Oil Pastel Playtime! - June 2023 Mixed Media Kit

by Crystal Johnson June 29, 2023

Hey, y’all! Welcome to the end of June! For my final June project, I used this month’s Mixed Media Kit to create a tropical-themed canvas panel. I love oil pastels! They may require a bit of elbow grease at times to blend, but I love working with them!

Be sure to check out my video where I talk about what’s going on, tell you what I’m doing, and show you how everything (eventually!) blended together.

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There aren’t any “special” tools you absolutely need to work with oil pastels, but a few that are handy to have around are some small sponges, blending stubs, and baby oil. Items you may have around your house already, such as Q-Tips and paper towels, can also work for blending your pastels. You don’t need any oil either, but it can make moving the pastels around a little easier! And you most definitely don’t need a big bottle, but when I bought mine I couldn’t find a smaller bottle of unscented and I don’t like the baby powder scent!

With all of my tools gathered around, I started the scribbling process! I used the yellow, orange, blue, red, and pink pastels to create my sky. After I had some color down on the canvas, I started the blending process. I only needed to use a blending stub for the yellow and orange sections, but when it came time to create the purple hues I was looking for at the top of the sky, I needed to grab up the baby oil to work – and re-work – the blue, red, and pink.

Once I had my sky in place, I decided to experiment a little! I didn’t know how well – or even if – Workable Fixatif would stick to an oil-coated surface, but I went with it (on a practice canvas seen in the video!) and it worked – or at least worked well enough for my purposes!

Once the Workable Fixatif had dried, I began sketching out my leaves. Originally I started with my two leaves leaning in the same direction, however, after working on filling them in, adding some shading, and starting the holes, I realized I would prefer the back leaf to lean in the opposite direction of the front leaf. And this is where the true test of baby oil and Workable Fixatif took place!

I didn’t know if I could “erase” part of the back leaf enough with the baby oil to change its position while still leaving – or at least mostly leaving – the Workable Fixatif unscathed. I wouldn’t suggest trying to vigorously scrub on top of Workable Fixatif – especially if it is already sitting on oil – but I did manage to remove enough of my old leaf to allow for a reposition.

I did have to go back and fix a bit of the sky that can be seen through the leaf’s holes, but – all in all – the process went very well!

Once my leaves were finished, I added another spray of Workable Fixatif, not because I planned on adding more oil pastels, but because I wasn’t entirely sure how well the “Transfer Me” flowers would stick to the oils. I am happy to report that I had no problems getting the transfers in place!

With the transfers on, the only thing left for me to do to finish my canvas was to add some of the Lindy’s Magical Powder. Using a blending brush, I inked on some clear embossing ink through the stencil, then, without removing the stencil, I gently brushed on some of the Magical Powder. The pattern of the stencil also makes me think of tropical leaves, and the Lindy’s gives them a beautiful shimmer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this canvas – because it was all about grabbing pastels and just coloring – and I highly suggest taking time to see where the colors take you! It is relaxing to just grab some colors and go!

Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this Oil Pastel Playtime and it gave you some inspiration to grab your pastels up and see what you can create!

Stay Crafty, Friends

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