Painting Techniques| Oil Paintings :: How to Paint Realistic and more!

Old-fashioned brushes were much longer, in length of hair and of handle, than their modern equivalents. Renaissance artists had brushes that they could flourish in a way that only orchestral conductors can now enjoy.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The number of different oil colors in any art shop can be staggering. It can also be baffling, because individual ranges may have similar colors under different proprietary names; and it can be off-putting, because the very fact of having so much so easily available may stop you from learning to understand the principles of color and of color mixing.

Working outdoors, however, can actually help you to appreciate fine pigments. Our color codes will show you just how much can be produced from only a few basic tubes. You’ll need to take with you the colors listed below.

Oil colors are pigments already mixed with a small amount of oil to help them flow. You can add more oil, or turpentine, to thin out the paint, or white to lighten the effect. Never use white spirit instead of turpentine; made of rectified paraffin, it usually contains impurities that affect some of the colors quite badly. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the great mysteries in painting concerns finding and using a medium. Some artists search and find just what they want. As for myself, I find that I have to change the medium with each picture I am about to paint. If I am going to do a lot of underpainting and glazing, then the medium will have to have properties that suit that final effect. What is proper for glazing does not suffice for alta prima painting.

By learning and understanding the many different vehicles and how they will perform, you will build a sound knowledge of their usage. It does not make sense to me to search for a medium that will do all things, such as I dry slow, dry fast, be opaque, be transparent. The artist can from the outset easily select the ingredients for his medium that will do the job for his particular painting. A reliable painting medium, if used with knowledge and used sparingly, should hold up well and cause no bad effects in the future. Read the rest of this entry »