Oil Pastels – Page 3 – Katie Jeanne Wood

Drawings or paintings?

What Nothing Could Be
Available here

I’m still trying to figure out if art made with oil pastels should be considered drawings or paintings. I go back and forth using the two words when I’m describing my artwork, mostly because I don’t want to be repetitive and write “drawing” a million times.

Until The Feeling Fades Away
Available here

The definition in my mind is – if it’s created with a paintbrush & paint, then it’s a painting. If using oil pastels alone, it’s a drawing.

Straight To The Cutting Edge
Available here

However, when I’ve looked at the drawing category on different sites online, most are done with pencil or charcoal. I don’t see any oil pastel work there, so maybe I should be labeling my pastel portraits as paintings, not drawings?

She Recalls
Available here

At the end of the day, what difference does it make what anyone calls anything? I’ll probably continue to use both drawing and painting interchangeably. I hope this doesn’t confuse anyone.

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I’m currently on hiatus from creating new work to sell, but there are plenty of paintings in my shop for sale. Shipping is free within the USA, if you purchase art directly from me. I also sell originals & prints on eBay and Etsy. You can get some great deals on my weekly eBay auctions and/or on some of my flash sales I have on Etsy.

As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you.

Other places to find me online.

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Side Pony oil pastels portrait painting

Side Pony
11×14 inch oil pastel portrait
on canvas board
Available here

I don’t need a hair stylist.
My pillow gives me a new hairstyle every morning.

I finished this portrait a few months back,
but forgot to follow up on it here.

If you’d like to see how I created this painting,
you can see the work in progress
shots HERE

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely weekend.

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As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you.

Other places to find me online.

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Raw experimentation

Sketchbooks are for the playground, the jamming sessions, the warmup, and trails where I produce and play on my terms, escaping judgment, harvesting shapes, textures, and interplays that would never have happened had I been forced to show the work to the viewer. If I had it my way, everything would come from the sketchbook, it’s where the raw experimentation takes place, that static between what you know and what you don’t. I would recommend sketchbooks, or something which serves the same purpose, to any artist. I’m not sure how people are able to produce work without it.

Chris Gambrell quote from an interview I recently read

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Listening to: Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence full album

As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you.

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Oil pastel portrait painting work in progress – Inviting an Inquiry

Oil pastel portrait painting
work in progress
Inviting an Inquiry

8×8 inch
cardboard art

Drawing is rather like playing chess:
your mind races ahead
of the moves
that you eventually make.
David Hockney

Blending blending and more blending
until my wrist falls off
😂

This was another character who was living in my head. By that I mean, I didn’t use a reference photo to create her because she already existed in my imagination.

Inviting An Inquiry

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely day.

PS: Those of you on my subscription list got a bonus post from me on Friday. Sorry about that! I messed up, and was supposed to schedule one of them for next Friday. I’ve rescheduled it, but you shouldn’t receive another email when it reposts.

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Mixed media painting using acrylics and oil pastels – how I combine the two

Oil pastel portrait
acrylic paint background

Most of my work these days is a mixture of oil pastels and acrylic paint. These two mediums don’t mix well together, but still can be used in the same painting.

When using oil pastels, it’s the same basic rule as using acrylic & oil paint together. As long as the acrylic paint is underneath the oil pastels or in an area alongside the oil pastels, it’s fine.

Oil pastel portrait
acrylic paint background

You shouldn’t paint with acrylics over oils because the paint will crack as it dries. Same rule applies for oil pastels & acrylic paint. I’m not sure if oil pastels crack, but they are water resistant, which means acrylic paint won’t stick or dry if painted on top of the pastels.

Oil pastel portrait
acrylic paint background

Oil pastels are slightly different than oil paints because they never dry fully. It’s more like the pastels set & firm up a bit over time. Varnishing them helps give the painting a protective coating, but oil pastel paintings can be scratched if not taken care of properly.

I leave my paintings on my drying shelves to air out for a few days before I varnish them. If you try to varnish too soon the oil pastels will smear. I didn’t know this when I first started using varnish instead of fixative spray. I tried to varnish a painting right after I was finished creating it. The oil pastels didn’t have time to set, and I smeared one of my portraits a lovely shade of orange. Oops!! Lesson learned.

The varnish I use is Liquitex. Clear gesso also works well, also, and gives the surface a grungy, gritty feel, which I love. I’ve been using it in my work for years.

I don’t recommend using the clear gesso between layers of oil pastels, like you can with acrylic paint. If you use clear gesso on acrylic paint, it sets those layers, and you can easily paint more on top. Doesn’t work the same with oil pastels. I’ve tried to go back in and fix little areas, but once an oil pastel painting has clear gesso on it, it doesn’t accept new layers easily. So make sure your oil pastel painting is completed before using clear gesso on it.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely creative day.

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I’m posting new artwork every day here in my shop. Shipping is free within the USA, if you purchase art directly from me. I also sell originals & prints on eBay and Etsy. You can get some great deals on my weekly eBay auctions and/or on some of my flash sales I have on Etsy.

As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you.

Other places to find me online.

***

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WIP & going off topic about the weather

WIP shot of an oil pastel portrait by Katie Jeanne Wood oil pastel portrait painting

Quick blog today to share these pics of a WIP oil pastel portrait. I was using an 11×14 inch canvas board for this one, so it’s quite large.

This is what most of my paintings look like before I blend all the colors together with a tortillon. I put down the darker colors where I think the shadows should be. I wasn’t using a reference photo for this painting, so I was just guessing, and making it up as I went along.

WIP shot of an oil pastel portrait by Katie Jeanne Wood

I worked on this one about a month ago. I can’t remember if I took more WIP shots of it or not. I’ll have to look to see when I get a second.

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Off topic
Weather

Storm chasers, Reed Timmer and Brandon Copic were both here in the area Friday, and things got a bit dicey for about 6 hours. Luckily, we didn’t get the derecho or tornadoes they thought we would.

It’s a little unnerving to watch these guys drive through the outskirts of your city, and neighboring towns, while they’re livestreaming on YT, I must say. I had no idea anything was going on until I saw Reed go live, and then I was like..oooh, he’s HERE???

Btw, Reed was able to capture a beautiful shelf cloud at around the 2 hour mark in the video. Also, the beginning of the video is haunting, but quite beautiful.

My husband stopped to shoot a supercell (both photos above) on his way to work. Supercells are rotating clouds that can produce a great amount of wind, hail, rain, and tornadoes.

I thought I’d post this from the NWS, in case you get bad weather in your area. Tornadoes seem to be popping up everywhere these days. It’s good to know the difference between a watch and warning.

If tornado sirens are going off, there is a tornado in the area atm or could be soon, so shelter in place quickly – NOT under a bridge, flyover, or overpass.

Reed is now in the White Mountains of NH (where I grew up) with pretty scary drone footage of what’s going on there.

Please stay safe out there.

Being Human is Beautiful

How is it Friday, and the middle of July already? I’m having a crazy busy week that just flew by. My internal body clock has gone a little mad, and I’ve been automatically waking up every morning at exactly 6:31 for the past week or so. Why? I have no idea, but I get in repetitive cycles like this, not by choice.

I spent 7 hours painting playing with new watercolor paint (review coming soon) in my art journal last night. I was still up at 1am, so you’d think I’d sleep in a bit, but nope. Woke up, reached for my phone thinking it was late, but it was 6:31 yet AGAIN. So weird.

I’m starting to think these numbers mean something, but what? Hm..June 31st? haha..there’s no such day. Add the numbers together? Okay, 10. Still doesn’t mean anything. Maybe I should play the lottery? Is there still a pick 3? Idk? I don’t buy lottery tickets. All I know is it’s beginning to feel like groundhogs day, and I’m going through the same motions day after day.

One thing that is a little different is I’m on a break from creating work to sell. I’ve been focusing more on office work this week, since I’m still trying to get a stack of 50+ new paintings listed & cross-listed in all my online shops…which brings the number up to 150+ listings. Oy.

I don’t want to add new paintings to the stack, otherwise, there’ll be no end in sight. The pile is dwindling down, and I have roughly 60 listings to go. Once I get it finished, I thinking of taking a week or two off to recharge. Maybe the entire month of August? We’ll see. I’m sooo ready for a hiatus – at least from my computer, and sleeping past 6:31 am would be nice, also.

Being Human is Beautiful
Oil pastel portrait painting
8×8 cardboard art
Katie Jeanne Wood
Available here

I hope you have a lovely weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

PS: I asked my husband if there is a pick 3 lottery. He didn’t know, so I googled it. There is, and he’s out buying us a ticket for tonight. hahahaha!! 631, baby!! I highly doubt we’ll win, but ya never know.

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As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you.

Other places to find me online.

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Around my art studio lately photoblog

New oil pastels
Faber Castell

I bought these oil pastels a few months back, but haven’t had a chance to use them yet. I thought I’d make some quick marks on a post-it to show you the pigment.

I will write a review on these oil pastels as soon as I’ve had a chance to use them a bit.

Heart FOUND!
I spied this in my art journal.
Thank you, past-self
for sending me your love.
😜

shipped out a bunch of smaller paintings

I had to ship out quite a few paintings in this order, so I photographed how I did it. The larger paintings on the bottom – sandwiched between cardboard that I painted to brighten up the dull recycled cardboard. The smaller paintings on top.

I also bought some new cheap acrylic paint to use in my art journals. These are tiny tubes, which I like because I can throw them in a zippered pouch, and go. I wouldn’t buy these to use for larger paintings, but they’ll work fine for my art journals.

Also, my husband really likes these markers and this art journal & pens I got him for his birthday back in May.

meditating Buddhist woman
wip

I’ve been working larger on cardboard pieces lately. The cardboard box I was cutting had flaps that measured exactly 10×10 inches wide, so there are several this size. I can’t wait to share the new portraits with you.

What else? Oh, I’ve been enjoying dandelion tea and turmeric tea every afternoon lately. I prefer turmeric tea because it has a spicy kick to it. However, both have health benefits, which seem to help my autoimmune issues. I switch back and forth between them, depending on how I’m feeling each day.

Gonna end it here with a photo of Miss Pea Doodle Doo sleeping. Awww. This precious girl.

Have you seen Jackson Galaxy rocking out to the heavy metal song Toe Beans? lol Too funny!!

I hope you have a lovely day.

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As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you.

Other places to find me online.

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