Testing my new oil pastels

So meanwhile I have bought some oil pastels, a 12 colour pack by Faber-Castell. My main reason for buying them was to be able to fill larger areas with them instead of with coloured pencils.

They say you can blend them with your finger. It is possible, but rather difficult. They are not very creamy. As the finger method was not successful I tested some other methods. First I blended them with oil and with a little care and practice this would certainly work well. The problem is that it seems to create quite a mess in a sketchbook. So it's no option for me. I have then tried to blend them with a stump - works, but it is a lot of work to get a pleasing result. Next I tried it with a vinyl eraser and a kneaded eraser. Both work rather well, though you lose some colour and it looks brighter afterwards. Still, I think this could be a good way to create a background.

I am going to buy some kind of mineral spirit soon and see if this works for my needs. Maybe it would be a good idea to also buy a brush to use with it. I hope to be able to test this next weekend.

Comments

Social Media

Social media frustrates me. It has almost since I joined any of them. On the one hand, it can be a great place to get together with like-minded people. On the other hand, it is very impersonal and you mostly drown in the masses. You put yourself out there and hope that what you have to offer meets somebody‘s interest. Often it doesn’t. And frankly, what many people post doesn‘t interest me either. I don’t expect tons of likes when I post something in a facebook group or on instagram, but getting just a few likes makes me wonder if it’s all worth it. Why bother if hardly anyone cares? And in the end, posting my drawings just to see if people like them is strange. I do what I do the best way I can. I don’t need others‘ approval. If I post something it should be of worth to someone. I‘ve been on instagram for more than a year now and found it difficult to get attention. I don’t know if people don’t like my stuff or simply don’t see it. Actually I registered to more easily follow inter...

Sketch & Note

It's always great when you have finished a sketchbook and a new sketchbook is in front of you waiting to be started. It's especially exciting when the new one is a type you haven't used before. I've just started one of my new Sketch & Note sketchbooks - or rather sketch booklets - by Hahnemühle. They come in bundles of two with colourful covers and 40 pages each. The paper is rather smooth with a fine texture and weighs 125 gsm. The tools I prefer to work with are pencils, coloured pencils and ink. I do a preliminary drawing with pencil, then go over it with ink, adding also a bit of hatching where necessary, and then colour with coloured pencils. This paper seems to suit all these tools very well. It's smooth enough for good ink lines, but also has enough texture for the coloured pencils. I like to colour rather lightly, not minding some paper white showing through. Though, I'm sure if you want to get rid of it, that won't be a problem with this ...

Lack of inspiration

I haven't written here for a while. Nothing exciting has happened since the Craftsy course. Nothing to write about. I have done one or the other drawing since then, but nothing for the last two weeks, except some hatching exercises. It's the same old story. I want to draw, but don't know what. I still don't subscribe to the idea that everything is interesting when you draw it, so draw anything. I need a concept, a theme, a subject with a meaning to me. I don't visit exciting places often or buy interesting new stuff. So what to draw when there is nothing like this to be inspired by? It's so frustrating to always have to search for a subject. I'm preparing next month's subject for the Virtual Sketchwalk group, a topic I am really interested in right now, so hopefully I will be occupied with it next month. But what until then and what after that? I need to solve this riddle, because I love to draw and I love to see another drawing emerge in my sketc...

Sylvia‘s Art Journey

Search This Blog