Oil Painting Ideas. Let's create a painting in the style of the old masters! Oil painting

If you have a great desire to draw oil paints, but you don’t know how, it doesn’t matter. It's never too late to start learning to paint with oil paints. You can always try and create your own personal masterpiece.

How to paint with oil paints - choosing paints

In order to start painting, first of all, you need to purchase oil paints. The choice of paints must be given special attention. After all, both the aesthetics of the painting and the success of your training depend on the quality of the paints; the question of whether you will engage in oil painting will be decided. Do not chase discounts and sales, as they often sell low-quality goods. At a minimum, you need to purchase 7 tubes of paint in primary colors. In the future, by mixing different colors, you can get any other color.

How to paint with oil paints - art tools

To paint with oil paints we will need:

• various brushes;
• canvas;
• palette knife;
• palette;
• solvent for paints.

Brushes come in round, bristle, and flat. It is advisable to purchase at least 3 brushes of each type, in different sizes. Please note that natural brushes are softer, while synthetic brushes are rougher. Also, do not forget to prepare a pot of water for brushes and rags.

How to paint with oil paints - workspace

The workplace should be prepared so that nothing interferes with you and it is comfortable to create. It is best to use an easel for painting rather than a table. It is advisable to place it where there is predominantly natural light. It's better to draw on fresh air because the paint has a strong odor. If this is not possible, then the room should be equipped with a window, an opening window or a balcony. You need to ventilate the room periodically. The easel must be adjusted in height to suit you. When adjusting the easel, it is worth taking into account your position, whether you will be standing or sitting. In order not to stain the floor, it is advisable to cover it with paper, polyethylene or fabric. Oil paints penetrate deeply into the structure of the fabric, so wear things that you don’t mind getting dirty. If you have long hair, it is best to braid it or put it in a ponytail, and to be sure, wear a headscarf.

How to paint with oil paints - sketch

• When creating an oil painting, it is advisable to start with a sketch. The work begins with the layout on the sheet. It is necessary to think about where the main semantic center will be located.

• You need to decide on a color scheme. You can achieve the desired color on the palette. Since it is almost impossible to get the same color twice when mixing two or more colors, it is necessary to prepare secondary paint for the entire drawing. Oil paint that has not been mixed with other colors is called pure color. After creating the sketch, we begin to work with a brush and paints.

• Any drawing has a source of light and shadow. To make the drawing more realistic, you should add shadows and highlights. It is necessary to determine from which side the light falls in order to depict it in the picture. Evaluate the picture from the outside, add the missing accents.

• The palette must be lubricated with oil so that it is saturated with it, otherwise it will absorb the oil that is in the paints.
• Initially, manage the space on the palette correctly, leave the middle for mixing colors, the left for colored paints, and the right for white.
• To obtain a lighter shade, white should be added.
• To obtain a darker shade, add black paint.
• When painting with paints, adhere to the basic rule: first we paint with liquid paints, then with thick ones, and nothing else. If you do not adhere to this recommendation, then incorrectly placed layers will simply crack when drying.
• The paint layer dries for about three days. Take your time to apply the next layer.
• With a palette knife you can draw, for example, create a landscape.
• If there is any excess paint left after work, don’t worry, you can save it. Place it in a jar and cover it with film to prevent it from drying out.
• After work, do not forget to pay due attention to your brushes. They need to be washed, otherwise they can be thrown away.
• The finished picture needs to be opened with varnish.

Painting with oil paints is not difficult if you follow the tips above. Conquer the heights of your skills!

Oil painting is a wonderful way of painting on canvas. Classic paintings, such as the Mona Lisa, were painted in oils, along with beautiful impressionist paintings by Monet or Van Gogh.

Steps

Buy good quality materials for oil painting, the best you can afford. If you're just starting out, you can find many of these items by looking at gift sets that include all or most of them, sometimes in a nice wooden box or on an easel. Minimum you will need:

• Stretched canvas size of the painting you want to paint. It would also be a good idea to purchase a few small canvas boards for practice and preliminary research. You can also use canvas paper or canvas, which is on a pad and is suitable for oil painting and for left-handed painting. Try to choose a small board with the exact proportions of your stretched canvas, but if there isn't one, get a large piece that will fit your canvas.
• Tubes of oil paint in the main palette. If you buy a set, it probably has all the colors you need. The simplest palette contains colors such as red, blue, yellow, burnt sienna and a large tube of white paint. If it's Winsor & Newton, you can get lemon yellow, permanent red, ultramarine, or French ultramarine (they're chemically close.) If you're initially choosing a large palette of colors, use a dark alizarin red or a more violet red, but not an orange-red. You can get by without the burnt sienna, but there are other reasons for this besides mixing. If your palette doesn't have this color, use reddish brown.
• Buy oil and thinner. Linseed oil is an oil traditionally used by artists. Some artists believe that walnut is better. If you want your painting to dry faster, choose a product such as Winsor & Newton's "Liquin" that will make the oil dry faster. You also need regular turpentine or odorless turpentine, sometimes called turpenoid or white mineral spirits. It is a liquid that has a strong or weak aroma. It is a paint thinner in the opposite environment. Odorless thinners such as Weber Turpenoid or Gamsol are generally considered healthier to use, but proper ventilation should always be provided to allow some components to ventilate. Oil paint itself is non-toxic, as is turpentine, which does not emit toxic fumes. But some oil paints contain toxic ingredients such as cadmium and cobalt, which can be quite harmful if ingested, so never eat, drink or smoke while using oil paint.
• Buy a coating varnish, something like Damar, designed for oil paintings. The varnish likely contains some toxic fumes and should be used outdoors or in a well-ventilated area. You should definitely choose removable artist varnish. Varnish should be added after the oil painting is completely dry and will not change the chemical composition of the painting. At this point, you can apply a remover varnish to give the painting a nice glossy finish and protect the paint layer. Every 25 - 30 years, the varnish should be removed (either by the artist or the owner of the painting) with a varnish remover solution and reapplied, since varnishes turn yellow over time and should not be on the painting constantly. This is why very old oil paintings turn brown. They often just need a cleanup and a new clear coat of varnish to look as vibrant as if they were painted last year. You don't need to buy varnish until the painting is finished, since you won't use it until the painting is finished and completely dry. "Retouching" can only be used when the painting is dry to the touch. This will not damage the paint coat, but the painting must be completely dry and you should wait a full month before using varnish. If you want to sell the painting sooner, you can apply a temporary coating.
• Buy brushes. Preferably hard ones. Bristle brushes are less expensive, but good white synthetic fibers that are quite stiff, like bristles, can also be a great choice. Some oil painters also use soft, long-handled sable brushes for various effects. You can use large, small and sparse brushes, depending on the areas, shapes and objects you want to depict in great detail if you like detailed realism. Soft "fitter" brushes with very long, thin, soft hairs are well suited for depicting ship rigs, cat whiskers, and other long linear details. This is done using very thin paints, which can also be used to write your name on the painting or for long flowing lines. As a beginner, it is recommended that you try different sets of brushes or synthetic brushes in different shapes and sizes to get a feel for what style each one conveys.
• A palette knife, paint knife, or non-serrated butter knife can be used to mix the paint. Palette knives are quite cheap if they are plastic. Metal ones are nicer because they don't stain and can last for years if kept clean. Painting knives have various shapes, from scoops to corners, each of which have different effects and you can use them instead of brushes.
• Charcoal or purple pastel pencil to draw on canvas.
• You will need a palette so that you have somewhere to put your oil paints while using them. This could be a palette with small holes, or you can improvise with cheap, simple ceramic, glass or melamine plate. From something that could interfere with the turpentine. Many artists prefer a gray palette because colors reflect best on gray. If you're using a flat piece of glass on your table (very cheap if you're getting it from a cheap picture frame), you can put gray paper underneath it so you have a gray, easy-to-clean palette at all times.
• Two small cups for oil (or Liquin) and thinner. Some kits come with a "double scoop" so they can be attached to the palette. If so, then your set probably also has a palette.
• Rags for painting. This can be any type of clean rags. Heavy paper towels will also work, but the cloth is reusable if washed. Used baby diaper fabric, if washed, even if worn and stained, is perfect for this purpose. Paper towels wear out quickly, so it's best to use old clothes that are soft, like old T-shirts and the like. Try to use rags that you don't mind spilling paint on, as you may destroy the fabric design on the painted areas. Use rags that are at the edge of their usefulness unless you want to wash them and keep using them over and over again.
• An easel for working, either a tabletop easel or a standing easel. It doesn't have to be expensive. The cheapest "view easel" will fit any reasonable sized canvas at a comfortable working angle, and its legs should adjust to different heights depending on whether you are sitting or standing. If age doesn't interfere with you (or illness or injury that limits the amount of time you can stay on your feet), it will be much better to stand at the easel. This will also allow you to look from the side after every few strokes to see how the painting looks, which is definitely better for painting. You can also lean the painting on a chair or other support, or improvise something similar. A “picture horse” is a bench with a board sticking out at the end that you sort of saddle up on and prop the canvas up into a groove.
• You must decide on the tools. How will you make your sketches, with a pencil or charcoal, on a sketchbook or whatman paper, or maybe even on used paper. They shouldn't become an archive, but if you like your sketches, you can create a sketchbook from them and use a soft pencil/pen/marker for this. These are just sketches to draw something, something selected. Your usual sketchbook and favorite drawing tools.
• A safe, dust-free place for your painting to dry, where nothing happens that could damage the paint on the canvas. Drying time for oil paintings varies from several days to several months. Some types of oil painting will be able to dry whole year before they can be varnished.

1. Sketch a "notan" painting in your sketchbook or on paper with a gray or black pencil or pen, using the pencil as the gray. If it's a square, it's a square. If it is a rectangular or oval painting, decide whether it will be a vertical "portrait" or a horizontal "landscape". Make the notan very small, just enough to accommodate the light, dark and middle areas of the painting. They can vary from size large postage stamp

   up to the size of a business card. The idea is to see the picture in miniature. Make several variations until you find the best design without worrying about the details. Use charcoal or pencil to make a drawing in your sketchbook.

   • It can be quite detailed and heavily shaded, or simple to show you shadows and highlights. This partly depends on how detailed and realistic you want the picture to be. A looser style of painting may have a more sketchy sketch, but should still have one with a more "white, mid and black" tone, so that you can tell where there are at least five values ​​- white accents, light, mid , dark, black accents. Some artists, to avoid using pure black and white, simply use "light, medium light, medium, medium dark, dark" for the five views. It depends on the desired effect. If you don't like the sketch, keep trying different versions until you get something you like.
   • In your sketch, make sure that the light falling on a person, object, or landscape element is coming in one direction. Pay attention to where the shadows are coming from. They should all go in the same direction and be shorter if the sun or light is high, and longer if the sun (or the lamp the light is coming from) is low. The direction of the lighting makes all objects more three-dimensional. Draw the shadow shapes carefully and most of your subjects will look three dimensional at this point. This is good for impressionism or realism.
   • Paint your subject on a canvas canvas, tarpaulin paper, or canvas pad. Use charcoal or purple pastel pencil. Mark out the exact proportions of the canvas on the board, if they are not exactly the same shape, so do it as in the sketches. Make clear outlines. You can detail the markings of the eyes, the mouth, all the important shapes on it, or you can just stick to just the basic shapes and the main shadow shapes. Either way, it should look similar to the paint in the sketch. If you make mistakes, wipe off the charcoal or pastel pencil with a damp cloth, let the canvas dry, and do it again. This can be completely corrected.

2. Squeeze some paint onto the palette and mix the colors. Place yellow, blue, red and a large smear of white at some distance from each other. Additionally, use burnt sienna. Leave all other colors in the box if it was a gift set.

   Explore the paint "alla prima". Just draw directly on the sketch in each color area. Since it doesn't have to be detailed, you can try painting the color study with a palette knife or painting knife. If you don't like any of your color choices, use a palette knife to scrape off the unsightly smudge and set the unwanted paint aside in case you need a messy one. Brown color. The combination of all three primaries will harmonize in the painting and thus mixed paint will be able to be separated and mixed a little more to turn into pale brown or dark brown and gray shades. No waste with a simple basic palette. Keep playing with the color exploration until you like a simple, bold painting done with a fairly large brush and not big amount details. If necessary, make more than one of these until you decide which blends you like. You make this little painting with paint straight from the pipe. It does not require thinner or oil for this technique. If you like the way your test painting looks, you can make a larger one the same way, just using a palette knife and pipe paint with bold strokes on the canvas. No additional paint and no extra layer. This style of painting is fast and strong.

   Draw the outline using soft pencil or a thin stick of charcoal. On landscape painting use a purple pastel pencil. It will be a good choice because this color goes well with all landscape colors without darkening or staining light colors the same way black does. Charcoal and purple pastel pencil are both easy to fix with a damp cloth or rag, so don't worry about making changes to the sketch! Draw on it, and if you get it wrong, wipe it off and try again.

   Prepare some oil in one cup and solvent in another. Clean your brushes and palette knife. Rinse the brush if you used it for color research using a turpenoid: simply dip it in solvent and wipe with a rag.

   Apply a small amount of burnt sienna to your palette. Or, if there is no white or a lot of white in the tri-color mixture, use a thin layer of brown. Dip the brush into solvent, turpentine/turpenoid/Sansodor (Winsor & Newton brand is particularly good). Dip a wet brush into a small amount of paint until you have very thin, clear paint. It's easy. Use a little more paint, do medium light and consistently dark areas with burnt sienna, still thinning it until it becomes the texture of ink. Even dark areas should have enough color. The thinner layer you use, the faster this clear coat of burnt sienna will dry.

   • Wow! A transparent painting in burnt sienna usually looks pretty cool on at this stage. It's still easy to change if you end up too dark or too light color. Take a rag and wipe off the part of the paint that you are not happy with and repeat with more desired color. Or erase everything and change the shape. Gee, you thought oil painting had to be perfect? No, everything here is very easy to fix and make changes. This stage will dry fairly quickly, from a few minutes to half an hour. The finest pieces may be dry to the touch by the time you finish another corner. It is only necessary that the paint is dry to the touch.

3. Remember the "butter on a slant" rule. The first coat you apply may be very thin, almost all turpentine and very little oil. Just a little oil in the paint and it will look different. It can look almost like paper with watercolor applied in a thin layer. You can do sequential washes in different colors if you want to have fun layering the "wash". The next layer is "alla prima" or paint straight from the tube, as you did in the color study. This is a kind of medium fat layer, not too fatty and not too weak. After this, especially after the oil or Liquin that you added to the paint, the structure becomes fatter. The problem with oil slope is that the oil layer takes the longest to dry, so there needs to be quick-drying paint underneath it. Otherwise, the outside will dry out, but inside there will be a closed, soft, not dried layer.

   • In the worst case scenario, a painting that is tilted may slide off the canvas on a hot day, losing its color connection.
   • Never use oil pastels under oil paint because their oil formula includes mineral oil which never dries out. If desired, you can add oil pastels to the last layer of your oil painting once it is dry to the touch.

4. Block colors for the main areas and then add a little more paint to make the details lighter or darker, redder, yellower or bluer.

   • Unless you want to make an ugly special effect like painting a zombie's face, apply a thick layer of grease to the brush, then leave it to dry incorrectly, then rip off a piece so that the skin of the paint hangs down and a clump of brownish-red grease paint gets exposed to the air and dries. , perhaps frozen in the form of drops. Almost any mistake can be turned into a special effect once you know how it works.

5. Oil paints stay wet for days! This means you can paint all day, fool around with them, go to bed, put an empty box on your palette so your cat won't walk on it, and tomorrow start all over again and make changes while the painting is wet. You can use a palette knife to scrape off entire areas before they dry and start over. The slow drying time of oil paint allows you to make many changes before deciding on the final design and then letting the paint dry.

   Leave the painting to dry. This will take at least two weeks if you did not use Liquin as a base. Liquin dries faster than tube paints, so use at least some of it in the paint to ensure it adheres well. This is not fat, but oil straight from the tube. You can also add alkyd oils, which have alkyds (the main ingredients of Liquin media) directly into the paint tube. In this case, the painting can dry in just a couple of days to a week, depending on the thickness of the paint.

   One of the traditional techniques of the old masters is not to rely too much on the texture of the brush. Start as described here by doing a thin coat of burnt sienna using tube paint and cleaning it thoroughly, make a realistic black and white with all the details of your piece just using black ivory paint and titanium white. Let it be "grisaille" or " dead layer" will dry completely. It will look like black and white photography, very detailed. After this, start mixing the oil with all your colors, using them in a very thin layer, and begin to apply them to the grisaille layer. Coating black and white painting with various transparent flowers will allow light to pass back and forth within the dried layers and give the painting a unique light spectrum. Only slow, layered use of colored pencil comes close to this effect. This is one of the things that oil painting is famous for.

   • You can try this method if you have a lot of time to wait for one layer to dry before doing the next. But, if you don't want to wait that long, just let the grisaille layer dry, add some oil, paint in the right colors and add one final coat of glaze when the paint is dry. You can use both complex and simple versions of oil painting.

6. When you're done with your painting session, clean your brushes by dipping them in solvent and then use a rag to wring the paint out of them.

   Repeat several times until almost all the paint remains on the rag, otherwise it will require more solvent. Keep rags and supplies away from open flames/electrical circuits/heaters/things that may cause a fire. Place them in a metal can if you have one on hand. If you store the palette with wrung out paint in the refrigerator, this will slow down the drying process and you can use the paint longer. But don't let anyone eat it! Store damp paintings in a safe, dust-free place, dark and cool if possible.

   You can make a vertical drying rack in a cabinet of your own design, where you install pegs a few tens of centimeters apart so that you can lean on the painting. If you paint a lot of oil paintings, a garage is more suitable for drying. Since you are creating thinner vapors, it is a good idea to use the garage and other areas where people do not spend a lot of time or have very good ventilation. Storing these materials in vertical slots will reduce the amount of dust that falls on the paintings themselves while they dry. Dust will accumulate on the top end, and not on the paintings themselves. On a “gallery” canvas, which has a depth of 3.8 cm, you should not paint in oils.

7. Wait at least a month after the painting is dry to the touch, then use touch-up varnish to give the painting a temporary shiny, finished look.

   • Some varnishes dry out the matte surface; shiny ones may fade if varnish is applied to them. Wait another eleven months to apply dammara varnish or any other replacement varnish and allow it to dry in a few days. Your painting will now last longer than you. Burnt sienna is good color base
   • for mixing tones that convey the color of the skin, as long as it is not too black and has a bluish tint like African ebony. It will look special if you add a little yellow ocher to it, which can suit most skin tones, including some earthy ones. Add a little red and you can make your hair red or brownish.
   • Oil paint is much denser in texture than regular oil. The student version of the paint has more liquid because it has more oil and less pigment. So paint in a tube, if you like painting with thin liquid paints, will last you much longer than student paint of the same volume, because you add linseed oil to it to keep the paint thin and oil to keep it cheap. The pigments are better in professional oil paints, so they are more concentrated. You can save money by buying paint or impasto medium if you like to apply it thickly with a knife and if you don't want to spend a fortune using pure tube expensive Grade paints. Flaxseed oil is an edible vegetable oil, but commercial and health food store flaxseed oil is not suitable for painting. Different kinds
   • oils for painting have specific properties. Experiment if you like the medium.
   • Student grades of oil paints are very liquid and a small amount of paint can cover large areas. Do not buy big pipes
   • , if they are not needed.
   • Once you are used to painting a lot, buy a large tube of ultramarine and a super giant tube of white paint. Ultramarine is used in much greater quantities than other colors. Except in portraits, burnt sienna can also be used often.
   • When you paint well enough and other people are willing to pay real money for your paintings, in general people will pay more for oil than for another texture, even if they are equally durable and beautiful. People think of oil painting as something extremely valuable and permanent.
   • Use an easel if possible.
   • Do not soak brushes, nap side down, in a can of solvent. The hairs will be permanently bent and the brush will be destroyed. Hold the brush upside down so that the hairs of the brush are not bent and are in a loose state without touching anything (this is what the spring wire is for, to keep the brushes upright upside down without touching the bottom) or just lay the brush flat, where can he get out of it? excess liquid. Some small stones or something thinner may allow you to do this.
   • If you have an inexpensive student kit with liquid paints, use inexpensive brushes and work a little at a time. Explore the texture and try using thinner for a "skinny" layer before painting with an opaque color and then glazing with a subtle clear color. Practice on canvas boards and pads until you are ready for more expensive canvases and paints, or use a liquid texture to paint with a subtle, smooth, regular look on a stretched canvas. When you don't have materials listed as such, use what you have.
   • Water-soluble oils are another new type paints. They come with water-soluble linseed oil and water-soluble thinner. They can also be diluted with plain water, but this sometimes changes the color a little or makes them a little cloudy. Use water soluble thinner to make wash on canvas and water to clean water soluble oil. Use only water-soluble media with water-soluble oils.
   • Alkyd oils are made by adding an alkyd resin mixed with an oil medium. They are designed to be touch dry quickly within a day or two rather than a week or two. Liquin medium can be mixed to turn regular oil paint into something that dries faster like alkyd paint and can be used in conjunction with it. Do not cover the oily layer like Liquin.
   • Gypsum is a primer for oil painting. You can take a canvas that has not been initiated, buy gesso, prepare and stretch it yourself to get required sizes canvas. Or you can use gypsum to coat wood panels or chipboard panels, use it on the wall to make oil painting like painting. Gypsum has many uses. As a rule, it will not be in the starter kit. It comes in black, as well as white and other light colors if you want to show off the color of the canvas.
   • To make cleanup easier, if you are working with alla prima, try choosing the largest brush you can complete the painting with and using only that one brush. This saves a lot of hassle associated with cleaning. Single brush paintings tend to have a unity of texture and color, even if you create different textures with the same brush.

   Warnings

   • Do not smoke, use flashlights, open flames, or heaters near oil-based paint rags, solvent containers, or flammable oil-based materials.
   • Do not flush sticky liquids, used solvent, or old dirty paint down the toilet. The liquid will leak into the environment and may be toxic. Even worse, it can stick to your plumbing when it dries and cause big problems. If you live with your parents, this may lead to big trouble. If you rent an apartment, it’s the same. If you own your own home, you will have to shell out money for a plumber. So no matter how you look at it, the toilet is not the place to dispose of toxic paint! Use it for organic waste and spoiled food.
   • Use proper ventilation. If the smell of the thinner is irritating, it is probably dangerous. Unscented thinners are somewhat safer, but they're still not very good if you're drying your paintings in the same room you sleep in without an exhaust fan. Oil painting painted with spray paint very dangerous - toxic fumes can ignite!
   • If you are painting outdoors, be careful not to spill used solvent or paint onto the grass. It may be toxic to the environment. Recycle your thinner with water and save dirty water in a bottle. Throw it away where toxic waste can be left in your city. Sometimes, if you are using very little thinner, soak it up with paper towels and clean with a minimal amount of liquid so that the debris with toxic solids can be sealed and disposed of properly instead of having to deal with throwing out a lot of sticky stuff.

   What you will need

   • Linseed oil (from an art studio) or Liquin, or other medium. Water-soluble linseed oil if you are using water-soluble oil paints.
   • Thinner - turpentine, odorless white spirit, Sansodor, turpenoid or water-soluble thinner
   • Oil paint, minimal titanium white, lemon yellow, permanent red or alizarin crimson, ultramarine and burnt sienna
   • Easel (optional)
   • Brushes (optional if you want to try a painting knife)
   • Palette knife for mixing (can be improvised with a spoon or butter knife), optional painting knives of various shapes
   • Palette/flat piece of glass/disposable paper
   • Rags
   • Brush sink or solvent can, small cup or double ladle
   • Sketchbook plus pencil and pen, additional gray and black markers
   • Canvas or cheap canvas boards for preliminary color studies and texture tests
   • A safe place to dry wet paintings for weeks or months. Once they are dry, they can be cleaned
   • Removable varnish, such as Damar, for final varnishing after the painting has dried for a year. Even an alkyd painting should dry within a year
   • Additional varnish for retouching, as a temporary coating. Used after the painting has dried for only a month (if you want to sell the painting faster or urgently hang it on the wall)

How good it is to be an artist! After all, he can capture the beauty of the world around us in pastel drawings, and oil painting is actually some kind of miracle! Sometimes you look at a painting and you want to step beyond the frame and dissolve in the beautiful world painted on canvas by the artist’s talented brush. Do you also want to be one of the lucky few who can freely use a brush and paints? If you are not afraid of difficulties, and determination and love for drawing fill your heart and soul, then go ahead! We are confident that with your determination you will become a true master very soon.

Oil painting - where to start

Starting is always difficult. Painting on canvas with oil paints is a task that requires a lot of knowledge, skills and abilities. Of course, it is best to start getting involved in art as early as possible. Unfortunately, not everyone’s parents took them to art school as children.

But nowadays there are art studios for people of all ages, where anyone can study oil painting. Master classes in such schools are usually taught by experienced teacher-artists who are well versed in the subject and can fully reveal all the secrets of the craft. If for some reason you cannot or do not want to visit such an establishment, then this is not a problem. In the end, a persistent and purposeful person can learn to write on his own oil paintings. And first you will need to go to the store and buy everything you need for painting.

What materials will be needed for work?

Oil painting is a business that requires not only talent and skill, but also significant financial costs, because in order to paint a picture you will need a lot of everything. Here is a list of what you will need for work:

1. Special oil paints in tubes.

2. Brushes of different sizes made of natural bristles (flat) and (round) for the final finishing of your painting.

3. Sketchbook.

4. Solvent for oil paints.

5. Charcoal for applying a preliminary drawing to the canvas or a simple soft pencil.

6. Subframe. It can be ordered from a framing shop or bought ready-made in a store.

7. Primed canvas.

Well, now you are practically fully armed and can begin the creative process. But first listen to our short story about the properties of oil paints.

More about oil paints

The beautiful oil painting will take your breath away. But have you ever thought about how much time a master spends at his easel? Much depends on the quality of the paints the artist uses. Now it’s hard for us to imagine, but once upon a time painters had no idea about oil paints. They were invented only in the 15th century by the Flemings, and the secret of their manufacture was kept in the strictest confidence for a long time. Can you imagine how lucky we are?! Nowadays, such paints can be bought completely freely, and of the most excellent quality!

You need to know that the color that is consumed the most when working is white. Therefore, if you buy paints in a set, then buy a few more lead tubes or you can also not use ready-made store kits, but assemble your own palette. Just don’t try to buy as many flowers as possible right away. Take only the basic ones: white paint, black paint (it is best to buy burnt bone), ocher (yellow and red), cadmium red, or cinnabar, kraplak, cadmium yellow, chrome green, ultramarine and cobalt blue, mars brown. This set will be quite sufficient at first.

Oil painting for beginners. Stages of work

As you know, an elephant is best eaten in parts, so let's find out what stages the work on an oil painting will consist of.

1. First you need to decide on the nature, i.e. decide what exactly you will paint: still life, landscape, or maybe even a portrait?

2. Let's say you chose a still life. As you know, it consists of several different objects that must be carefully drawn, in addition, it is necessary to carefully consider the lighting. The play of light and shadow is very important point, which should never be forgotten.

3. If you still have the primed canvas and the stretcher separately, then this needs to be corrected and the canvas stretched using a furniture stapler.

5. Now it's time to do the initial underpainting. Here your task comes down to understanding the primary colors, shadows and light in your painting. After this step, your oil painting should dry out a little. You can return to work on it the next day.

6. After the sketch has dried, you can begin further creativity. The time has come to clarify the contours and work out the details.

7. At the final stage, you need to put the wide brushes aside and pick up a round thin kolinsky brush. She applies the smallest finishing touches to the picture.

8. Well, the work is ready. After the painting has completely dried, you can coat it with a special varnish.

What is better to start with: a portrait, a landscape or a still life?

If you have never practiced oil painting on canvas before, then you should not start with a portrait, because this is the most difficult thing. And landscape is difficult for an inexperienced artist, especially if you want to paint it from life. The difficulty largely arises because the lighting in nature is constantly changing, the trees move from the wind, and there are too many different distractions: buzzing mosquitoes and flies, annoying passers-by, etc.

Another thing is a still life (dead nature): I composed it from different objects, and it will stand like a cute one for as long as you need it. Just don’t immediately try to imitate the “Little Dutch” and take on a complex composition consisting of many objects and colors. To begin with, it is better to be content with a modest still life of two or three things.

How to use the palette

You've probably seen in various films how venerable painters beautifully hold a palette with one hand and freely draw on the canvas with the other. You can do this too, for this there is a special hole in the palette: insert it there thumb, and with the rest you support it from below - very convenient, try it!

The paints are squeezed onto the upper left edge of the board, and the middle of it should remain free - you will mix the colors on it. Very important: after a painting session, do not forget to scrape off any unused paint, otherwise it will dry to the palette and interfere with subsequent work.

Oil painting technique

Learning to paint in oils can be hampered by the fact that the beginning artist may not understand the technique of such drawing well. Oil paints have a high density, and without experience it can be difficult to achieve imperceptible tonal transitions. Take a look at the reproductions antique paintings- you won’t see a trace of brush strokes on them. If you are attracted to this particular style, then first of all you will need to master the so-called glazing technique. In this case, the paints are diluted with a solvent quite liquidly, but they are practically applied to the surface of the canvas. This is difficult to explain in words, it is best to see how real artists do it.

Another technique that allows you to achieve beautiful effects in painting is shading paint with a brush on the canvas. In this case, one color seems to melt into another. And, of course, it is not at all necessary to try to write without strokes. Perhaps you want to imitate

Last parting words for a novice artist

Well, that’s the end of our short story about oil painting. The master class, although small, was very informative. Now it will depend only on you how soon you can please your loved ones with beautiful works. Start creating quickly and don’t be afraid of anything. We wish you creative success!

1. Buy oil art paints.
2. You will need paint thinner.
3. Now it's up to the picturesque base - what you will be on. Oil paints can be painted on a rigid, semi-rigid and elastic base. The rigid base is also plywood, fiberboard and chipboard, and metal boards. Semi-rigid base - cardboard. Elastic base - canvas. Canvas as a pictorial basis is most widespread. It is better if for your first experiments you purchase already primed canvas, cardboard or plywood.
4. It is advisable to immediately purchase an easel and sketchbook.
5. To mix paints you will need a palette. Buy a plastic one, or use a white plate as a palette, ceramic tiles.
6. Brushes are what you will use to paint. They are large, medium and small, hard and soft, with a flat and a pointed end. The best brushes are made from kolinsky, ferret and squirrel hair. For the first time, buy 3-4 brushes of different sizes.

Now you have everything you need to paint with oil paints. Of course, it’s also good to purchase some kind of manual on, get acquainted with the concept of perspective, the basic properties of color and light. Think about the theme of your first work, composition, perspective, color scheme, apply to canvas, then start painting with oils.

note

Use a pencil for sketching a drawing with caution, as its sharp tip can damage the primer of the canvas.

Helpful advice

Mix the colors on the palette carefully and gradually. To obtain lighter tones, use white or glaze.

Sources:

• Oil painting technology in 2019

A palette knife is a tool that allows you to work with oil paints in new technology. Unlike a brush, a palette knife applies large strokes of paint to the canvas, making the picture more voluminous and expressive.

Nowadays, many people choose needlework or various options as a hobby. artistic creativity. As the market is filled with mass-produced goods, the demand for souvenirs increases self made. Photographs or computer illustrations are printed multiple times. You can create an exclusive thing by learning how to write for beginners. It is quite possible for even a beginner to master this painting technique. This way you will make a wonderful gift or interior decoration. Even if you try to repeat exactly the same plot twice, you still won’t get a perfect copy. This determines the uniqueness of original works of art.

Preparation of materials

To create oil paintings for beginners, you will need the following:

• base (canvas or fiberboard);
• paints;
• brushes;
• solvent (white spirit) and a small container for it;
• palette for mixing colors.

Professionals also use palette knives - special flexible metal spatulas with a wooden handle, which they use to apply paint to canvas. It is enough for a beginner to master brushes. In addition, professionals paint pictures on an easel or a special sketchbook, if they go out into nature to paint pictures from life for novice artists - the plot is quite complex. It is better to make them from your imagination or using a photograph. It will be easier.

From the point of view of professionals, it is more convenient to work on an easel, since it is easier to step away and evaluate the result from afar. In your first experience, you can also practice on a table surface, although it is better to take some kind of plywood and place it on your lap or place it on a chair at an angle. Such a review of your work allows you to better assess its quality and notice errors in time. Although for the first experience you should do what is convenient and comfortable for you, so as not to be distracted from the main thing.

Please note that the paints are used unevenly, so for a beginner it is better to purchase them separately. The release form is offered in various volumes. White paint disappears the fastest, but black paint is used in very small quantities. It makes sense to first decide on the plot, and then purchase paints in the appropriate shades. For you you will need one set, and for a summer landscape - another. In order not to waste money on unnecessary colors, it is better to buy only the necessary ones in approximately the required quantities. Although in fact all shades can be obtained with only three primary colors (yellow, red, blue), as well as white and black.

Which foundation should you choose?

Traditionally, oil painting is done on canvas, but for a beginner this can be difficult as the fabric needs to be stretched over a stretcher and primed. However, modern technologies have advanced in this direction. Specialized stores sell ready-made bases onto which paints are immediately applied. They are not cheap, but they are just right for a beginner, as they make the work much easier.

Another option is to use fiberboard. Every man's household has scraps of this material stored after repair work. It’s easy to find it by asking friends, relatives or acquaintances. Someone has definitely used it and keeps some leftovers in the pantry just in case.

The texture of the fiberboard sides is different; one looks absolutely smooth, while the other looks rough, vaguely reminiscent of a woven structure. You can use both, but it is better to apply to a rough surface. larger number layers of primer, otherwise the color may appear dull in the future, since the paint will seem to sink into the structure of such a “canvas”.

If you decide to try the oil painting technique for beginners for the first time, you can use a ready-made fiberboard base with a primer already applied. They are also sold in specialty craft stores. It is better to take a small sheet size, no larger than landscape. Once you have gained some experience, purchase or prime a format of any size yourself.

You can immediately order a frame for your future painting. Once decorated, any canvas looks elegant and complete. However, most often the baguette is selected according to color, width and narrower finished work. This is also an interesting and creative process. Seeing the same image in different frames will help you understand how different the canvas makes an impression. Even oil paintings by novice artists look exquisite in a good frame, but poor framing can ruin a professional’s painting. So this stage must also be treated very carefully.

If you still decide to prepare the DPV base yourself, a simple and cheap way is to use regular gelatin; you can add PVA glue to it to make the color white. This primer should be applied in several layers, allowing the previous one to dry first. Three times will be enough. You should feel that the surface has become different. When the base is prepared, you can move on to

Types of brushes

To work with oil, use bristles or synthetics. Their fibers are hard, elastic, and interact well with the paint composition. To begin with, you can buy two or three pieces. A thin one, for example No. 1, will be needed to work out the details, wide ones are needed to create large background surfaces in the case of a landscape - the sky, grass, water, draperies in a still life. Do not use squirrel brushes for oil painting. They will spoil. After each use, especially if you are going to take a long break from creative process, thoroughly wash the tools with solvent so that the paint does not dry on them.

Oil paintings for beginners step by step

Considering that you have prepared the materials and base, creating a canvas, regardless of the plot, consists of the following steps:

1. Apply a linear drawing to the canvas with a simple pencil or just paint.

2. Distribute shadows and highlights - the darkest and brightest areas of the image, respectively.

3. Complete the background and all large objects.

4. Draw small details.

Remember to constantly step away from the picture, assessing the result from afar. As you work, try to mix different shades of colors on your palette. The final touch will be to frame the painting.

Subjects

To do simple paintings oil for beginners, choose the appropriate topic. The easiest way is to make a still life, that is, a composition of household items, a vase with flowers. If you are working from life, and you will need a lot of time the first time, use objects that will not change in a week. You may have to complete the painting in several steps, so when composing a still life for the subject of an oil painting for beginners, it is better not to use flowers. They may change color, wither, or new buds will bloom. The perception of the composition will change. It will be difficult for you. The easiest way is to work with a photograph or copy an easy image you like. Don't take stories with a lot of details. It is very difficult to paint a portrait.

How to make a landscape?

If you want to decorate your wall with a nature painting done by yourself, it is better to use a tutorial on how to paint oil paintings for beginners step by step. By ready-made instructions it is quite possible to do this. The main thing is to understand what elements the image consists of, and it is better to start working from the background and general space, moving sequentially to more small details, located closer to the viewer.

Let's go plein air

It is very pleasant to paint oil paintings in nature, but you need to work quickly, since the weather can get worse, and the sun is constantly moving, changing the direction of light and shadows. Beginning artists can use a camera to photograph the initial painting. If you get tired of working for a long time the first time, then you can finish the painting at home.

How to draw flowers?

If you want to decorate the interior of a room with an oil painting with a bouquet in a vase, it is better to choose asters as your first experience. Asters are perfect. They are not difficult to make, as they are a simple elliptical shape, and the small petals are easy to do with separate strokes in a circle. Also suitable are daisies, sunflowers, lilacs, lupins, mimosa - in a word, choose those with inflorescences or individual elements of a simple, clear shape that can be created in one stroke, drawing several details later. Your task is not to convey the photographic accuracy of the object, but to create a beautiful impression of what you see.

So, you have learned how to create oil paintings for beginners. Choose the story you like, buy necessary materials and begin the exciting creative process.