Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Collaboration: The Pigephant (Evolution of the grub)

Someone left me a perfectly nice outline of an elephant, I assume as a collaboration, and I messed it up BIG TIME.  I'd never used oil pastels to speak of, so this was my first attempt, and I didn't really know what I was doing.

First try:

Pigephant (the grub)
My husband said it looked like a grub.  I was calling it a pigephant.  I decided the back legs were too far back.  (That was something I did!)  I kept fiddling with it and finally had this:

King Tut-tut
I decided his trunk was too short.  (?)  I made it longer.  I moved the tusks (but couldn't quite hide where the old one was.  I also moved the eye.

King Pink
So here is the maybe final version, in my round 3 book, a collaboration.  It may still need more work.  Can anyone tell me how to preserve it when I finish?  Can I spray it with fixative?  Will fixative stick?  Do oil pastels ruin the paper?

I am sorry to say I haven't had a chance, with the wedding et al, to post about my returned round 3 Moley. Sometime relatively soon, I hope.

5 comments:

merrytait said...

I didn't put it on the scanner for fear the messy stuff would ruin the scanner.

ballookey said...

I've used oil pastels a lot - usually I lay down all the drawing, the paint on top of them with Turpenoid (a turpentine substitute) that works them and smoothes them out.

But they will leach out oil for years after being used. In the short term once they've set they're not too easily marred, but you're going to want to protect the rest of the pages in the book from the oil for long-term storage. I haven't used them in a book, so I don't know the best way, but I would use butcher paper or baking parchment. I don't know if that's the right move, but I wouldn't just want regular paper soaking up the oil - it'll eventually work through regular paper.

merrytait said...

Thanks so much Ballookey--I already put it in my book, and one other, unfinished, but I won't do any more in there.

We are leaving in moments to go repair Graham's car 800+- mile round trip.

Ballookey, or anyone else--I made an oil painting on paper, is there anything I can do to preserve the paper, like painting the back with gesso or medium>?

ballookey said...

The paper won't be harmed, but if there's anything drawn on the back, then the oil will bleed through and spoil it. The pastels are meant to be used on paper, after all. I meant if you put a protective layer of paper before and after, I would try to find something that will resist the oil somewhat rather than absorb it, as it might work it's way through a few layers.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Oh good, oh good, thank you!!!