About Oil Sticks and Oil Pastels
Oil sticks are oil paint manufactured with enough wax for the paint to
be molded into stick form. They allow the painter to draw or paint directly onto a surface
without brushes, palettes, paint tubes or solvents.
To a limited extent, these same qualities are also found in oil
pastels. However, there are significant differences between the two. Oil sticks are
composed of a drying oil (such as linseed oil) and wax. Oil pastels employ a non drying
oil and often a higher proportion of wax. As a result, they are less a paint than a
drawing medium. Oil pastels are more resistant, do not readily build up a paint mass, and
will not form a durable film. Work done with them must be glassed, and this confines the
scale on which that work can be done. Oil sticks will dry to a durable film, so that work
done with them does not need to be glassed. They can therefore be used, like any oil
paint, on work of any dimension.
The Development of R&F Pigment Sticks®
Oil paint in stick form first appeared on the market in the 1970s, but
was not of high quality. They were weakly pigmented and contained a high proportion of
wax, which made them too stiff and brittle to work well as a paint.
Pigment Sticks were introduced in 1990 by R&F Encaustics to fill
the need for a high quality oil stick with all the fluidity, subtlety, and durability of
tube oils. Many years experience manufacturing encaustic paint had given us the knowledge
of a wide variety of waxes and pigments (both traditional and modern), of special milling
methods, and of uncommon painting techniques.
We developed what are considered the finest oil sticks ever made. The basis of their
quality, however, is very simple. Our oil sticks are handmade in small batches, carefully
milled and molded. We use only the basic traditional materials: natural wax, linseed oil,
and pigment, and we use them with absolute purity. We use none of the additives,
extenders, substitutes, or facilitators that are commonly used in industrial production.
While the use of these adulterants can save a lot of work and somewhat reduce the cost of
materials, they lower the quality of the paint. To do without them it is necessary to
create a very precise balance of the ingredients. Consequently our formulas are complex
and our manufacture is labor intensive.