Oil painting technique, oil painting for beginners

Start your oil paintings with an acrylic underpainting - When you start an oil painting using oils, it can take some time for that initial layer to dry. Starting your painting with an acrylic underpainting however is a wonderful time saver as acrylic paint dries quickly and oil paint can be applied over the acrylic.

Make certain you have good lighting - I didn’t realize how important good lighting was until I painted outdoors for the first time. Good lighting brings out the color and also lessens the strain on your eyes. If you can, paint in a place that gets plenty of natural sunlight. If you cannot afford this luxury, purchase a good indoor light. Check out http://www.ottlite.com/ for a great selection of lighting products.

Make sure you have good ventilation - If you are using materials like oil painting thinners and cleaners in your studio; make sure you have good ventilation. Some of these chemicals can be quite toxic so use caution when working with these products. Consider using a water miscible paint like Grumbacher Max Oil Paints. Max Oils can be diluted with water thereby eliminating the need for solvents.

Fat over lean - Follow this rule and you will reduce the chance of your paint cracking. Each layer of your oil painting should have a higher oil content then the ones below it.

To create the illusion of distance in your paintings paint receding objects with cooler less intense color. Objects that advance are warmer and more intense.

If you are feeling uninspired don’t get discouraged. Try taking a walk outside, breath in the air, look around at the beautiful earth God created. Try playing music while you are painting. You will be surprised how music can affect your painting. Visit a museum or local gallery. Viewing other works of art can really get your creative juices flowing.

When holding your brush avoid holding your brush like a pencil too close to the bristles. Oil brushes are made long for a reason so that you can paint further away from the canvas. Practice holding the brush toward the middle and end of the handle.

Maintain a clean organized working environment - Get yourself into the habit of keeping your work area clean and organized. Have an abundant supply of rags or paper towels nearby. Get a few glass jars for storing mediums, solvents and your used brushes while painting.

Brush Selection and Care - You should probably invest in a good set of brushes. Cheap brushes are not recommended as they shed their bristles quite easily while painting. I prefer working with Hog Hair brushes, but oil painters also use sable and synthetic sable. Avoid nylon brushes, as these are better suited for acrylic paint. My brushes include a variety of flats sizes #3, #6, #8, #12, a #4 fan, and a few small rounds for detail work. Selections vary from artist to artist, depending on painting style usually, but the above mentioned work fine for me. Take excellent care of your brushes. This is very important, especially if you have an expensive set of brushes. You may want to do a search online for more in depth brush care instructions. If you do not clean and store your brushes properly, you will ruin them, simple as that. Use a quality brush cleaner and preserver that you can purchase online or at your local art store.

I hope these oil painting tips have helped. Oil paint is not the easiest medium to work with. I recall the first panting I ever completed. It was a complete nightmare, and I almost threw in the towel. I have been painting for over 5 years now and I am still learning and improving every time I pick up the brush. Don’t give up. With time and practice it will become easier and more rewarding.

Most painters will agree that there’s nothing like painting on canvas. But pre-stretched and primed canvases can be expensive, which means that all too often we keep our canvases for ‘good’ paintings. By stretching your own canvas, you can not only save money, but get something you’re willing to experiment on. You also get a canvas that’s exactly the size you’re after.

You’ll need the following supplies from an art store:

• Unprimed cotton canvas.
• Four stretchers (the wood that makes up the frame). If you’ve some DIY skills, you can make these yourself.
• Staple gun and staples (or carpet tacks and hammer).
• Stretcher frame keys or corner keys (small wedges used to tighten the completed canvas).

The first step is to join the stretchers. Lay them out on the floor, then push the corners together by hand. If necessary, tap the corners gently on a carpet or with a rubber hammer (be careful not to dent the wood). Check that they’re at right angles, either with a set square if you require mathematical precision or with something that has a fairly accurate right angle on it, such as a book.

Roll out your canvas, put the frame on top of it, then cut it to size, remembering that the canvas has to fold over the outside edge of the stretchers. Rather be over-generous in the size you cut and trim off the excess when you’ve stretched your canvas.

Stretch Canvas with Logic, Not Randomly

The most important things to remember when attaching your canvas to the stretchers is to work from the middle outwards and in opposites. So, starting in the center on any side, staple the canvas to the back of the stretcher. Put in about three staples, approximately two inches apart. With your first few canvases, you’ll probably put in more staples than you need; practice will give you a feel for this. Move to the opposite side, pull the canvas taught, and staple the middle in place. Repeat with the other two edges.

Now staple one edge from the middle to the one side. Remember to pull the canvas as tight as you can - an extra pair of hands is useful. Then do the same on the edge that is diagonally opposite. Continue like this until all the edges are in place. If you’re stretching a very large canvas, don’t staple all the way to the corner in one go. You’ll get better tension by doing it in sections.

At the corners, fold the edges of the canvas neatly and staple the one on top of the other. If your canvas needs a little tightening, tap in the frame keys. But don’t rely on these. If you find your tension isn’t good, rather remove the staples and start again.

Tips for Stretching Canvas:

• Stretchers are usually sold in pairs, so by buying sets of different lengths, you can make a rectangular canvas rather than a square one.
• Get a strong friend to help you by holding the canvas in place while you staple it.
• If your local art store doesn’t sell unprimed canvas by the yard, buy it from an on-line supplier. Alternately, ask your local fabric store if they’ve got heavy-duty, unbleached calico. Smooth any imperfections with a piece of fine sandpaper or nail file.
• You can make your own stretchers from 1″x2″ wood, cutting miter corners which you join with corrugated nails.

The various oils used as mediums in oil painting are known as drying oils. The term is useful as a reminder that different oils have different drying times and properties. These mediums are mixed with oil paint both to modify the way the paint handles straight from the tube (for example, make it thinner or lengthen the drying time) and to alter the character of the paint from what you get straight from a paint tube (for example, make it transparent or opaque, gloss or matt). Ideal mediums are colourless, permanent, flexible, and do not influence the colour of a pigment. Learning the particular properties of a drying oil is part of the essential technical knowledge an oil painter should have. Remember that when an oil paint feels dry to the touch, it will still be drying under the surface for some time, which is why the principle of painting ‘fat over lean’ is so important in oil painting.

Linseed oil is made from the seeds of the flax plant. It adds gloss and transparency to paints and is available in several forms. It dries very thoroughly, making it ideal for underpainting and initial layers in a painting. Refined linseed oil is a popular, all-purpose, pale to light yellow oil which dries withing three to five days. Cold-pressed linseed oil dries slightly faster than refined linseed oil and is considered to be the best quality linseed oil.

Stand oil is a thicker processed form of linseed oil, with a slower drying time (about a week to be dry to the touch, though it’ll remain tacky for some time). It’s ideal for glazing (when mixed with a diluent or solvent such as turpentine) and produces a smooth, enamel-like finish without any visible brushmarks.
Sun-thickened linseed oil is a created by exposing the oil to the sun to create a thick, syrupy, somewhat bleached oil, with similar brushing qualities to stand oil. Pour some oil (about an inch) into a wide dish, cover it with a propped-up lid (i.e. to minimise debris getting in, but so that the air can flow through). Stir every day or so to prevent a skin from forming on the top. How long it takes for the oil to thicken will depend on how hot the climate is where you live. Test the thickness of the oil when it’s cool, not when it’s still hot from the day’s sun. Pour it through a sieve or cloth to remove debris before you bottle the oil.

As linseed oil has a tendency to yellow as it dries, avoid using it in whites, pale colours, and light blues (except in underpaintings or lower layers in an oil painting when painting wet on dry). Stand oil and sun-thickened oil yellows very little.

Sun-bleached linseed oil is created by exposing the oil to the sun but with the container’s lid on, so no evaporation occurs. The result is an oil that has less tendency to yellow.

Poppyseed oil is a very pale oil, more transparent and less likely to yellow than linseed oil, so it is often used for whites, pale colours, and blues. It gives oil paint a consistency similar to soft butter. Poppyseed oil takes longer to dry than linseed oil, from five to seven days, making it ideal for working wet on wet. Because it dries slowly and less thoroughly, avoid using poppyseed oil in lower layers of a painting when working wet on dry and when applying paint thickly, as the paint will be liable to crack when it finally dries completely. Poppy seeds naturally contain about 50 per cent oil.

Safflower oil has the same characteristics as poppyseed oil, but dries a bit faster. It’s made from safflower seeds. Sunflower oil also has similar characteristics to poppyseed oil. It’s made from sunflower seeds.

Walnut oil is a pale yellow-brown oil (when newly made it’s a pale oil with a greenish tinge) that has a distinctive smell. As it’s a thin oil, it’s used to make oil paint more fluid. As it yellows less than linseed oil (but more than safflower oil) it’s good for pale colors. Walnut oil dries in four or five days. It’s an expensive oil and must be stored correctly otherwise it goes rancid (off). Walnuts naturally contain about 65 per cent oil. (Read more on using walnut oil…)

Boiled oils are oils that have been heated and mixed with a dryer to create a faster-drying oil that gives a glossy finish. They tend to yellow and darken with age, so are best limited to lower layers in a painting and darker colours. If you’re not sure what effect an oil is going to have, rather take the time to do a test than ‘lose’ or ‘damage’ a whole painting.