Q: What is the difference between oil sticks, oil pastels, and oil bars?
A: All contain pigment oil and wax--just in varying
proportions and shapes. Oil sticks are the hardest and can be used on
surfaces prepared for oil paint. They are made with an oil that dries
to a hard film, and they contain only enough wax to mold them into
their crayon shape. Artists can work a brush and turpentine into an
oil-stick line drawing and manipulate it, then draw on top of the
surface again with more oil stick for a calligraphic effect. They can
be built up to a fairly thick layer, scraped, thinned with mineral
spirits, brushed, and manipulated in many ways. In contrast, oil
pastels are prepared with a nondrying oil, have a greater proportion of
wax, do not form a durable paint film, and do not dry completely. They
are soft, opaque, and have a wide range of permanent colors,
particularly rich, deep darks. Like dry pastels, they blend together
well to produce painterly effects. Oil pastels dissolve in turpentine.
Oil bars are a variation on oil sticks.