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What Are the Ingredients for Oil Pastels?

The first oil pastels were invented in Japan just after World War I. Improvements such as paraffin, stearic acid, coconut oil and stabilizers transformed the original waxy crayon into something more similar to what we know of today. In 1947, the painter Pablo Picasso asked an art manufacturer to create a professional line of oil pastels for artists, perfecting the balance of oils, wax and pigment.

  1. Ingredients

    • Oil pastels are a blend of pigment, non-drying oil and a wax binder.

    Function

    • Artists, craftsmen and students use oil pastels as a drawing medium on paper, board or canvas.

    Effects

    • Use turpentine, linseed oil, white spirits or vegetable oil on a brush to manipulate oil pastels. You can also mix the pastels with turpentine or mineral spirits to dilute them.

    Features

    • You can layer rich, opaque colors to create impasto effects. Alternatively, after you have layered the colors, you can scrape them off.

    Considerations

    • Oil pastels never dry out. To help preservation, spray finished works with special fixative and store them behind glass.

    Warning

    • Durability is a problem with oil pastel artwork. The oil, which never dries, tends to eat through the paper, and the stearic acid can make paper brittle over time.

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