I hope that you will gather from these pages that I dislike very much falling into a system of using over and over again a procedure or a set palette. With your painting materials always the same, each picture will tend to appear just like the preceding one, with only a rearrangement of subject matter. If the materials you use are sound and compatible, and each lends itself to the realization of the desired final effect, then you have selected and used them for their best qualities.

ZINC WHITE possesses the wonderful quality of drying very slowly. When you also use a slow-drying painting medium, it allows you to work wet-in-wet, • sometimes for days. If you use a non-absorbent ground and, at the end of the working day, the picture is covered or placed away in a dark closet where the air is not allowed to circulate, the drying processes will be slowed even further.

TITANIUM WHITE does not have the history behind it of lead or zinc white, but has been used widely for a number of years. From all appearances, it holds up well and is compatible with other reliable colors of the palette. It is the lightest of whites, on the cool side, possessing extraordinary covering power. It works well when you are painting in successive layers or alta prima. It dries at a normal rate, but has a tendency to produce a glassy surface if • too much medium is used. Lead and zinc white have a much better glazing quality than titanium white. For grounds, the opaque quality of titanium is desirable, although you must allow for a longer drying period before proceeding to paint.

LEAD WHITE. The oldest of whites used in oil painting and the most versatile, it works well in grounds, has a semi-transparent quality and, when used with a little more body, will be opaque. Lead white dries fast and well. If the correct amount of medium is used, it will not build up a glassy surface • that is hard to work over with glazes. It yellows more than the other whites and has a tendency to become more transparent with age. A matte finish is easily arrived at without a large amount of turpentine. Of the three whites, it is the warmest. It is a poisonous white, so be especially careful if you grind your own paint.

UNDERPAINTING WHITE. One of the best forms of white I know for underpainting is the white you grind for yourself-either lead or titanium white in powder form, ground in a mixture of dammar varnish (heavy body) and linseed oil-one part oil, one part varnish. You may increase or decrease the oil or varnish to hasten or slow the drying time. If this white is not mixed too rich with medium, it will dry matte and will be a good surface to receive the overpainting. The drying time of this mixture will be but a few hours.

To start the lesson follow the steps below:

Read Introduction on Landscape Oil Paintings

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

Step 1

The first step is background. Using your palette knife, coat the canvas with a fairly uniform layer of paint. Since this is a landscape you must apply color to this abstract layer, for it will eventually have to represent sky and water. So get in some healthy blues and greens, but also be creative and have fun. Don’t be afraid to include some brown, while lighter colors like yellow can also be used. Always remember, though, that the green and blue ought to be prominent.

An easy-flowing wrist motion accomplishes this background. Naturally, you will be using the flat side of the knife. When you start your first painting, spend some extra time applying the basic colors. While it is never a good idea to thicken a canvas with disgusting mounds of superfluous paint, for your first time, it can’t really hurt to get the feel of the knife as much as possible.

Already, in this rather uncomplicated first step, we have need of the toilet paper. As you know, no background is really flat. The sky is alive with so many shades of color that some are projecting towards us while others seem shy and hang back. Before you ever start painting you must memorize a basic principle: light creates depth and form. A sky crayoned by a child doesn’t really look like a sky. It is too uniform. Nothing is acting upon it, no sun is forcing one patch patch to appear distant and hazy, while causing other spots to look as if they’re bulging down on us.

To create depth in your background use the tips of a piece of toilet paper and gently dab the surface. Small dots create what is called a pointillist effect. Already you will note how I those dots lend dynamism to the surface, as if pieces of color I are dancing in various directions.

Though toilet paper is a very light material, it can still slop up a canvas if used carelessly. I therefore recommend that you learn how to hold a piece of toilet paper so that you can easily manipulate its tips. It is never really necessary to tear off more than two or three sheets at a time.

To further understand what we have just done, think of the foundation of a house. It is a beginning, a mass of inchoate material. You can’t really know what it will be until you happen to see it situated on a construction lot or between two other completed houses. It is an abstraction. Abstraction always precedes realism. The windows, the lintel, the chimney will later identify it. So too with skies and rivers: They proceed out of a swirl of anonymous color. The next time you see an abstract painting by a true master like Pollack or Kandinsky, don’t dismiss it out of hand. Think of it as matter in the process of becoming a recognizable something, and remember that you yourself have followed the same procedure as part of a more conventional endeavor.