Still, for outdoor painters, it is probably less romantic but more practical to have brushes that can be held comfortably and easily, with the clipped hair which comes from short-haired animals.

Short or long, the most important points about oil brushes are having enough of them and keeping them soft and flexible.

I have dozens of brushes in my big oil-painting box, and recommend that you take at least two long-haired sable ‘writers’, size 4 or 6, six large hog hair brushes and six smaller hog hairs. The reason will become apparent the minute you start to work. Each brush holds one of the colors you are using, or one of the mixtures that you have made from your primary palette.

Since oil paint dries slowly, you need not dip the brush into turpentine again and again, as you do with water and watercolor; so the brush can stay either on the table or in your hand, ready to be used whenever you want to add something in that color to the picture. This is convenient; it wastes little paint, and you don’t have to clean up until the end of your day’s work. .

Acrylics should be washed off with water, never with turpentine, and you must not allow them to dry hard on a brush – they will be almost impossible to remove. You will have to use stainless steel or plastic palette knives.

The photograph here shows my big oil-painting palette with the colors laid out, as well as the fairly small selection of brushes that I take with me on any expedition.

I usually add another large ‘house-painter’s’ brush, for those first wide washes of earth and sky. I keep two of these, one for the blue tones and one for the greens. Even the slightest flake of another color on the blue brush (or vice versa) will eventually turn up just where I don’t want it.

Never be afraid to spend good money on good brushes. I have had some of mine since I was twelve years old, and they are as soft and flexible as they were when I first went to art classes. Of all painter’s tools, brushes become the most personal and most responsive to your way of working.

In the springtime along the coast of New England (and England too), one can expect all types of weather to occur in a short span of time-rain, snow, cold, warmth, sun and fog. If the artist loves change, this is the time and place for it. This is the time, too, when the heavy oceans and fog combine to give the artist a quality of mystery and composition that is both strong and yet can be very subtle-a wonderful time to study shapes and reflections and the unexpected.

I recall one time when the breeze held in the west for two days with a clear sunny zenith and rather cool spring weather. Then a change took place. The weather vane made its slow, unseen swing to the southeast, bringing with it warmer southern air on a collision course with the cold North Atlantic. With this set of conditions, only one thing could occur: fog. And occur it did, accompanied by strong winds and heavy oceans. All during the night one could hear the low rumble of the surf on the far side of the island, muffled by the heavy moisture content of the air. The unpredictable North Atlantic was doing her best to stifle both sound and sight. The lighthouse beacon could no longer be seen and the sound of the foghorn was carried away from the island towards the mainland. By morning, it was very thick.

It took only a few steps from my studio to be engulfed in the heavy greyviolet fog. It is but a quarter of a mile from my studio to the easterly side of the island yet, in that short distance, I experienced the full range of color changes that occur in the spectrum. In the low flatlands near my studio, the fog lay at its heaviest, reducing the amount of light that could pass through it from the sun in zenith, so that it tended towards violet-grey.

As I walked up the hill towards the lighthouse, the wind shifted the fog into varying thicknesses. Sometimes the blue of the overhead sky made its presence felt. Other times, the mixture of warm sun and blue sky produced grey-green. Looking towards the place where the sun should be, I saw its influence showing through the fog at times with a pale orange and yellowgrey. These colors could only be seen in relation to one another, they are so subtle.

It may seem strange to relate this fog to a sunset or a moonlight or any other type of picture. But as far as the spectrum is concerned, they are the same, just presented to us in a different visual manner. One of the few things you can rely on is the spectrum, and knowledge of it will allow any artist to see deeper into the emotional side of painting.

Beyond the lighthouse I passed through a spruce forest that led to the inlets. Here the fog was being gathered up by the rich green needles of the trees and producing its own rainfall for the roots below. On the trip to the far side of the island, I could have paused at any number of places to sketch, for the fog had created countless compositions for an artist to contemplate and paint-the mysterious shapes of people and buildings drifting in and out of the fog, the half-seen boats at the dock, the fish houses emerging for just one moment, the grasses III the meadow around the lighthouse still dressed in their golden brown of winter, the quiet spruce forest wearing its mantle of permanent green.

But the ocean and rocks are what I was headed for. You can hear the ocean crashing below you as you emerge on a headland, but it is not to be seen. It is engulfed in nature’s cauldron of swirling fog 200 feet below. The path down the side of the headland is steep but short, ending on great blue-black rocks below, that reflect their wet surfaces as though all had been freshly varnished. The highlights stand out like jewels against the velvet background of the rich dark rocks. On a day such as this, I could see very clearly each individual color in the foreground-the grey colors that come from dryness are gone; the brilliant sun that makes you squint, reducing color, is not present; the dim light of nighttime or a storm does not impede your vision. Strangely enough, the immediate foreground of a painting on a foggy day can be your richest in color. On a bright sunlit day, you hardly notice the periwinkles, the rockweed, the kelp in among the rocks, but on a day such as this, each stands out, revealing its colors. As soon as your vision travels from the foreground to the distance, these easily seen things disappear in the fog, creating a strong rich foreground against the pale light background.

The ocean on this day was evasive, sometimes seen, other times disappearing into thicker fog. A cresting wave built up and crashed somewhere in the fog, its pale greys and greens undulating in slow motion. I had to wait before seeing it cascading in from the nothingness, swirling among the dark rocks with its white foam, creating great contrasts in the foreground. It was cold and I was wet, but the sight was inspiring. My sketches show large dark shapes of the foreground arranged in strong patterns against the background. The flat rocks I stood on slipped towards the ocean with the Converging lines helping to lend depth to the foreground, the dark upright planes of the outcropping rocks reflecting across the wet surfaces of the foreground. If there IS anyone thing this picture will demand, it is the feeling that everything is receiving a complete soaking and that nothing is escaping it. The use of one object reflecting upon another and the foggy sky reflecting on the whole picture must be ·an integral part of this painting.

The palette for the painting of “Fog” was Prussian blue, yellow ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, Venetian red and Mars violet. Zinc white was selected for its property of staying wet for an extended period of time, allowing me to work wet-in-wet until the picture was completed. A small amount of poppy oil was added to the white paint with a spatula to slow the drying time even more. Prussian blue was selected because it tends to the green of the spectrum. It is very dark and rich and when mixed with the above earth colors (except Mars violet) produces varying shades of greys and grey greens. Mars violet, when mixed with Prussian blue gives the artist a soft grey and grey-violet.

There is a lonely, intimate feeling as you stand alone in the heavy fog, watching the half-seen ocean with the slippery, wet rocks beneath your feet. I felt in the painting of the picture “Fog” that I should keep my foreground rather fiat, with a few, large upright planes of massive rocks outcropping. The rocks would provide me with the necessary dark reflections, to create a wet feeling in the foreground. I selected my vantage point close to the ocean, in among the rocks to give full impetus to the wetness and intimacy of the composition.

The washing in of my canvas was basically one large area of light grey sky against the dark grey rock patterns of the foreground. Further development of the painting would see the introduction of half-lights and half-tones for the emergence of the wave in the middle distance. The edges of the wave and its surrounding water should be kept soft so as to half-lose these forms into the sky and fog.

The foreground rocks should be held dark and rich in color, the upright rocks reflecting their color and tones across the flat rock surfaces. The sky colors and values should make their presence felt on the flat wet surfaces where the upright rocks are not reflecting. In this manner, dark passages meet light, and a feeling of wetness may be achieved. The very subtle modeling of the dark, foreground rocks slowly merging with the lighter, middle distant rocks and then disappearing into the fog-this was of paramount importance to convey to the observer my impression of that wet, spring day on an offshore island in Maine.

Of course this variety also presents something of a problem, namely, which sort of a landscape should I choose for this instruction? I decided, first of all, that trees are indispensable, though many of my customers do enjoy seascapes as well. Yet seascapes would involve additional complications that would stretch the scope of this article. I decided that a good compromise would be to do trees along a river bank. That way we can practice all the rudiments of a good landscape: grass, trees, sky and water.

As I have said, your basic tools are a palette knife and toilet paper. Now, you’re going to be giving the knife quite a workout. Just about every color on your palette will be applied, and both the side and top of the knife are important. The toilet paper will add remarkable form and substance. . But it should also be used to clean your knife as you paint, so keep an extra roll or two available. Soon the motion by which your one hand, holding the paper, cleans the knife in four other-almost after every daub-will be automatic.

I realize how eccentric the use of toilet paper might seem. As we shall see, it is a very practical material and using it is not merely a scatological publicity stunt. In my autobiographical remarks I chose to emphasize how in my search to perfect the techniques of Instant Art, I chanced upon the palette knife. Yet anyone who has seen me work will likewise testify to what miracles I can do with a full roll of toilet paper and a good head of steam.

To start the lesson follow the steps below:

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 1

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 2

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 3

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 4

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 5

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 6

Scumbling

Scumbling is painting thin layers of opaque light color over dark colors, which gives a broken color effect. Scumbling is rather like glazing, but with light colors over dark. The colors mix optically rather than on the palette, and the result is shimmery, opalescent.

Stippling

Stippling is similar to scumbling but you are adding more texture than contrast. Same strokes of paint but you are working for a texture effect instead of a color effect.

Sponging

Is using a seas spong to create dimensional paint. It is similar to stippling but you are using a thicker surface and creating a more dynamic color and texture effect.

These three techniques should be used on a dry canvas or the under painting with a thick brush head. These techniques can be used with all types of paint but they work best with acrylic or oil.

Best practice would be to add the under painting. Under painting  is an initial layer of paint applied to a ground, which serves as a base for subsequent layers of paint. Then use these techniques to add more layers of detail to bring out the focal points of the painting. These techniques would be characterized as a more impressionistic style of painting. Impressionism is an art movement beginning in France in the 1870′s, founded by an individualistic group of artists including, among others, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro; all concerned themselves mainly with the components of light and the immediate visual impression of a scene using unconnected colors that were to be mixed by the eye; bright colors and bold brushwork were often used to achieve these impressions.

When using these techniques in your paintings start small and always remember less is more. If you add to much texture and contrast to your work it can become very chaotic. I call it tunnel vision. Always keep the big picture and try not to get lost in adding more detail to your work.

When working with a none water based surface like a glass then the shape of the glass is an extra component of the process that changes the perspective. Now you must not only paint the mirror image of the object being reflected along with the distortion of the smoothness of the glass but also the curve of the reflected surface. In the case of the painting below, the rock or potato is showing on the glass where the surface is concave and elongated. This creates a funny mirror effect like at a carnival. This would stretch the reflection of the object. Therefore the reflected image is now not only distorted but stretched out of proportion.

To truly understand how to paint all reflections on canvas you must understand the three components listed here.

1. The angel of the reflective surface.
2. The smoothness of the reflective surface.
3. The shape of the reflective surface.

I would recommend that you start learning with a water reflection and then continue on to the glass or object based surfaces. Always work with a still life setup or a picture. Also practice with charcoal and paper focusing on darks and lights as shadows and highlights then you can upgrade to color with acrylic and on to oils.

To recreate life you must first understand it.

“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.”
Leonardo da Vinci