Oil Pastels Varnish ► How to Seal and Protect

Today I bring you a review of Sennelier’s Oil Pastel Fixative and I show you how I protect my oil pastels when I’m finished with my drawing / painting. I will also do a scratch test and comparison with Liquitex Matte Medium and Gloss Gel Medium.

#oilpastel #oilpastels #paintingforbeginners

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*This video is not sponsored
*Original background music by David Boily & Syndia
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[HeatherShreve]

The other missing piece here, as I do use oil pastels, and have been painting for 50 years, is underneath oil pastels I use GESSO-- so that helps adherence and that scratch-thing...also, my experience is the Sennelier fixative makes my oil pastels ROCK hard --I've never had a problem with any scratches, or anything...and then you can use an oil varnish like Gamvar or Chealsea Damar Lavender varnish which is petroleum free.

[lcarolc]

First Syndia, , thank you for providing much needed information regarding fixatives and varnishes for oil pastels. I feel like the insistance that oil pastels Must be protected under glass may be detrimental to people accepting oil pastels as a great medium. I personally dislike glass framed art work. Many modern galleries in the US will not accept glass framed art because it looks dated, is expensive and just doesn’t give the right message.

I wonder if a scratch test is misleading without at least 3 -4 applications of Sennelier Oil Pastel Fixative. with 24 hours in between each application. I wait at least 14 days after I finish an oil pastel painting before spraying. I then allow 24 hours between each light application. After 3-4 sprays with this technique, my framed paintings have held up very well for several years so far. I’ve had no fading, no scratches. I’ve been able to dust, touch, move the paintings and ship them with no problems. Hope this information is helpful. Again, thank you for sharing your information.

[RussellAlderton]

you can varnish with gloss to make tough then varnish with matte to knock back the gloss effect.

[hossamsami]

Hello Syndia! Very intersesting topic. Thanks for this instructive video.

I've talked to a well known art supplier working with French museums. Apparently, oil pastels do more or less dry after one to three years. After this period, it is possible to use an oil pastel varnish with oil pastels as it kind of interacts with them the same as with oil paint. Varnish gets yellow with time however, so the best is to use a thin layer and to respect the pastel drying period. Concerening the acrylic gels you used, they might be more stable in time due to their synthetic nature.

Regards

[naw]

Hey, so I tried liquitex acrylic gloss gel over an oil pastel picture I made, today. Unfortunately, every brush stroke created massive streaks in my picture that are really not great. There's no saving this picture, but that's okay. Next time, I'll try a spray fixative first, then gloss gel over it.

I hope this helps someone else before they ruin a nice picture.

[clintatk]

Thank you for tackling this subject! Here are some thoughts from my own experience:
1.I agree that acrylic gloss offers the strongest protection. I use a paint sprayer to apply, so no streaks or smudges! I use an inexpensive industrial sprayer off of Amazon with a small compressor.

2. You can spray acrylic matte or satin medium on top of the dried gloss layer to gain the matte/satin finish.

3. As you say, the sealer is just that, a layer on top of an unstable oil base. Therefore even the gloss layer can be torn away, so still be gentle! Doing so it will last a long time and can be wiped with a damp rag to remove dust and grime

Thanks again. 👍

[paws]

Hi as a painter I use Mediums regularly, Liquitex Matt Medium and other brands can be difficult to use if you want them to be streak free. I water my medium down to nearly half because it dries very quickly. while you are using it and can cause it to streak. Never go back and brush more on once you have done a brush stroke, do one layer and let it dry, I recommend at least two layers, if you brush it on one way in the next layer brush it on the opposite way. Use a very soft nylon brush as wide as you can get, fewer brush strokes the better and skim the brush over the surface to stop it making groves with the bristles. It takes practice and I myself can say it is my lest favorite task to seal my paintings but it has light fast properties and you can use varnish on top whether you want a gloss, satin or matt finish, putting a Matt Varnish on top will take the gloss away from the medium. Hope this was helpful and thank you for your video I really enjoyed it 🙂

[stardroplet]

Putting the item in a cardboard box is genius! I will do that with my shoes from now on when I spray shoe protector on them!

[LynnePriceStudio]

To varnish watercolors, I use a a gloss spray varnish, 3 - 4 coats. Then I use a matte spray varnish on top, two coats. The reason I use the matte second is: 1) matte sprays and matte mediums have a tendency to make a picture milky., and 2) Ggoss coats bring out the colors. So, when I apply the matte spray on top of the gloss, I already have sharp colors. This might work for oil pastels (appyl gloss first, then go over the gloss with matte).

[gargoylecat]

I work in apn aet store. You can use Satin Gel Medium if you dont want it to be glossy or go over the gell with an acrylic varnish. Id use Satin Medium or Satin Topcoat. You can maybe use the sennelier fixative then an acrylic top coat

[pac]

Probably overkill, but this is my approach. A quick spray of the good fixative. Just to hold the oil pastels in place. Then a quick coat of the gloss medium. Once that dries, top it off with matte medium to reduce the gloss. What I worry about is what will happen over time. It makes me reticent to use my oil pastels even though I love them. On top of everything else, framing with glass is expensive, heavy, and hard to ship.

[yulinsu]

So helpful! I want to try using the liquitex gloss gel and see if I can paint over my painting following the original strokes to keep the texture and movement. Gonna do some experiment on it, thank you for the information and inspiration!

[liliyadudko]

thank you for sharing. I also have seen artists preserve works with glossy gel. The reason to use spray is if you are willing to redo your painting. to add something or reuse the surface. framing is pretty expensive part of finished work)

[ValleyMermaid]

I love this video so much! And your art piece here is so gorgeous!!! I’ve watched it several time! I wish I could find more tutorials on whimsical, oil pastel art, like this❤❤❤.

[lesleyharrington]

I have used gloss medium and then minwax polycrylic when I have used oil pastels on a canvas board and it has worked fine, on paper i just use fixative in 3 or 4 thin layers and that seems fine also 💖

[ninner]

Would allowing the Sennelier pastels to dry for a couple of months perhaps help the fixative to work better since it is very close to an oil painting?

[DennyandAnnArtSchool]

Try using the matt finish over top of the gloss finish. A couple of coats should cancel the gloss out

[artofstoryza]

Thanks for a quick and informative video 😀 I'd give this a go this on my sketchbook paintings that are experiments.

Larger full invested pieces I stick to just using glassine 🙈 not even fixative. Personal preference as I'm using highest lightfast rated oil pastels and are not super smudgy (Caran d'Ache Neopastels)

I love how they seem to set after a few days depending on the type of paper used. Toothy paper = more "drying"/setting in time.

I mark the position of the glassine to the artwork so when I handle it it goes back the same way I take it out.

I love your experiments 💃 the resin one is intriguing!

[미아만의방]

Hi Syndia, Thank you for a good review video. I guess I'll stick to the spray one and try doing 2nd coat. I do woodworking and for varnishing/oiling woods and in general at least 2 coat is recommended. Thanks again!

[Feministslayer]

What about the fat over lean rule? The oil pastel are oil content. Gels are acrylic which is oil based. Could it cracks overtime.