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Oil Paint has been used by many of the most famous painters. It is a great medium that isn’t hard to use and has many exceptional qualities. Before you begin painting, you need to make sure you have all the supplies including paint, brushes, terpentine or another oil paint solvent, canvas to paint on, and anything else you might need.
Begin by very lightly drawing out what you are going to paint. This is optional, but if you are doing a realistic intricate painting, you will probably benefit from this first task. Make sure it is very light with pencil so that it doesn’t show through the painting. You don’t have to be detailed, just get the general layout. If you want, you could even do an intricate pencil drawing on another paper first to get the feel for it.
Next, you will do a light wash of the lightest colors in all the areas. Use white paint only on the white spaces. Mix a little paint with more terpentine or solvent to make it a thin wash. If you use too much paint, it will take forever to dry and you’ll never finish it.
Follow with the next darkest layers and work your way through. Continue using thin layers, but not as thin as before because it isn’t a wash. You can become more and more intricate as you go through. What is great about oil is that it doesn’t dry quickly, so you have time to work with it. Be careful, though, because you are more likely to mix the colors, so make sure you know if it’s dry or wet and what you are supposed to do with it.
If you are doing more of an abstract colorful painting that doesn’t require intricate detail, you can be less precise, although I would still recommend starting with a wash. If you are doing a Pollack style drawing, than, of course, this probably isn’t necessary. What’s great about abstract is that you can do what you want and you don’t have to follow the laws of paints if they don’t suite you.
For intricate paintings, I recommend waiting until it is completely dry or almost dry before starting the very intricate stuff. Of course, I suggest playing around with it. For example, I wait until a human face is completely dry before I do the intricate detail of the eyes, but not when I do the detail of the nose because I want to do more blending with skin.
The best way to learn how to paint is by trying and practicing it on your own. There is no right or wrong way to paint; it is an art. Experiment and you will find yourself with your own style before you know it! |
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