The result of oil painting depends not only on the talent, but also on the knowledge of the artist. Improperly mixed paints or improperly selected primer can undermine all your efforts. Therefore, if you want to learn how to paint in oils, support your practice with theory.
Instructions
Step 1
Buy paints. The oil is sold both in sets and in individual colors. Experienced artists buy individual tubes depending on which shades I use most often in my work. In addition, some colors run out very quickly, others are rarely used - your oil collection will be replenished as needed.
Step 2
You will need brushes. Pork bristle brushes work best for oil. Purchase several pieces of different sizes for large-scale and detailed work. Synthetic brushes resemble bristles in hardness, but quickly deteriorate from exposure to substances in the paint composition. Also buy some palette knives - they are also suitable for oil painting and for removing an incorrectly applied layer of paint. In special cases, you can apply oil with improvised means - sponges, rags. Just do not use your fingers instead of brushes, paints can be toxic.
Step 3
Another essential tool is the palette. You can purchase a special wooden plate or adapt a small glass or ceramic plate for this purpose. Squeeze a small amount of paint onto the edge of the palette, from left to right, placing warm and cold shades separately. White can be squeezed out between them, which is consumed very quickly. Leave some room for mixing paints in the center of the palette.
Step 4
Apply primer to the canvas. It will improve the adhesion of paint to the surface, prevent oil from absorbing into the canvas. Use a white finish or thin with acrylics or dry pigments. You can also buy a primed base.
Step 5
Choose or create a painting technique that is most convenient for you. The main methods are considered a la prima and multi-layer painting.
Step 6
A la prima is painting on wet. It is suitable if you want to paint a picture quickly, for example, a landscape in the open air. In this case, do not sketch, you can only limit yourself to a small "tip" drawn in charcoal. If you did not have time to finish the painting in one session, you can continue the next day, the paint will not have time to dry yet, if the layer is not too dense.
Step 7
For a more thorough and careful work, choose a multi-layer painting technique. The first step should be underpainting. Using grisaille (white mixed with dark paint), tempera or acrylic, outline the main elements of the picture, place light accents, shadows. After the first layer is dry, you can work out the oil painting in detail.
Step 8
You can achieve depth and purity of color, transparency of light spots with the help of glazes. Apply transparent layers of paint on top of each other (while waiting for drying) - as a result they will give a new shade. In doing so, take into account the transparency of the paint and the degree of its hiding power. Cadmium, white, English red, Neopolitan yellow will not work for this.
Step 9
If some fragment fails, scrape off the oil layer with a palette knife and apply a new one. Colors should be opaque to hide old blemishes.
Step 10
Choose the methods of overlaying strokes depending on the result you want to achieve. If it is difficult for you to develop your own style, at the initial stage of training, copy well-known works, examining and repeating each stroke. Analyze what impression the painting makes on the viewer and determine how the artist achieved this. Use observations in your work.
Step 11
Pay attention to the composition of the paints you are using. Do not mix mineral pigments with organic pigments to avoid triggering a chemical reaction that affects image quality. If you want to keep the hue transparent, do not mix transparent and translucent colors with opaque colors. In this case, mix no more than three colors, otherwise the shade will turn out to be dirty.
Step 12
The finished oil painting should dry. The paint will "grab" in a week and a half, the drying process will end in 2-3 years. To preserve the image, it can be varnished.
Step 13
Store the painting under conditions suitable for the paint you are using. If linseed oil is the binder in it, it can turn yellow in the dark. However, for some pigments, bright light in large doses is destructive.
