How it all began

In the beginning of January, I started to explore working with Chinese ink. I’ve always loved inks, but Isa Cienfuegos‘ latest Skillshare class, Lose your fear with ink, really threw me in an exploratory mode.

I have made many many pieces. They are not all completed of course… But this idea of the white pastel to strengthen the white from the paper kept coming back in my head.

So one evening, I finally pulled out an oil pastel Sennelier set I have bought used from an insta friend and experimented…. and fell in love.

Oil pastel added to an ink piece

So my first try was to add white to add contrast to the white of the paper that was left white. I wanted it to pop more. As I added the pastel though, I felt it was too thick, so I started to “smoosh it” into the paper with a piece of cloth.

Oh my…. the magnificent blends. I had read about how beautifully pastels mix together on paper, but I wasn’t exactly prepared for the beauty of it mixed into the ink…. it really makes a beautiful effect. And my test page quickly got a number of colors on it to see what would happen. The colors mix together and can even show over the black ink (tests on the bottom).

But my most favorite thing is the way you can blend the over the black ink. I will try making some galaxies of sorts on some of the pieces I have prepared, because the textures are soooo beautiful.

How to make the blends?

So the technique is pretty simple. You put a bit of the color from the oil pastel on your drawing, then you sort of rub it in the paper until you are satisfied. I love smooth blends, but you could also leave much more texture.

You can also rub the oil pastel in with a little less zeal. And then, you get more of the “oil painting” texture left on the page. It is truly amazing the range of feel you can get from these.

And then yupo and oil pastels

And then, for some inexplicable reason, I wanted to try on Yupo paper. The pieces I prepped for pastel and ink went a little weird though, I’ll have to come back to these.

So I decided to pull out a new sheet of yupo heavy and try a little “drawing”, but leaving all the marks on there and mixing a bit the colors. I was left with an abstract landscape of sorts…. It is soooo cool. And the textures. Wonderful.

Don’t these textures make you want to jump in? I really cant wait to explore these two mediums together.

Materials used in this article

I will receive a commission if you purchase these materials from these links over at Jackson’s Art Supplies, at no extra cost to you. If you are a new customer, you will receive a 10% discount on your first order at Jackson’s by using this link or any of the following.

• Set of 24 creamy oil pastels from Sennelier
• Arches hotpress watercolor paper
• Yupo heavy from the little pads (I order these often, they are such fun pads!)
• Traditional Chinese Ink Ultra Black from Yaustomo (available at Kama Pigments)
• I also made many experiments with this ink on Hahnemuhle Bamboo Mixed media paper, one of my favorite ever paper