Oil pastel and graphite

[William Markiewicz]

You may be familiar with my woodcuts if you looked at my home page,
but now I'd like to share my experience concerning another medium, in
particular, how to mix successfully two seemingly incompatible media
like oil pastel and graphite. I don't know if I invented this or if
somebody else tried it before I did, but anyway I invented it for
myself, just by experimenting. If you draw on paper with pencil and
then try to cover it with oil pastel, the result will be horrible,
mushy, dirty, hopeless stains. But, you can mix successfully in the
following way: before starting to work with oil pastel on white
paper, cover the paper with a layer of white oil pastel. On this
surface you can draw with your pencil (preferably soft, maybe hard
depending on what you want to achieve). You will be surprised at how
the pencil catches on the oil pastel against all odds. Then rub over
your drawing with white oil pastel so you have the graphite in a
"sandwich" between two layers of oil pastel. And then you'll
discover a surprise; the graphite starts to undulate, to "dance" as
if it would be a frozen liquid, extremely malleable. You can make a
shape with it, whatever you want. You almost have the impression that
you are sculpting. There are great possibilities of a variety of
shapes and also a variety of shades from dark to silvery. You can play
as you wish and achieve shadows, accents. It replaces, with success
in may cases, black. When you mix it with various yellows, for
instance, you get silvery greens. Whatever colour you use later you
will achieve a silvery, "airy" quality. At least this is what I
experienced. I wish you a lot of fun.

William
http://web.idirect.com/~vagabond