The Red Boat

Oil Pastel on paper

© Copyright 2015 Valentino J. Troyli

I covered a sheet of heavy water color paper with a mixture of red acrylic paint and clear gesso. The combination of the two will protect the paper from the oil pastel, red providing a background color and the gesso providing the 'tooth' for the pastel.

I sketched the picture using an acrylic pen, covered the drawing with a green oil pastel wash using mineral spirits to blend the pastel over the paper. I let that dry for an hour before adding other colors to the sketch. The oil pastel went on smoothly with the combination of the gesso tooth and the mineral spirits. Areas that needed correcting were easily scraped off and done over. 

This was an interesting experiment and will be helpful in future paintings using oil pastels.