Baby Oil Tutorial

Wow, someone asked me to write a tutorial on how I color images using prisma pencils with baby oil and post it here. This is my first "tutorial" so if something doesn't make sense or you have questions, just leave a comment and I'll fix it as necessary. So here goes...

This technique works the same way as the Gamsol Magic Technique....only with baby oil, there are no fumes. :)

Just click on any of the individual pictures below if you want a zoomed in and larger view.

Supplies ~

Prisma pencils

Baby oil

Blending stumps

Stamped image in any permanent black or brown ink (suitable for watercoloring so it doesn't smear)


First, start coloring your lightest color by adding light outlines and lightly coloring around the edges. Here I used yellow, and outlined each panel of the umbrella separately. Make sure to leave some of the middle area white. That'll give you the white highlight later when blending.


Next, load the baby oil onto the blending stump (see product note at the bottom of this tutorial). See the little "lip" on the top of the baby oil bottle? I just tilt the bottle so a few drops of oil fall into this lip. Then I take my blending stump and run it once around the entire circle. That's just the way I do it. You could use the lid as well.


Then start blending the first color by pulling the color from the outside of each section toward the center. I make small circles with my stump in a counter-clockwise motion. You'll get the highlight effect by not pulling the color all the way to the middle. In this picture, the right side of the umbrella has been blended. The left side still has the unblended pencil outlines.


Next, I colored some outlines with the fleshtone colored pencil and blended it using a second stump. Then I outlined and lightly colored with my blue pencil. Again, I'm not coloring in each section fully, but I'm also making a little more than just a "line."


Load baby oil again onto another blending stump. Working in small counter-clockwise circles, pull the color to fill each section. Again, don't pull the color all the way in so you still have some white highlights.


Now outline your strongest color (red in this example). You'll see that on Hanna's sleeves and boots, I basically only added a line because there's only a small area to blend. On the coat, however, I did more coloring versus outlining because it's a much larger area to pull the color around.


Load baby oil again onto another blending stump. Start with the small areas such as the sleeves and boots. Working in small counter-clockwise circles, pull the color from the outside toward the middle to fill each section. Then move onto the large swinging coat area. This time, use a little more baby oil and make your counter-clockwise circles (more like ovals) bigger as you're blending the red color. Again, don't pull the color all the way in so you still have some white highlights in the center.


Several people have asked me whether baby oil shows through or makes oil stains, so I thought I'd show you what the back of the image looks like after coloring and blending with the oil. As you can see, there are obvious oil spots that you can see from the back. However, once the image is mounted onto a mat layer and onto a card, nobody can tell.


...and finally....the finished card.

Product Notes: I personally love the Ranger Nibs blending stumps. They're very short, and I know some people don't like that, but I think they're wonderful for blending the oil. Here's a pic of what they look like if you want to check for them at your local supply store

I hope you found this tutorial useful. If you have any questions at all, let me know. Oh, and check back soon....there MIGHT (big "might") be a video tutorial in the near future from my friend Julie. :)

Thanks for visiting!!