About the Images
All my fine art images are done in either oil paint on canvas or soft pastels on paper.
For the sake of clarity, by "oils", I mean oil paint (pigments suspended within a linseed oil binder).This is a widely used, very traditional medium, that has a long drying time. This is different from acrylic paints, which are water-based and dry very quickly.
"Soft pastels" are pure pigment with no binder. (Think colored chalk, without the white chalk base.) While pastels are called "paintings" (they're really drawn. Go figure) and are somewhat fragile and in need of adequate care, when handled correctly, they can retain their brilliant colors for literally centuries. Soft pastels have a delicate luminosity that is perfect for certain subject matter. There is no drying time as this is a dry medium, like graphite (pencil) or charcoal.
Just to further confuse the issue, there are "oil pastels" which have a linseed-oil base (binder), much like oil paints. Oil pastels tend to be thick and sticky, and come in a crayon shape, just as soft pastels do. Oil pastels, unlike soft pastels, need drying time. The finished painting also has a different look than soft pastels.As of now I do not work in oil pastels.
