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{{short description|Stick consisting of powdered pigment and an oil-based binder}}
{{Refimprove|date=June 2009}}
[[File:Caran d'Ache's NEOPASTEL 12 colors.jpg|thumb|right|A set of oil pastels]]
An '''oil pastel''' is a [[Art medium|painting medium]] that consists of powdered [[pigment]] mixed with a [[binder (material)|binder]] mixture of [[non-drying oil]] and wax. Oil pastel is a type of [[pastel]]. They differ from other pastels which are made with a [[gum (botany)|gum]] or [[methyl cellulose]] binder, and from [[wax crayon]]s which are made without oil. The surface of an oil pastel painting is less powdery than one made from other pastels, but more difficult to protect with a [[fixative (drawing)|fixative]]. The colors of oil pastels are highly [[Colorfulness#Saturation|saturated]] and bright. They can be blended easily but they can break easily too.
==History==
[[Image:Oil pastel portrait of a child.JPG|thumb|250px|Portrait of a child made from oil pastels.]]
At the end of [[World War I]], [[Kanae Yamamoto (artist)|Kanae Yamamoto]] proposed an overhaul of the [[Japan]]ese education system.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Fisher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oe5IEAAAQBAJ&q=history+of+oil+pastels |title=Beginner's Guide to Painting with Oil Pastels |date=2019 |publisher=Search Press Limited |isbn=978-1-78126-704-2 |language=en}}</ref> He thought that it had been geared too much towards uncritical absorption of information by imitation and wanted to promote a less restraining system, a vision he expounded in his book ''Theory of self-expression'' which described the ''Jiyu-ga'' method, "learning without a teacher". Teachers Rinzo Satake and his brother-in-law Shuku Sasaki read Yamamoto's work and became fanatical supporters. They became keen to implement his ideas by replacing the many hours Japanese children had to spend drawing [[ideogram]]s with black [[Indian ink]] with free drawing hours, filled with as much color as possible. For this, they decided to produce an improved wax crayon and in 1921 founded the [[Sakura Color Products|Sakura Cray-Pas Company]] and began production.<ref name=":0" />
The new product was not completely satisfactory, as pigment concentration was low and blending was impossible, so in 1924 they decided to develop a high viscosity crayon: the oil pastel. This used a mixture of mashed [[paraffin wax]], [[stearic acid]] and [[coconut oil]] as a binder.<ref name=":0" /> Designed as a relatively cheap, easily applied, colorful medium, oil pastels granted younger artists and students a greater freedom of expression than the expensive chalk-like pastels normally associated with the fine arts. Until the addition of a stabiliser in 1927, oil pastels came in two types: winter pastels with additional oil to prevent hardening and summer pastels with little oil to avoid melting.<ref name=":0" /> [[State school]]s could not afford the medium and, suspicious of the very idea of "self-expression" in general, favoured the [[coloured pencil|colored pencil]], a cheaper German invention then widely promoted in Europe as a means to instill [[work ethic|work discipline]] in young children.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}
Oil pastels were an immediate commercial success and other manufacturers were quick to take up the idea, such as Dutch company Talens, who began to produce Panda Pastels in 1930. However, none of these were comparable to the professional quality oil pastels produced today. These early products were intended to introduce [[Western world|west]]ern [[art education]] to Japanese children, and not as a fine arts medium, although Sakura managed to persuade some avant-garde artists to acquaint themselves with the technique, among them [[Pablo Picasso]].
In 1947, Picasso, who for many years had been unable to procure oil pastels because of the [[World War II|war condition]]s, convinced Henri Sennelier, a French manufacturer who specialized in high quality art products, to develop a fine arts version. In 1949, [[Sennelier]] produced the first oil pastels intended for professionals and experienced artists.<ref>{{cite web
| url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5581725
| title=Art and History Intersect at a Paris Shop
| publisher=[[NPR]]
| date=2006-07-27
| access-date=2018-06-17}}</ref> These were superior in wax viscosity, texture and pigment quality and capable of producing more consistent and attractive work. Picasso requested that these be produced in 48 different colors.<ref name=":0" />
The Japanese Holbein brand of oil pastels appeared in the mid-1980s with both student and professional grades; the latter with a range of 225 colors.
==Use==
Oil pastels
Oil pastels are easy to paint with and convenient to carry. For this reason they are often used for sketching, though they may also be used for sustained works. Because oil pastels never dry out completely, works are often protected by applying a special [[fixative (drawing)|fixative]] to the painting or by placing the painting in a sleeve before framing.
▲Oil pastels can be used directly in dry form; when done lightly effects are similar to pastel chalks, or heavy build-ups can create an almost [[impasto]] effect. Once applied to a surface the oil pastel pigment can be manipulated with a brush moistened in [[turpentine]], [[linseed oil]], another type of vegetable oil, or another solvent. Alternately, the drawing surface can be oiled before drawing or the pastel itself can be dipped in oil. Since oil pastels are a relatively new invention, the effects of dust and light on oil pastel works is not yet known. Inability to age gracefully would limit their value in galleries, so many are translated into a print form by [[lithography]] or its variant [[glicée]]s.
The medium has known [[wikt:durability|durability]] problems:
* Because the oil does not dry, it continues to permeate the paper. This process degrades both the paper and the color layer as it reduces the flexibility of the latter.
* The stearic acid in the oil tends to make paper brittle
* Both the stearic acid and the wax are prone to [[efflorescence]] or "wax bloom", the building-up of fatty acids and wax on the surface into an opaque white layer.
A work is easily made transparent again by gentle polishing with a woolen cloth, but the three issues result in a color layer made up mainly of brittle stearic acid on top of brittle paper, a fragile combination that can easily crumble away.
A long-term concern is simple [[evaporation]]: half of the [[palmitic acid]] present in a work will have evaporated within 40 years, and within 140 years half of the stearic acid will also have disappeared. Impregnation of the entire art work by [[beeswax]] has been evaluated{{by whom|date=February 2025}} as a [[Art conservation|conservation]] measure.
==Surface and techniques==
[[Image:Example Scraping Oil pastel.JPG|thumb|150px|An example of the ''scraping down'' technique]]
The surface chosen for oil pastels can have a very dramatic effect on the final painting. Paper is a common surface, but this medium can be used on other surfaces including wood, metal, hardboard (often known as "masonite"), [[Medium-density fibreboard|MDF]], canvas and glass. Many companies make papers specifically for pastels that are suitable for use with oil pastels.
Building up layers of color with the oil pastel, called ''layering'', is a very common technique. Other techniques include ''[[underpainting]]'' and ''scraping down'' or [[sgraffito]]. Turpentine, or similar liquids such as [[mineral spirits]], are often used as a blending tool to create a [[wash (visual arts)|wash]] effect similar to some watercolor paintings. Commercially available oil sketching papers are preferred for such technique.
==Grades==
[[Image:Blended Oil pastel.JPG|thumb|150px|A blended picture using mineral spirits and oil pastels]]
There are a number of types of oil pastels, each of which can be classified as either ''scholastic'', ''student'' or ''professional'' grade.
Scholastic grade is the lowest grade; generally the oil pastels are harder and less vibrant than higher grades. It is generally meant for children or new users of oil pastels, and is fairly inexpensive compared to other grades. The middle grade, student grade, is meant for art students and is softer and more vibrant than scholastic grade. They are usually more expensive. Professional grade is the highest grade of oil pastel, and are also the softest and most vibrant, but can be very expensive.
==See also==
* [[Oil stick]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Leslie, Kenneth. ''Oil Pastel: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist,'' Watson-Guptill Publications, 1990. {{ISBN|0-8230-3310-4}}.
* M.H.Ellis, "Oil Pastel", in ''Media and Techniques of Works of Art on Paper'', New York University Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York, 1999.
*
==External links==
[[Category:Art materials]]▼
* [http://www.oilpastelsociety.org/ The Oil Pastel Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118062819/http://www.oilpastelsociety.org/ |date=2021-01-18 }}
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070716232500/http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/wn/wn21/wn21-1/wn21-106.html for a discussion of the evaporation and efflorescence.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oil Pastel}}
[[Category:Pastel]]
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