Oil painting on canvas. Oil painting training

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

How good it is to be an artist! After all, he can capture the beauty of the world around us in watercolor landscapes, pastel drawings, and oil painting is generally some kind of miracle! Sometimes you look at a picture - and you want to step over the border of the baguette and dissolve in the beautiful world painted on canvas by the artist's talented brush. Do you also want to be among the lucky ones who can freely use a brush and paints? If you are not afraid of difficulties, but determination and love for drawing overwhelm your heart and soul, then go ahead! We are sure that with your determination you will become a real master very soon.

Oil painting - where to start

Starting is always difficult. Painting on canvas with oil paints is a business that requires a lot of knowledge, skills and abilities. Of course, it is best to start getting involved in art as early as possible. Unfortunately, not all parents took them to art school in childhood.

But nowadays there are art studios for people of all ages, where everyonecan study oil painting. A master class in such schools is usually conducted by experienced artist teachers who are well versed in the subject and can fully reveal all the secrets of mastery. If, for some reason, you cannot or do not want to visit such an institution, then this does not matter. In the end, a stubborn and purposeful person can independently learn how to paint oil paintings. And first you will need to go to the store and buy everything you need for painting there.

What materials will be needed for work

Oil painting is a business that requires not only talent and skill, but also significant financial costs, because in order to paint, you need a lot of everything. Here is a list of what you will need to get started:

1. Special oil paints in tubes.

2. Natural bristle brushes in different sizes (flat) and a kolinsky brush (round) for the final finishing of your painting.

3. Sketchbook.

4. Thinner for oil paints.

5. Charcoal for preliminary drawing on canvas or a simple soft pencil.

6. Stretcher. It can be ordered at a framing workshop or bought ready-made in a store.

7. Primed canvas.

Well, now you are almost fully equipped and can start the creative process. But first, listen to our short story about the properties of oil paints.

More about oil paints

Beautiful oil painting is breathtaking. ButHave you ever thought about how much time the master spends at the easel? Much depends on the quality of the paints used by the artist. Now it is difficult for us to imagine it, but once painters had no idea about oil paints. They were invented only in the 15th century by the Flemings, and the secret of their manufacture was kept in the strictest confidence for a long time. Can you imagine how lucky we are?! Nowadays, such paints can be bought completely freely, and of the highest quality!

You need to know that the white color is used the most during the work. Therefore, if you buy paints in a set, then buy a few more tubes of lead or titanium white for them. Also, you can not use ready-made store kits, but assemble your own palette. Just do not try to immediately buy as many flowers as possible. Take only the main ones: white, black paint (it is best to purchase burnt bone), ocher (yellow and red), cadmium red, or cinnabar, kraplak, cadmium yellow, chrome green, ultramarine and cob alt blue, mars brown. Such a set will be enough at first.

Oil painting for beginners. Work steps

Elephant is known to be best eaten in pieces, so let's find out what the steps will be to work on an oil painting.

1. First you need to decide on the nature, i.e. decide what exactly you will paint: still life, landscape, or maybe even a portrait?

2. Let's say you chose a still life. As you know, it consists of several different objects that must be carefully drawn, in addition, it is necessary to think carefully about lighting. The play of light and shadow is a very important point, which should never be forgotten.

3. If you still have a primed canvas and a stretcher separately, then you need to fix this and stretch the canvas with a furniture stapler.

4. Next, a light sketch is made on the canvas with charcoal or pencil.

5. Now it's time to do the initial underpainting. Here your task is to deal with the main colors, shadows and light in your picture. After this step, your oil painting should dry out a bit. You can return to work on it the next day.

6. After the sketch has dried, you can proceed to further creativity. It's time to refine the contours and work out the details.

7. At the final stage, wide brushes should be put aside and a round, thin kolinsky brush should be picked up. She puts the smallest finishing touches on the picture.

8. Well, the work is ready. After the painting is completely dry, you can cover it with a special varnish.

Where is it better to start: with a portrait, landscape or still life?

If you have never practiced oil painting on canvas before, then you should not start doing it with a portrait, because this is the most difficult. Yes, and the landscape is difficult for an inexperienced artist, especially if you want to paint it from nature. The difficulty arises largely because the lighting in natureconstantly changing, trees moving in the wind, and there are too many different distractions: buzzing mosquitoes and flies, annoying passers-by, etc.

Another thing is a still life (dead nature): I made it from different objects, and it will stand like a pretty one for as long as you need. Just do not immediately try to imitate the "Little Dutch" and take on a complex composition consisting of many objects and colors. To begin with, it is better to be content with a modest still life of two or three things.

How to use the palette

You have probably seen in different films how venerable painters beautifully hold a palette with one hand, and draw freely on canvas with the other. You can do this too, there is a special hole in the palette for this: insert your thumb there, and support it from below with the rest - very convenient, try it!

The paints are squeezed out on the upper left edge of the board, and the middle of it should remain free - on it you will mix colors. Very important: do not forget to scrape off any unused paint after a painting session, otherwise it will dry to the palette and interfere with subsequent work.

Oil painting technique

Education in oil painting can be hampered by the fact that a novice artist may not understand the technique of such a drawing well. Oil paints have a high density, and without experience it can be difficult to achieve imperceptible tonal transitions. Take a look at reproductions of old paintings - you won't seethere are traces of smears on them. If it is this manner that attracts you, then you will first need to master the so-called glazing technique. In this case, the paints are diluted with a solvent quite liquidly, but they are applied to the surface of the canvas with an almost dry brush. It's hard to explain in words, it's best to see how real artists do it.

Another technique that allows you to achieve beautiful effects in painting is shading paint with a brush on canvas. In this case, one color seems to be fused into another. And, of course, it is not at all necessary to try to write without strokes. Perhaps you want to take as a model the imitation of the paintings of Van Gogh …

The last parting word to the novice artist

Well, our short story about oil painting has ended. The master class turned out to be small, but very informative. Now it will depend only on you how soon you will be able to please your loved ones with beautiful works. Get started as soon as possible and don't be afraid. We wish you creative success!