Oil Painting Techniques Section
Oil painting techniques have been practiced by countless artists for hundreds of years.
Centuries ago, only the most dedicated professionals - or those with money and time to spare in abundance - used oil paints. Until the nineteenth century, if you wanted to develop your oil painting techniques, you first had to mix your own paints.
This meant acquiring the basic pigments and then laboriously grinding them down to a powder, before mixing with oils and other additives. Incidentally, that's why, even today, colors with names like umber, ultramarine and ochre are still used, as are terms like 'earth colors'.
They were and are still made from natural products found in the ground. It was only about 150 years ago that oil paints became available in tubes, for the first time making it feasible for the keen amateur to indulge themselves in this wonderful pastime.
On these pages, you're just a couple of clicks away from a whole series of articles on oil painting which will help you get started in this classic painting medium.
Find out which colors are the best ones to start with. Paint skies, trees, flesh tones, water, buildings - anything you want to.
Paint thick or thin, detailed or impressionist. You'll find each tutorial will be full of hints and tips and put into practice via a simple but complete painting exercise which you can produce yourself from start to finish. So you'll improve your oil painting techniques almost without realising it!
You can find out about the different properties of oil painting additives, which brushes to use; what should I look for in oil paints, and artists canvasses and so on, from the informative pages elsewhere on the site which provides a wealth of detail written in a non-technical style.
And to find out lots more about how to draw and paint in all sorts of different painting and drawing media, subscribe to the Free Newsletter Starting Art (see below)...
Oil Painting Technique Articles
Preparing Your Canvas
When you're preparing the canvas for a detailed portrait in oils or acrylics, you want the surface to be smoother than a regular canvas texture. This video shows you simply and clearly how to go about it...
Apples in Oil
In this apples in oil video by artist Jerry Fresia you learn how to produce a simple oil sketch, starting with the composition in charcoal, then a simple under-painting and on through to the completed work...
Oil Painting Tutorial - President's Putt Part 1
This oil painting tutorial is the first of a three part series which looks at how a commissioned painting is developed from start to completion...
Oil Painting Tutorial - President's Putt Part 2
This is the second part of the three-part series on how a commissioned painting was produced from the initial blank canvas through to completion...
Oil Painting Tutorial - President's Putt Part 3
This oil painting tutorial is the final of the three part series...
Oil paints and all you need to know about this wonderful medium
Oil paints are a hugely popular medium amongst all level of artists...
Mixing oil painting mediums to develop your oil painting techniques
There are a whole host of oil painting mediums to tempt you but which ones do you really need...
Choosing an oil paint set to get you started
You're all keen to develop your oil painting techniques, but which oil paint set to choose...
Using oil and acrylic paper for your paintings
Don't dismiss the various types of oil and acrylic paper available to the artist as being just for practice work...
The various types and qualities of canvas explained
Have you ever thought how painting on a properly stretched art canvas somehow makes you feel like a 'real' painter...
See Oil Painting Tips From Other Visitors
Click below to see oil painting tips from other visitors...
Brush cleaning product
I have wonderful results cleaning my brushes for oils, acrylics and watercolor stainers...
It is a product called Murphy's oil soap.
I keep one plastic ...
Quick drying of Oil paintings
Hi,
This is one of the tricks I use for my oil paintings to dry.
1) Apply a coat of turpentine and linseed oil mixture on the area before you start ...
Keep Dirty Brushes Out Of The Way - But Close......
I love painting with dirty brushes, as long as everything doesn't turn brown. But, I was always dropping them or bumping into them.
Then, I heard ...
Varnish in Oil Painting
The use of varnish can be a very good thing in an oil painting and canvas as it can keep the surface intact and safe from cracking.
The oil painting ...
Brush Rinsing
After a long search for a bucket, or contraption to use for rinsing my oil brushes. I decided to make my own.
I took a wide mouth canning jar, any ...
Cleaning Brushes
An instructor, whose name I have forgotten, suggested cleaning oil brushes by first putting them into baby oil to emulsify the oil paint and then cleaning ...
How to get your hands clean easily
Hi, I started to paint with oil-paint to get my right hand back to function again after a stroke. It was hard to use the brush during the whole painting ...
cleaning brushes
An instructor, whose name I have forgotten, suggested cleaning oil brushes by first putting them into baby oil to emulsify the oil paint and then cleaning ...
Wet Canvas Technique
I'm sure most artists are familiar with good old Bob Ross's wet canvas technique,which for me personally was an immense revelation from which my work benefited ...
Final details
I had a painting background to the point I liked and I was ready for the final details but was unsure what I wanted. I took a picture of the painting ...
How to make a super-fine texured canvas
Take a small old canvas painting (yard-sale item) pull the staples to remove the canvas, iron a hanky, stretch and staple the hanky across the frame. Give ...
Baby oil to clean brushes
Baby oil is a perfect thinner for cleaning brushes without the odor. Just replace baby oil for whatever you have been using. After cleaning the brushes ...
how to repair a damaged canvas
Get a sheet of oil canvas practice paper. Cut to cover damaged area, and extend a little beyond. Coat back of paper with pva glue. Apply to back of canvas....
Water based oils - the most under-rated thing ever!
I've recently bought a set of water soluble oil paints, due to the fact I now have a very nosy small boy, poking around with thinners and turps!
I can ...
Make your own canvas surface
You will need 1 sheet of untempered masonite cut to standard art board sizes. Wood glue white kind. Canvas. Pure acrylic paint white.100 grit sandpaper
...
Grand Assortment of Greens
Using the gray scale ( grisaille ), mix your basic gray colors. To each color add cadmium yellow and you will have greens in 9 shades.
Divide ...
Save Time and Money?
The next time you paint a background for an oil painting use acrylic paint then paint the detail/foreground etc in oils.
I do this for all my backgrounds ...
Using Liquin
To add just the right ammout of liquin to your paint without contaminating the remainder, get a syringe, the type that come with ink jet refill kits, as ...
Painting Shadows
I have often been asked "how do I mix and paint a shadow?" I just thought I'd share it here for those who might be having a problem with it. Before you ...
re-using canvases
If you have painted a picture that you do not like and wish to re-use the canvas, you can remove the old painting by spraying it with oven cleaner.
After ...
Dont use linseed oil or expensive thinning mediums
Instead of foul smelling and sometimes dangerous linseed oil or buying expensive oil paint mediums you can use fairly inexpensive vegtable oil, its a trick ...
Shade and texture for a palm tree trunk
I painted my tree trunk with a brown line,then with a pallet knife,painted the sunny-side with a thin white stripe followed by a thin black stripe on the ...
How to help your oils dry faster without your paintings turning yellow over time
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I use a product called Liquin. You can get it in Original, Light Gel or Fine Detail. I use the Fine Detail, it makes the paint flow very easily and will ...
Cheap, non toxic clean up
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Use detergent, yes, regular liquid dishwashing detergent (not the store brands, but standard brands like Dawn, Palmolive, Sunlight) instead of turps, commercially ...
Cheap Painting Surfaces
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I have used masoninte board as a cheap painting surface. Masonite is the brown compressed board (some have little holes, like for hanging tools), usually ...
Painting tips for cleaning brushes
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I discovered how to clean my brushes when I was washing my hands. I was using Dawn dishwashing liquid and the oil paint came off. So I thought I would ...
Oil painting without solvents
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If you are having problems with the fumes associated with traditional oil painting, do as I did. I tried water miscible oil paints. Now, they are the ...
Storing left over oils
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I put my excess oil paint on a piece of palate paper and then inside a plastic box.(doesn't have to be large)
This then goes into my freezer.Sometimes ...
How to Reactivate Dried Acrylic Paint
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To reactivate acrylic paint once it has dried try cellulose car paint thinner, it does a pretty good job at dissolving/thinning dried up acrylic paint....
A Sky for an Oil Painting?
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I wet the sky area with water and paint on acrylic cadmium red and ultramarine blue, painting it in blotches letting the paints run together leaving some ...
DIY Brush Holder
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A handy brush holder can be made from a small picture frame or shallow box. Find a frame or shallow wooden box not wider than your brush is long. File ...
