I love painting with oil sticks. Also called paint sticks or oilbars, they are real oil paint but in a form that is so natural and immediate for me. They allow me to gain effects similar to what I can get in pastel painting. There are the added benefits of no brushes to clean, no wasted paint, and drawing fast and loose. I love the line and textures that I get!
The greatest drawback to oil sticks for me has been having to clean the tips of dried paint film before I could begin painting. I tried many ways of storing them to keep them from drying out, to no avail. Thanks to artist Lyn Lasneski, I have discovered a method of storing them so that all I have to do is dry them off and paint! It's so simple, I wonder why I never thought of it?? After use, just immerse the tips in water. Voila! No struggling to get the tips ready to use again!! Since they are oil paint, they resist any dissolving.
If you love to drawing and love textures, you might enjoy working with oil sticks. The various brands I have used are Sennelier, Winsor Newton, Shiva, and R&F. My favorites are the first three. Although they have dynamite colors, R&F tends to be too soft to suit my style.
As the commercial once said, "Try'em, you'll like 'em!"
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