This is an oil pastel exercise that is useful way to explore how colours can be mixed by layering. Rather than use blending tools, the point is to use hatched lines.The lines are spaced apart to allow for the colours to show through. This also leave the surface area open so that I can continue to add more layers of colour. The effect is both a physical mix and an optical mix of colours.
I am using two analogous colours that should mix to create a colour that is found in between them. In this case I used cobalt blue and red violet with the expected result to be a blue violet. I wanted the final image to have a coherent colour. In other words, the different areas should achieve the same colour so that the final composition looks like a monochrome. Here are the steps that I took to do the demo drawing using three tone of cobalt blue, red violet and white.
For each layer of colour, I alternated between doing a red violet layer, then a blue layer.
A key element when doing oil pastel is to always work from lighter to darker and to use a medium to light pressure. As you can see from the steps above, the composition gets progressively darker as more layers of colour are added.
I hope the oil pastel enthusiasts out there will find this useful.
 |
| Initial layer of red violet |
|
 |
| Cobalt blue layer |
|
 |
| Notice that I am establishing the tones. |
|
 |
| Close-up showing different colours and tones |
|
 |  |
 |
 |
| Final closeup. The blues and violets are more obvious here. |
|
