anyone work with oil pastels?

[Megan Milligan]

I'm just getting back into my artwork after several months (a semester at
school), and I'm looking at oil pastels as a new medium to explore. I
already work with regular pastels, watercolor, colored pencil, & acrylic.
Can anyone recommend the best oil pastel brands and a good reference book.
I find oil pastel books are few & far in between. Thanks.! -- Megan

[Bedges]

Megan wrote...

hmmm, well me too. you'll be lucky to find anything specifically on
oil-pastel techniques. many books which cover painting in general
terms also mention oil pastels, but really your best bet is to
experiment. the main advantage of oil pastels that i've found is the
ability to blend using turps or white spirit, just like regular oil
paints. if you intend to try this though, make sure the support you
use won't let the turps bleed through, which *can* be a nice effect -
makes ordinary paper all translucent - but a pain if you didn't mean
it to happen. good thick card which has been sealed with gesso or
ordinary matt vynl house-paint works fine.

as for brands, again only exploration of art supply stores will tell
you. the last set i had was made by.... can't remember, i'll look them
out for you. olivio springs to mind, but that's margarine isn't it ;)

regards in the meantime,
b