You can do oil painting for beginners!
Oil on Canvas: Oil Painting Techniques for Beginners
Do you find all of the knowledge out there about oil painting a bit intimidating? It can be hard to know where to start, especially when there’s so many different techniques and methods of painting. When I started out I had no idea what I was doing, and was fairly aimless in my approach to painting. Once I found my feet, however, I was flying, and once you learn about the basic techniques, you will be too!
The Fat Over Lean Rule
Just in case you haven’t heard this very important note already; when painting with mediums, always paint with your faster drying mediums first (or less of your slow drying medium), and transition to more fatty, slow drying mediums to avoid the paint cracking. For example, if you’re painting with linseed oil, use less linseed oil in the paints of earlier layers, and add a little more for each consecutive layer. Or, if you’re using different mediums, such as liquin and linseed oil, go from the fastest drying to the slowest drying; in this case it would be liquin, then linseed oil. This is why it’s a good idea to use a fast drying medium for underpaintings if you’re doing one, such as Gamblin’s galkyd gel.
Oil Painting “Alla Prima”
Alla prima, also known as wet-on-wet or direct painting, is when you apply wet paint- you guessed it- directly onto wet paint. This method is best for if you want a fast approach to painting, without having to wait for drying times, and you can get some nice effects and blending techniques from it. For blending a flawless gradient with wet paints, I strongly reccomend a goat’s mop brush; the soft bristles and rounded shape make this brush excellent for seamless color transitions. The good thing about direct painting is that you don’t have to concern yourself with the fat over lean rule if it’s all painted in one layer.
what do you need for oil painting?
- Paint and a palette
- Brushes
- A surface to paint on
- Solvent
- Paper towels
What is the best oil paint?
Professional, artist paints are recommended. They contain more pigment, so they cover better.
The paint is laid out on a palette before painting. A palette paper works well. In a pinch you can use a glass or Styrofoam plate.
How long does it take oil paintings to dry? Oil paintings may be handled in a few days, but they take months to dry thoroughly.
Alkyd paints look and handle like oil paints and they dry completely overnight. All my ‘Oil’ paintings are done with Griffin Alkyds made by Winsor & Newton.
brushes and canvas
Natural hog hair brushes are the first choice for oil painting. Synthetic brushes are also a good choice.
In this painting I used Winsor & Newton synthetic Galeria brushes, #4, #8 and #12 flats. Any bristle brushes of comparable sizes would be just fine.
Beginning oil painters may use any canvas, canvas board or canvas paper. This painting is on a gallery-wrapped stretched canvas.
solvent and paper towels
Solvent is used for thinning your paint and cleaning your brushes.
Gamsol, odorless mineral spirits is recommended for studio use. Store the solvent in a container with a lid.
Oil painting for beginners includes cleaning your brushes.
Wipe the excess paint off with a paper towel. Then swish the brush in the solvent and wipe it on a paper towel. If you see color on the towel, repeat.
light and ventilation
The perfect light for painting is a north light window. If you are starting oil painting for beginners any natural daylight is good.
The next best option is using daylight light bulbs to light your painting area. Florescent bulbs will skew your painting colors so they don’t look good in natural daylight.
Make sure you have good ventilation in your painting area.
your subject
Artists may paint out of their memory, imagination, life or photos.
This painting used two photographs, Dogwood flowers and an Oriole hanging on the bird feeder.
Dogwood Flowers
Baltimore Oriole
oil painting for beginners
Put a line drawing on the canvas. Use paint that is thinned with a little solvent or an ordinary pencil.
You may do the drawing on paper first and transfer it to the canvas with graphite paper.
your paint colors
Lay out your colors on a palette. Disposable paper palettes are very handy for oil painting for beginners.
Mixing blue and green for the background.
- A warm and cool yellow – Indian Yellow and Lemon Yellow
- Orange
- A warm and cool blue – Ultramarine Blue and Thalo Blue
- Titanium white
This painting uses an analogous discord color scheme.
