|
Tips on Oil Painting
Submitted By: david in Arts Tips category
 Oil painting is one of the most sought after medium for artists. It’s a very versatile and rewarding medium to paint in. But before you begin painting in oils, read the following tips on oil painting.
Arrange your oil paint colors systematically on the palette. Also, you must remember to lay out colors in the same order each time you paint, this increases efficiency. Although there is no strict rule on the way oil paints should be arranged, yet it is seen that artists generally arrange their colors from light to dark or by the color spectrum (starting with reds, then yellows, then greens and lastly blues and violets)
While painting with oil paints, you must increase the medium (oil) with each subsequent layer, that is, paint fat over lean. This is because, the lowers layers absorb oil from the upper layers and if the upper layers dry faster than the one below, your painting could crack.
Make sure you paint in sufficient sun light as it brings out the color and lessens the strain in your eyes. If you don’t have that kind of an arrangement, then buy good indoor lights.
Use linseed oil for colors applied at the bottom layers and also when you intend to paint wet-on-dry. Linseed oil dries thoroughly and quicker than all oil mediums.
Avoid using linseed oil with light colors like blue and white. Because it has a tendency to turn yellow over a period of time. It’s better to make use of poppy oil with light colors. But it takes longer to dry.
Pigments containing lead, cobalt and manganese when used, accelerates the drying process. So it’s a good idea to mix these pigments with other colors, especially for the under layers. On the other hand ivory black slows down the drying process and must be avoided in under paintings.
Don’t dry your oil paintings in the dark because this may cause some oil to rise on the surface of your canvas and yellowing it.
Hold your brush like a brush and not a pencil. Oil painting brushes are made long for a reason. Avoid holding the brush close to the bristles, but hold it at a distance from the bristles.
To create depth in your oil painting, paint distant objects with cooler colors and paint distant objects with warmer colors.
Buy a good set of brushes, as they sustain for longer periods. Avoid buying cheap brushes as the bristles just come off eventually. Keep a good range of brushes in terms of size and shape.
Maintain a clean, organized and tidy environment for you to paint. Get nice storage bottles and boxes to store your brushes, paints and mediums. Have lots of towels near by as they come handy while painting.
Once your done, ensure you clean your brushes with turpentine and then with soap water. Likewise clean your color palette and knife while the paint is still wet.
These are some oil painting tips that will help both a novice as well as a professional artist in their oil painting undertaking.
Received total of 260 page views [id: 16093];
|
