Brilliant pigments, soft, yet rich, add life to this oil pastel art. In my part of the U.S., fall has yet to approach but it will be here before we know it!
Lea here, sharing my love of oil pastels! Oil pastels are the perfect media when you would like texture and pure pigmented color. Niji (nee gee) oil pastels are strong pigments suspended in binders to hold them together. There are several ways to work with oil pastels, I prefer 2 methods: Spread with finger (or blending stump), or painting with odorless mineral spirits.
Rich, creamy, oil pastels, highly pigmented
Beautiful Fall Art can be designed easily with Niji Oil Pastels.
Yasutomo/Niji Products
Blending Stumps
Oil Pastels
Permawriter 07 Black
Painting Brushes
Nori Paste
Other Products
Odorless Mineral Spirits
Rubber Stamp of Pumpkin or Coloring Page, Clip Art
Permanent Black Ink if you use a Rubber Stamp
Decorative papers and elements to finish art (Bo Bunny)
Technique:
Stamp or transfer pumpkin image to white, smooth cardstock.
Color area with a thick coloring of oil pastel in the medium orange (yellow-orange) in the center of the pumpkin. I like to start with the lighter shades and add the darker when blending. Blending darker into light is easier than light into dark. Blend with your finger or blending stump. My fingers are warm and the oils helps to break down the binders. Niji oil pastels have binders that will work smoothly for this technique.
Notice that when one color is blended with another, a third color is formed. In this case, the colors are monochromatic (one color of several shades), but think of your grade school art class when you learned that yellow + blue = green, yellow + red + orange, etc. Think of that as you choose the colors you’d like to work with, always starting with the lightest color first.
The black outline is a mix of ink, oil pastel, and Permawriter.
The highlight is more in the middle where the bump of the pumpkin is. Notice the 3rd color created by blending the dark orange and yellow-orange together.
When thinking about shading, think of the direction of where the sun would shine down on the scene/object. The sun is hitting the center area of the pumpkin where the pumpkin bulges out. The stem, brown is the darker area and goes into a green as the light hits it. You see “olive” green where the brown and green mix. for the leaves, it is hard to see in a photo but the highlight (where the sun hits) is done in lime green. The base is green, and the shadow (where the sun doesn’t hit) is olive green.
Nori Paste is a staple to any paper craft project!
As I add the decorative paper and elements, I shade the flag tags (in the upper right) and the wood strip on the top to add texture.
Oil Pastels lend themselves to almost any theme or design, all that is left is imagination!!!
For more information on how to purchase Yasutomo products please check out their website:
www.yasutomo.comCre8tiveLea Yours – Lea
Lea Cioci is a current member of the Yasutomo/Niji Design Team.
Niji Creative Collective 