How to do oil painting landscapes for beginners

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Do you want to start painting landscapes in oils like real masters? Of course, this is not an easy task, and quality comes with experience, but it is never too late to create your first painting. Prepare everything you need, be patient, follow the recommendations. You will get a worthy decoration for the interior from the first time.

Tools and materials

To start painting oil landscapes, prepare the following:

• Canvas or fiberboard sheet, preferably a small size - about the size of an A4 landscape sheet (enough for the first time).
• Ground (at home, you can use gelatin, PVA glue or buy a prepared base).
• Oil paints (purchase separately only those colors in the right size container that you need in the first job).
• Brushes (wide, medium and fine for working out fine details - at least one each).
• Solvent or white spirit.
• Palette (a sheet of plastic or an unnecessary porcelain saucer will do).
• Cloth for wiping hands and hands.
• Easel or sketchbook (optional).

As for the last two positions, they provide a comfortable experience. Brushes don't careit is necessary to wash in a solvent, but it is better to get wet with a rag. Drawing on an easel is convenient, as you can step back and appreciate the work from afar. The sketchbook is indispensable in the open air, that is, when working in nature. If you will be doing your first painting at home, for example from a sample, and you are not used to painting on a vertical surface, work directly on the table. In this case, you should sometimes put the work in a vertical position and look at it from afar. This makes it easier to see errors.

Landscapes in oils for beginners

It's best to start your first painting by trying to replicate a pattern, or at least a photograph. In the first case, you should choose, for example, on the Internet, the simplest example made using the same technique. It is difficult to paint landscapes in oils from nature in nature, as a beginner needs a lot of time, and due to the movement of the sun during the day and the change in weather, the picture can change very quickly. So work at a calm pace and in familiar conditions.

We draw a landscape with oil in stages

Before starting work, you need to prepare the basis. The easiest way, of course, is to buy a ready-made primed canvas, fixed on a solid base. Stretching the canvas on a stretcher, priming the surface, even if it is a fiberboard sheet, is not easy and takes a lot of time. So, you have found a sample, prepared everything you need. Get to work. The steps will be as follows:

1. Apply the contour drawing to the prepared surface. When working from a reference, the easiest way to complete this step is to draw on a grid. Forthis, a transparent layer with a prepared checkered matrix is applied to the template. On your sheet, the same grid is made with thin lines of a simple pencil. Analyzing how the contours pass relative to the borders of the cells on the sample, you try to make it as similar as possible to yourself.



2. When you start working with paints, paint the background first with a wide brush and lay all the objects without using a lot of shades. You should get a generalized system of color combinations and relationships. Start with light shades. You can always darken. Analyze not only the tone of a particular object, but also how it differs from the color of the background or neighboring element.
3. Paint (oil paintings are actually painted, not painted) with a medium-sized brush smaller details.
4. Remember to step away from work by placing it vertically.
5. Finish detailing with a thin brush. Please note that small details should be indicated only in the foreground. The background should be left generalized. This creates the effect of space, perspective.
6. With the final touch, mark the highlights in the picture - the brightest places.

Review the work from afar. If you like everything, leave to dry.

Painting design

So, you have mastered the step-by-step oil painting of a landscape and completed your first masterpiece. To make it look complete, it must be placed in a baguette. Is it a wooden or plastic frame withflat or curved surface. Properly selected framing gives the work completeness. Try on several different "clothings" in the framing workshop. Let the professionals advise you which option is better. Do not take too wide, frilly and multi-colored frames. This thing should complement your picture, and not act as the main role.

Thus, painting landscapes in oils is not such a difficult task. The main thing is to understand the basic principles, master the necessary methods of work and correctly arrange the picture. And inspiration and patience should become your main companions in hard creative work.