My oil pastel work

[terri]

Okay, I'm starting this thread so I don't interfere with @snowbear and his ink work thread, even though he invites me to hijack it periodically.

I started messing around with oil pastels as another medium for hand coloring B&W photographs. I never really warmed up to them for that, though. Unlike actual photo oils, which are made to be transparent enough to allow the photograph to show through, oil pastels are quite opaque - like crayons, which they resemble. When I first had a play, the idea of actually covering the photo and having to do any drawing myself to make sense of the image was terrifying. Drawing is not my forte, and I've had scant training.

A couple of them *kind of* worked, but meh.
Here's one of the first things I tried. I had a photo I took on a very bright day with a Holga - limited camera controls, so it's totally blown out. But the negative did at least show this very cool, ancient electric plant built on Lake Superior:

Horrible negative, with nothing good to come from it. I scanned it anyway, and printed it out to try again with the oil pastels, just made it more a nighttime scene:

So, not a total loss of the negative, but not very good, either. Since then, I've just tried to get away from using bad photos to paint over, and figuring out how a non-painter/sketcher like me could still have fun with a medium like this.

In my own little art journey, I've been studying some of Picasso's work and doing some reading. I never liked much of his stuff (and I'm still not a huge fan of analytical cubism - the earlier form of this style), but I do like quite a lot of his other work, especially portraits. It seems very liberating to not have to think about being anatomically correct.

With this in mind, I decided to use another one of my photos for a reference - which, btw, is actually a B&W photo that I took of my husband and later hand painted with photo oils. (Why yes, I did have to mention that. The skin tones and hair came out great!)

Here's the photo:

And here is the oil pastel painting I made from it, Picasso-style:

I wasn't going to try to draw any of that background or do anything, really, too much like the photo. So it was just a lot of fun - and btw, he loves it! So I view this one as a success.

I've scanned or photographed most of my stuff. Oil pastels can be slick and messy, so not much scanning anymore. Most of what I do is from some kind of photo reference, though not all.

 

[Derrel]

Your cubist portrait _is a success_.

 

[Jeff15]

Very clever portrait...............

 

[terri]

Here's another one where I used one of my photos as a reference. A cell phone shot of part of the beach at Mackinac Island:

Eww, that file is bigger than I thought.


Here is the oil pastel painting I did, working from that. I was interested in the long shadows, as well as trying to paint water.

I kind of screwed up the little people, proportionally, but it was still a good exercise for me. I had only white paper at the time, and I did an underpainting of burnt sienna to try for some depth of color. It kind of bleeds through the sand color, as well as the water. Good practice.

 

[terri]

Your cubist portrait _is a success_.

Thank you, Derrel, Jeff! Nice of you to comment.

I have a long way to go.

 

[Jeff15]

A nice beach too................

 

[Derrel]

I like the beach shot's translation into oil.

 

[stapo49]

I am not really into cubism but really like the beach painting.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[snowbear]

Thanks for posting these. I really need to spend more time on the art - half-way hoping that will be my final career (something to do if I ever really retire).

I LOVE the beach scene and the portrait; excellent job on the hand painting, as well. Water is not easy to paint, at least it isn't for me.

I still have some pastel pieces around from when I was taking classes; I may dig them out and play.

 

[jcdeboever]

Nicely executed. I used to burn through Senneller oil pastels back in the day. I tried a lot of different brands and nothing was even close.

 

[tirediron]

Lovely work, Terri. I've always wished I had the ability to do stuff like this.

 

[terri]

I am not really into cubism but really like the beach painting.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Understood; it's not everyone's cuppa. But just for fun - consider that Picasso could - and did - paint like Raphael by the time he was 15. And his brain was pondering other things, particularly when it came to portraits:

“Are we to paint what’s on the face, what’s inside the face, or what’s behind it?”

"What is a face really? Its own photo? Its makeup? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist.” ― Picasso, Picasso Notebook

Though I'm far from complete understanding, I take those as a sort of bridge over to the paintings he came up with. Thanks for commenting!

 

[terri]

Thanks for posting these. I really need to spend more time on the art - half-way hoping that will be my final career (something to do if I ever really retire).

I LOVE the beach scene and the portrait; excellent job on the hand painting, as well. Water is not easy to paint, at least it isn't for me.

I still have some pastel pieces around from when I was taking classes; I may dig them out and play.

Please do! I admire all of your ink drawings, as well as that recent watercolor you posted. Those are two mediums I'm not likely to take up. Would love to see more work from you, I find it inspiring.

I still don't like painting water, but continue to practice. Thanks for the kind words; it means a lot to a bumbling newbie with this stuff!

 

[terri]

Nicely executed. I used to burn through Senneller oil pastels back in the day. I tried a lot of different brands and nothing was even close.

Thank you, JC! I have a set of Senns, but use those for basically a top layer or final swooshes. They're almost 3.50USD a stick now!

What I've come to appreciate is how similar the discovery journey is between photography and painting like this. Like being in the darkroom and working to find your favorite film/developer/paper, so it is with oil pastels. Several brands out there - Senns are the undisputed king, but I'm aware of OP artists who don't particularly like them for those valued qualities of softness and smooth application. A lot depends on the paper, too. My current go-to OP are the Mungyo Gallery Soft Artist line. Mungyo also makes some pretty poor student-grade OP's, though. But the Gallery Soft are great for most papers, and a lot cheaper. I also have several Neopastels, they're almost as soft as Senns, but smaller sticks.

I pretty much stick with Arches Oil Paper and Clairefontaine Pastelmat, though the latter is really expensive and my work doesn't really deserve it.

 

[terri]

Lovely work, Terri. I've always wished I had the ability to do stuff like this.

Thank you! Just remind yourself that if Terri can do it, you can likely do it, too. Just like with photography, a lot ends up in the "learning bin." Also, as photographers, we already grasp things like composition concepts and color balance, so I figure that puts us ahead.