Oil painting itself dates back to ancient times in Europe. It was discovered in caves where men mixed together soot, earth and animal fats to make the earliest oil paints. These were at that time used to compose their imagery on the actual cave walls.
Later it was revealed that, if oils were taken from nuts plus linseed and were mixed along with pigment, it would make up bright oily colours. The beauty of oils is the fact that, if you do make errors on your canvas, you can get the colour off if you dip a piece of rag in turpentine and just wipe it off.
Therefore, what do you in actual fact need? First of all, I would advise you to wear a big apron, or some kind of overall, before you start to paint. A palette knife along with a palette. The knife you will discover very handy to move oil on to your picture, but you can what's more move the paint about with this.
Now, if you can afford an easel this will be an asset and there are various types to pick from. Old jam jars can be used for washing out your brushes or solvents. Old pieces of rag, or dippers also, are rather a good idea as they can be clipped on to the edge of your palette to contain solvent as well as painting mediums.
Solvents, for example distilled turpentine and white spirit, for thinning oil colours and also for cleaning your equipment and brushes, can be used to great effect. Charcoal too is useful for outlining the subject that you want to paint. For instance for your fundamental palette, colours I have listed now are a general type of palette which,needless to say, you can always add to.
Cadium lemon, yellow and red, raw umber, titanium white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, viridian hue, french ultramarine, pthalo blue, permanent alizarin crimson, and permanent rose.
It follows that, besides paper or a canvas, you can lay oil paint on top of glass, hardboard, walls, wooden furniture and plaster if you prepare it to start with and make use of a primer.
Going to brushes, fine hog brushes are in all probability the best option as they maintain their form and are pretty good for fine detailing in your masterpiece. While for brush types, a large or medium sized flat brush works well. A medium no. 6, or a large no. 10 or 12.
These are good when you want to paint on large areas of colour. If you then want to do thinner, narrow lines you can use the tip of your brush. Very good too for blending your colour around your canvas.
Now for scumbling or dabbing on small patches of colour. You could use a medium sized round no. 6 brush, which would work well too for putting on broad areas of colour. For very fine details, and even highlighting, you could try a no. 2 small sized round brush.
If you would like to sketch outside, canvas boards are good, quite strong, and, I would say, are more manageable as they take up less space. Stretched canvases are in all probability the most used, but you can even construct these yourself.
The other alternative of surface left to you is oil colour paper which has a textured surface, but can be used for oils or acrylics.
Later it was revealed that, if oils were taken from nuts plus linseed and were mixed along with pigment, it would make up bright oily colours. The beauty of oils is the fact that, if you do make errors on your canvas, you can get the colour off if you dip a piece of rag in turpentine and just wipe it off.
Therefore, what do you in actual fact need? First of all, I would advise you to wear a big apron, or some kind of overall, before you start to paint. A palette knife along with a palette. The knife you will discover very handy to move oil on to your picture, but you can what's more move the paint about with this.
Now, if you can afford an easel this will be an asset and there are various types to pick from. Old jam jars can be used for washing out your brushes or solvents. Old pieces of rag, or dippers also, are rather a good idea as they can be clipped on to the edge of your palette to contain solvent as well as painting mediums.
Solvents, for example distilled turpentine and white spirit, for thinning oil colours and also for cleaning your equipment and brushes, can be used to great effect. Charcoal too is useful for outlining the subject that you want to paint. For instance for your fundamental palette, colours I have listed now are a general type of palette which,needless to say, you can always add to.
Cadium lemon, yellow and red, raw umber, titanium white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, viridian hue, french ultramarine, pthalo blue, permanent alizarin crimson, and permanent rose.
It follows that, besides paper or a canvas, you can lay oil paint on top of glass, hardboard, walls, wooden furniture and plaster if you prepare it to start with and make use of a primer.
Going to brushes, fine hog brushes are in all probability the best option as they maintain their form and are pretty good for fine detailing in your masterpiece. While for brush types, a large or medium sized flat brush works well. A medium no. 6, or a large no. 10 or 12.
These are good when you want to paint on large areas of colour. If you then want to do thinner, narrow lines you can use the tip of your brush. Very good too for blending your colour around your canvas.
Now for scumbling or dabbing on small patches of colour. You could use a medium sized round no. 6 brush, which would work well too for putting on broad areas of colour. For very fine details, and even highlighting, you could try a no. 2 small sized round brush.
If you would like to sketch outside, canvas boards are good, quite strong, and, I would say, are more manageable as they take up less space. Stretched canvases are in all probability the most used, but you can even construct these yourself.
The other alternative of surface left to you is oil colour paper which has a textured surface, but can be used for oils or acrylics.
About the Author:
If you liked this article by Anna Meenaghan then you can find a whole lot more at her online interactive art gallery website. Here you can find anything related to art ranging from realism to abstract paintings, as well as video interviews with artists etc.
