Like it is getting wet and then therefore darkens the colors slightly until it dries.
Senns are on sale for 1.79€ in our place right now... I just got the 72 haiya set a few months back and think I should rather get a stock of harder pastels for layering, but that price is tough to ignore
Hello, Rich. I'm in your neighboring town of R----port. I am a fan because I admire your style of painting. Also, I am very new to oil pastels and I am learning so much from you! Thank you for sharing your talent with all of us. In addition, your decision to go over to Patreon is a wise one. You certainly deserve to be compensated for all the sharing of your gifts you have and continue to deliver. You've spent your time, your effort, and have spread your knowledge worldwide. Many of us are grateful to you for that! On another topic, I want to let you know that every video of yours that I've watched all pose a problem for me in that the volume produced is way too low. I have to set my volume to between 90 and 100 to hear you at all, and that is just barely most times. I've resorted to turning on the captions to pick up what you're saying. On the viewers end, too much sound is far better than too little. I can always turn down my volume to my level of comfort, but I can't turn it up far enough to catch sound that just isn't there. Also, when RU-vid cuts to commercial, when my level is set to hear you, its volume nearly blows me out of my chair. Ha! i hope you don't mind me speaking so frankly. It really is a problem for me, and is likely so for other viewers as well. Thank you for all you do. 😊😊😊
Cool. Welcome to the channel and my patreon. I saw that you joined! I upgraded my mic and so the sound on patreon is working better. Most of the videos here on RU-vid are before I upgraded the mic. Glad you’re enjoying the channel!
Your work is beautiful! I'm a new subscriber and so glad I found your channel as I'm an oil painter just getting into oil pastels. I have some catching up to do on your videos but did see the one where you said you use 5 different brands - are those 5 brands still your choice? Thank you!
Thank you 🙏🏼. Yes , although I use Van Goghs more often than the mungyos. Unable to find open stock mungyos. I have added the haiya oil pastels by Paul Ruben. They are soft, equivalent to sennelier. There is a video here where I compare them side by side. Haiya can purchased through Amazon
I was looking for a harder oil pastel to create fine lines in my abstract paintings. Thankful that you showed me the cray-pas are harder and hopefully enable me to make the finer line marks I'm looking for. I'm not layering much, actually just staining the paper with oil pastel and blending out to the white of the page :-) Thank you.
You’re welcome. I use cray pas quite a bit for the first layer, toning the paper, etc . It’s economical and can even use a solvent to spread them also.
Your painting is so beautiful! Do you know the name of the church? I know someone who lives in No. West Portland, and I am going to send this video to them. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I hav been enjoying your videos!
I have the entire set of sennelier oil pastels having fallen for them yrs ago but I’ve been unhappy with available fixatives. So I don’t paint with them. I’ll try Winsor Newton next
Yeah, they are difficult to protect. Takes a lot of fixative. I think with senns , the longer you can leave them out in the open to cure, the easier it will be to protect with fixative. Probably best to use the sennelier fixative with them. Or just frame behind glass, which is what I do sometimes
I like to wait a week , sometimes longer. I know some people who varnish the next day and they don’t have issues. If you’re using a lot of sennelier, then probably best to give it several weeks .
