The Bottom Line
If you like the saturated colors of oil paint and instant gratification of drawing, then oil sticks or pigment sticks are a medium you should try. Winsor & Newton's Oilbars come in over 30 colors, plus a colorless one that functions as a medium for blending or spreading colors.
Pros
- Crossover medium that makes painting and drawing on one artwork really easy.
- Use "as is" to draw straight onto the canvas or paper with oil paint, as lines or shaded tone.
- Can be used with oil painting mediums and converted into "normal" oil paint consistency.
- Dries with time like oil paint (unlike oil pastels which never dry).
- Can be mixed with tube oil paints and alkyds.
Cons
- Don't expect a cheaper alternative for tube paint, oil sticks are an oil medium in their own right.
- Slow drying time, as with oil paint (days to touch dry; months to varnish dry).
- Need to remember that the fat over lean rule still apply. Don't use under thin layers of oil paint.
Description
- Artists' quality oil paint presented in stick form, consisting of pigment combined with linseed oil and wax.
- Oilbars have a sticky, soft-butter consistency. A thin skin forms over the end when it's not in use; simply peel this off.
- 35 colors available in small (slim 17ml) and standard (50ml) stick sizes. Four colors in an extra-large stick (stump, 165ml).
- Also a colorless Oilbar, for blending and spreading/glazing color. (Think of it as the equivalent of oil medium.)
Guide Review - Review: Winsor & Newton Artist's Oilbars
Giacometti is better known for his tall, thing sculptures than his paintings, but I have long liked the latter with the strong lines all about them. I've lacked the patience to keep dipping a brush into paint to do something similar in my own painting, and charcoal into wet paint didn't do it for me. But now I've tried Winsor & Newton's Oilbars and felt how smoothly they work, seen how vibrant the colors are, I think I'm going to have another serious go at incorporating line into paintings. While I mostly paint with acrylics, oilsticks can of course be used on top of acrylic, as any oil paint can.
What I have already had great results with is using the Oilbars for creating monotypes. Drawing with the sticks onto a piece of glass, placing a piece of paper on top (damp gave me better results than dry), and running a brayer over it.
