Botanical Watercolor Pastels: Part One!
Let's Make Something!
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Let's Make Something! ~
Water-soluble oil pastels are our new favorite medium - a magical combination of watercolor, the color density of oil pastels, and the smoothness and ease-of-use of wax crayons. They combine the best of the traditional art medium of oil pastels, with the fun and flexibility of watercolor. Oil pastels – also called cray pas – are sticks of pigment, wax, and oil. They have a long history in fine art – both in preparatory art studies, and in finished painting. Oil pastels – whether mixed with watercolor or not- were famously used by fine artists like da Vinci, Michelangelo, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso, and are enjoying a renaissance of their own today in mixed-media painting.
Water-soluble pastels are a bit different from regular oil pastels. They apply more smoothly, blend more easily, and – most importantly – can be dissolved with water, meaning that one can create translucent and layered effects that are remarkably similar to those from traditional hard-pan or liquid watercolor. After the watered layers have dried, one can layer additional layers of color on top – allowing for the ability to build and blend a piece that looks multi-media – all with one versatile tool.
Oil pastels have a notorious learning curve, but we’ve found that water-soluble pastels are accessible for even the most beginner of painters. Anyone who has held a crayon will find them easy to apply, while the ability to blend them out with water or layer on additional color makes them especially forgiving of mistakes or desired changes. So though you’re joining a long history of fabled artists, worry not! All you need to do is go step by step through these posts, and you’ll be well on your way to oil pastel success.
And of course, if you can’t wait to get crafting, check out our kit here! It contains everything you need to get started.
