Customer Reviews

Oil Pastel: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an unusually thorough book. If you can get your hands on a copy, you should do so. Unfortunately, it is out of print. The publisher is Watson-Guptill and the book was originally published in 1990. The ISBN No. is 0-8230-3310-4. Here's why the book wins my vote:

It has a ton of pictures of finished art works done in oil pastel and in mixed media, using oil pastel and other media. There is a section which tells of the lightfastness of different brands of oil pastel currently on the market so readers can see actual pictures of brands exposed to sunlight for 3 months and how the sunlight does/doesn't alter the colors. There is also a "nitty-gritty" section describing the characteristics of each major brand available on the market currently, as of 1990 when the book was written, but these are the same brands available today (creaminess, hardness and what you can do with each). There are detailed diagrams of different methods of using oil pastels, broken down into steps, so readers have step by step directions of how to use oil pastels in a variety of ways. There are many ideas for composition using oil pastels. The author, Kenneth Leslie, makes it a point to tell readers exactly how each of the many works shown were developed in oil pastel (e.g., by direct observation of objects such as in a still-life, or by using photographs or collage, etc.) and on what kind of supports (e.g. which grounds to use on paper, museum board, masonite, wood, etc.) There are just lots and lots of pointers about using the medium of oil pastel. Many ideas of using oil pastels in concert with other media serve as a springboard for individual ideas. For example, I read a section of explanation and then, quite easily, I could mentally figure out how to apply the techniques shown to my own work. This will be my bible for doing oil pastel painting.

While Leslie writes beautifully, the only real information I learned from this book was which pastels held the best lightfastness rating and one technique of scratching I hadn't yet considered. Other than that, this book is geared very much towards beginners of oil pastel. All of the beautifully colored pieces he has pictures tend to lean towards abstract and illustrative ideas and expressions vs. more realistic interpretations of things. Additionally as a result there's really no other meathod to learn from in this book. He brushes against the ability to make realistic pictures via one artist, but goes into no detail as to how she accomplishes this task. The other great disappointment to me was Leslie's work itself. All of his works shown throughout could have been created by a High school student. He shows no real ability or understanding of how this medium can be worked. I would not recommend this book at it's original price of $32 and especially would not recommend spending double that for a used out of print copy. Save your money and check it out at the library or look for more informationon the internet.

This is the ultimate resource for anyone interested in the medium.
I've read it cover to cover twice and have referred to it a number of times. Although I've also worked in pastels, I enjoy oil pastels the most. It's like sculpting on paper. An inspirational source ...

An excellent book - one of the few on Oil Pastels written. Detailed and insightful.

This is one of only a few books on oil pastel available, and unfortunately it is out of print. I haven't yet seen the other (by John Elliot), so I can't compare which is better.

Leslie starts with an overview of oil pastels. He describes the qualities of the different brands (unfortunately Arc-en-Ciel brand doesn't seem to exist anymore, they look like they would have been fun). He also shows the results of an informal lightfastness test he conducted of the brands.

Leslie covers color, markmaking, mixing oil pastel with other media, and general "image directions": still life, landscape, figure/portrait, invention, and abstraction. He describes several ways to make fine lines, and shows ways to fix mistakes. It has a great variety of information on techniques useful for an artist just starting to use oil pastels. You are not going to read this book and find you have a technique down pat, because like all other art media, there is no one correct technique. Finding what works for your own art is a matter of trying things.

Leslie obviously knows what he is doing but I don't always like his art - I find it too purposefully childlike. However, there is a great variety of artwork illustrating this book, from realism to abstraction, showing quite a range of what can be done with the medium.

One useful thing in this book is a recipe for making your own oil pastels - I can't find another anywhere. Since Leslie uses stand oil in his recipe (a drying oil), this might more accurately be called an oil stick recipe.

I believe Leslie's information on the chemistry and permanence of the medium is outdated and/or incorrect. He claims that the oil in oil pastels is a mixture of siccative (drying) and nondrying oils. In the section on permanence, he calls the siccative oils "more dependable", but siccative oils oxidize (and eventually ruin) unprotected paper. Everything else I've read claims oil pastels are made with "inert" nondrying oil that shouldn't damage paper, though I can find no definitive answer to this.

I got my copy through interlibrary loan, read it through and copied down the useful information. I've been using oil pastel for a while so I don't feel the need to buy my own copy. If you are very interested in using oil pastels and can't borrow a copy, it is a worthwhile purchase.

I read things in here that have changed my way of painting, both in watercolor and in oil paint! Even if I didn't continue painting in oil pastels, which I will, I shall forever be grateful to Mr. Leslie for making so many insightful statements regarding the process of creating. Thank goodness for people like Kenneth Leslie who are willing to spend the time to write such a book and share their valuable experience.

Published instruction specifically on technique in oil pastel is pretty hard to find. This book provides excellent instruction on all the basics, plus many reproductions of artist's works in oil pastel which nicely illustrate the breadth of capability of the medium. One minor weak point of the book is that the information on different brands of pastel may be a bit dated (I am no expert here, but that is my impression).

As far as I am aware, this is the best of an admittedly small field. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning how to use this medium.

Received the book in excellent condition and very quickly. I would buy from them again

I have many books in my collection about oil pastels and I have learned more techniques from this book, over the others.

This was an old out of date book with not very much good information that was tremendously overpriced!