Within this project I decided to attempt to use oil pastels for the first time. This was my first attempt, and it went rather badly. I didn’t like the texture of the pastels, especially after they had been layered up, and I found the whole process to be rather tedious and frustrating. I felt as though the colours became very muddied, however I do partially believe this could be due to the small scale on which I was working.
As I didn’t like the lack of distinguishable lines, I decided to scan the piece and digitally add some defined line work, along with some other details. Whilst I do think this added more depth to the piece, I still do not like it very much.
I then decided to see if my issue was the scale I was working at by making a larger piece. I do think this drastically improved the image, as the colours didn’t muddy as much, which I think is due to them having more room to blend.
In this piece I decided to attempt sgraffito on the beak by layering colours. I enjoyed this a lot as I felt it added the depth the piece needed, while entirely avoiding the cakey texture I had previously created.
I do think I will use oil pastels in the future, however I will ensure to work on a larger scale, and I will further experiment with sgraffito in a more in depth manner.