Happy Sunday all! This post was originally intended for my paid subs only and went out last week. However, I have been having such a lot of great exchange on the topic of oil pastels over on Notes this week, that I felt that this was a good post to have available for everyone. I really want to continue the conversation in the comments - so feel free to share your own experiences and thoughts!
Please note: I’ve been experimenting with my approach to Substack in the year that I have been on this platform. I am still figuring out what feels good to keep behind the paywall and what to share more openly. Look out for a post soon on further clarity on this, as I continue to examine what feels right for my work this year.
The Joy of Oil Pastels
Style is a topic that we have to face head on very often in our work. Questions around style and a ‘consistent visual voice’ are often affected by the materials we choose to use. Some illustrators and artist’s work is easily identifiable by the choice of medium, for others its subject matter, for others its colour palette. For many, style and visual language is something that needs to feel expansive, and exploratory, and it can often take a long time to feel as though you have ‘found your style’, this holy grail of a destination that we feel compelled to move towards.
Personally, I am trying to strike a balance between observing what emerges in my work naturally through play, and ‘finding’ connections that feel like a common thread.
Sometimes, the choice of material can accelerate your journey - you fall in love with the language of the medium, and that enables you to draw more of what you love, and that leads to more work that ‘feels like you’. This is what I am finding with oil pastels at the moment. I’m falling in love with them!
Oil Pastels have enabled me to:
Cover large areas of the page with colour fast
Create juicy, fat, beautiful lines
Let go of detail, and simplify the subject
Layer on top of ink and retain vibrant colour
Create a painterly feel without the mess of paint and all the set up required to paint
Create a range of work - either simple, line drawings or more dense ‘filled’ pages
Avoid colour decision making fatigue - instead reach for colours instinctively
Draw fast, turn the page, draw fast again
My drawing opportunities in my day are usually squeezed into 10-15 min slots where I can grab them, so a fast, unfussy, usually a dry medium is what I reach for.
Create energetic, joyful drawings. My oil pastel sketches make me feel happy!
How about you?
Do you have a material that seems to take you to your ‘voice’ quickly?
What in your materials box is the go-to, that you just LOVE to use?
I would love to know if you are in love with any one particular material at the moment, of if you have explored oil pastels and what you think of them.
Oil Pastels Breakthrough - is this my new love?