Description
R&F Pigment Sticks
R&F Pigment Sticks are a unique version of an oil stick that will transform the way you paint. They have rich pigmentation and a lipstick soft consistency. This gives them the same fluidity, subtlety and durability of traditional oil colours. They have just enough natural wax added to maintain a solid stick form. Pigment Sticks let you get rid of the brush, thus allowing you to work more directly on your surface. Their immediacy and mark making ability afford an endless range of options.
Order individual colours by clicking colour chart below.
Pigment Sticks do not use the additives, extenders, substitutes, or facilitators that are commonly used in industrial production. While the use of these additives can save work and reduce material cost, they lower the quality of the paint. To do without them, it is necessary to create a very precise balance of ingredients. Because of this, R&F’s oil stick formulas are complex and their manufacturing is labor intensive. They are handmade in small batches, carefully milled and molded in order to create the best product possible.
Use with R&F Blending Medium for glazing.
Also available in starter sets of 3 mini sticks or large Painter’s Dozen sets.
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Using Pigment Oil Sticks:
Oil paints in stick form allow the artist to apply paint directly on a surface, without the distancing factor of the paint brush. Thus, it is possible to dispense not only with the brush, but with knives, palettes, and solvents, thereby making oil sticks more immediate and portable than standard oil painting materials. R&F formulated their Pigment Sticks to be equal in quality to the finest oil paints. Due to their rich pigmentation and lipstick soft consistency, they have the same fluidity, subtlety, and durability as traditional oil colors.
Suggestions
- Use it as an Oil Paint: One way to use R&F Pigment Sticks® is to treat them as if they were regular tube oils or use them in combination with tube oils. You can work on any surface just like you would with oils. Use brushes, solvents, and rags once the paint is on the surface. Some artists use them to start a painting with a quick sketch. Others do their painting with brushes and then put in final details with the sticks.
- Use it as a Drawing Tool: Pigment Sticks® are becoming more popular as stand-alone painting and drawing tools. Because they are a wonderful bridge between drawing and painting, their very nature causes artists to loosen up, use more color, as well as be spontaneous and gestural.
- Use it for Monotypes: Printmakers are falling in love with Pigment Sticks®. Anyone who has spent hours trying to mix colors with only nine or ten printmaking inks will find this palette of 91 colors very liberating. Because of their immediacy, and mark making ability, they afford an endless range of options.
Benefits to Working with Pigment Sticks
- They can be thinned with turpentine or mineral spirits.
- They can be worked with oil mediums by dipping them into stand oil, linseed oil, alkyd mediums, or oil medium gels.
- You can mix them alongside tube oils. Also, try using them to draw over dried oil paintings.
- Blending Sticks are colorless Pigment Sticks – essentially a stick without pigment. You can work them into an oil color to increase its transparency or even blend two colors together on the painting.
- You can manipulate Pigment Sticks with a paint knife until the paint is a buttery consistency, then it can be brushed or knifed onto the surface. You can use this method to mix colors on the palette or on a painting.
Sizing: Just like oil painting, you should size or prime all canvas and paper surfaces before use. To size, use one or two coats of acrylic gesso, acrylic medium, or PVA sizing. Other priming options include: rabbit skin glue and shellac.
Grounds: Any ground (ie: gesso) suitable for traditional oil paint can be used with R&F Pigment Sticks.
Recommended supports for Pigment Sticks® include: stretched canvas, oil paper, clay-coated paper, wood panels or Masonite panels, copper, iron, or aluminum, glass and plexiglass.
