Oil Pastels and their durability. 

Thank you for watching!

Thank you so much! Thanks for watching

Thank you so much!! Love oil pastels!

Thank you!

Thanks Jackie. Your comment along with others is what fuels me to do more videos. Thanks so much!

You’re welcome

Glad it was helpful!

With a lot of dust, I would probably frame behind glass. I am playing a lot with final fixatives and that works great for protection. That might work for you. I like the grumbacher (gloss brilliant) final fixative and Blair gloss.

Thank you! I appreciate it and thanks for watching!

@@raizes cheers!

Thank you. Those aluminum panels sound really interesting. I'll have to check those out.

Thank you. The krylon fixative works great and still use it quite a bit. I do t like the odor either so I always spray outside and cover my face. And I agree also that framing behind glass is the best way to go for oil and dry pastels. Thanks for commenting!

@@raizes thank you for replying, maybe it's a good thing that it's smelly, but all the warnings sure are scary!😄 but they sure did make my sketchbook paints look like something special. It'll make my mums portrait really nice, one day I'll get the sennellier but right now it's out of my budget. Cheers!

Thank you and yes, go ahead and translate to Russian if you want or have the time.

Thank you! I agree with using fixative for long term protection. How much to apply I guess is a personal choice. I like enough fix so that it's smudge proof. And still feel that framing behind glass is the best.

Thank you Wendi. A cold, dry environment is best in my opinion, but it's still going to take a some months to harden up. One thing you can try is placing your finished OP work in a fridge or even freezer. I've done the freezer thing before overnight and it did help it "harden" faster. I've never left it there longer than a day though. You might want to experiment with that and see how it works for you. Since you need to keep things small and portable, you may want to use a final fixative after the OP painting has been sitting out for a couple weeks. I've done that on my smaller work (5x7, 8x10, even 11x14). In fact for my greeting cards which are 5x7; I let those sit out for a week and then sprayed Krylon Matte Finish fixative and they are perfect. Colors are great, 100% protection and I can put that greeting card in it's enveloped and mail away.

Rich Arriagada Thank you for the helpful advice! 😀👍

I'm not 100% certain on how much surface plays a part on the drying time. I demonstrated hard panel, paper and canvas board and those surfaces are unique and take in the oil pastel differently. I think the key thing is leaving it out in open air to dry for as long as possible is a more important factor. And I also feel climate will play a big role. For example I live in a relatively mild, dry and cool climate. Doesn't get humid and hot here like other places. I think that plays into it as well. Someone who lives in a very warm, humid/hot climate will probably see longer drying times. Perhaps having a fan constantly blowing air on it would aid in faster drying time.

You're welcome!

Hello. hair dryer won't speed up the drying. It might make it worse. I would suggest to just let it sit for a month , then use a final fixative to seal it.

Thanks. I usually just leave the edges of wood natural. I prefer that look. I had same issue with the spectrum spray

Thank you James!! I absolutely love the sennelier fixative and feel it is the best one out there for oil pastels. The issue with it for me is $ cost. It is nearly $20 for a can while the Krylon matte finish fixative is $10. The Sennelier fixative is a gloss finish and I really like how it pops the color and contrasts... For most of my work, I use the Krylon. It takes several passes to get good protection though. I have recently used Liquitex Satin Varnish and loved the results. I should probably make a video on this. -> I started with Kyrlon matte fixative and applied several layers to the point where I could run my fingers across without getting color on them. Then the liquitex satin varnish on top of that. This gave me the best overall protection.

@@raizes thanks for replying to my question. The information you gave me helps very much. Have a great weekend.

S Wil Thanks again! I’ve used turpenoid before with oil pastel. Creates a nice thin layer, translucent and spreads the color out very easily. If it’s thin enough, it will dry much faster. Haven’t tried linseed or baby oil. And I do use mungyo gallery soft oil pastel. (Artist quality version).

@@raizes I will have to try that. I am looking forward to watching some more of your tutorials. I love that you talked about your experience on your vacation. Also the workable fixative part was awesome! Thank you!

Thank you! I didn't use gesso. Don't need to with cork. In fact the texture of the cork is perfect for oil pastels. I'll be making a full length tutorial on cork pretty soon.

Hello and thank you! I don't gesso the wood panels, because they come already with gesso on them. I have used oil pastels on cork tile without a gesso and that works great. The texture of the cork really works well with oil pastel...I'll make a video on "oil pastels on cork" soon. ...More on fixative. Here's what I recommend. Give your oil pastel finished piece about a week to "setup". Then apply the fixative. 3 coats is good > I like Krylon matte Finish fixative the best for this part> It will "dry" out the surface and instead of sticky, waxy, the surface will feel dry and possibly dusty.. let the fixative dry between each coat. So spray on a light coat, then wait for 10 minutes, Do another coat, then wait for 10 minutes..do another coat and wait for 10 minutes...etc. etc. You can keep doing layers of fixative, letting each layer dry between applications. The more layers of fixative will equal greater protection. The krylon matte finish does not change the colors. If you want a gloss finish, then I recommend the Sennelier fixative or the Grumbacher Gloss brilliant final fixative. I plan on making another video on fixative and using fixative with oil pastels. I've learned more. Thanks for watching and commenting!

@@raizes Thankyou so much for the information Rich. Cheers

That seems to be the case. If left out, oil pastel does harden up over time. However that could take 6 months or more. If it's wrapped in glassine or wax paper, then that drying time seems to significantly increase. What I tell my customers is to NOT touch the surface and not hang where direct sunlight will hit it. I also include a mat and most often that is double mat, so that if they do want to put it behind glass, the matting creates separation from the surface of the painting and the glass.

Definitely! It is the best

Workable fixative is not a necessity. Sometimes I can just let the painting set up for a day or two and then come back to it and I can usually get additional layers. The workable fixative is great when things get real slippery

use baby oil, most safe and works the same pretty much

@@mrsmarshmallow15 thank you, I did this. But it never dried completely.

But now I try out Poppy oil

Thanks 🙏🏼. Nope I’m using oil pastel directly on the cork tile. Works great 👍🏼

Dust didn't harm my paintings. The autumn painting with the trees was a little dusty, but I just kinda wiped it off with my hands. Even up close, the dust didn't seem to cause damage or become a factor in how the colors present themselves. II think one of those little hand held vacuums with the brush at the end of the nozzle would be helpful to remove dust if that became a factor. Also just framing it under glass is gonna give the best protection from dust.