Oil Pastels, Oil, and Crayon Resists – Friday Art Group

Did you know that oil pastels are oil soluble? It seems somewhat obvious in retrospect, but I had no idea. There was a project in our Kiwi Crate (that ironically we haven’t done) that I think involves drawing the aurora by using oil pastels and then smearing them with oil. I read a brief description and then started experimenting. I discovered that crayons (as you would expect) are not oil soluble, so you can use them as a resist. You can actually create a multi resist, as you can use the crayons as a resist for the oil+oil pastels, both of which act as a resist for water colors.

But what we did for art group was the simple one layer resist, drawing with crayon, then blending on top with oil pastels rubbed with oil. We out pans of mineral oil (because it is clearer than vegetable oil but they both work) with toothbrushes, and pans of oil pastels, and pans of crayons, and let the kids at it. And discussed the science with nice words like solubility.

In the picture the hearts are drawn with a red crayon, and the overlay colors with oil pastels. I have started scrubbing the oil pastels with a toothbrush dipped in oil to blend them, but you can still see grainy parts that haven’t been touched. This was a fun way to make holiday cards. The downside is that the paper does get saturated with oil, so I didn’t really want to put any of them in the girl’s portfolios.

Have you ever blended oil pastels with oil?