How to paint an oil painting on canvas

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

If you feel an irresistible craving for creativity and dream of painting your own oil painting on canvas, then do not hold back your desires! On the contrary, try to bring it to life. It's not too late to start drawing at any age!

Where to start?

First of all, you need to decide on an idea. What exactly would you like to depict in your picture? Perhaps you live in an unusually picturesque place and want to capture the beauty of the surrounding landscapes on canvas? A lot of amateur artists begin to paint just such oil paintings on canvas. Landscapes are good even for completely inexperienced painters.

What delights you most in the world is the beauty of flower bouquets in a vase? Indeed, what could be more beautiful than flowers! In addition, in order to draw such a picture, it is not at all necessary to go to the open air, you can do painting at home. Still lifes - this is the name of such oil paintings on canvas. Flowers work great for most budding artists. But portraits are the most difficult pictorial genre. Start withnot worth it.

What do you need to work?

Oil painting requires serious preparation. You will have to go to an art salon, buy there special paints and thinner for them, brushes, charcoal, primed cardboard or canvas stretched on a stretcher, a sketchbook.

Oil paints are sold in tubes and are quite expensive. You can buy them in a small set, which will be much more economical. Moreover, in such boxes the primary colors are already selected. You need to stock up on whitewash separately: when you start painting with oil on canvas, you will realize that this paint is used up much faster than others.

Brushes are better to choose different sizes, natural bristle or kolinsky, flat and round. Thin brushes will be required to work out small details, wide and flat ones - for the background and initial underpainting, well, medium ones - for the main work. Charcoal will be needed for sketching. A sketchbook is necessary for storing paints and a palette, it is convenient to fix a stretcher on it in order to paint an oil painting on canvas.

Work process - main steps

Suppose you decide to create a still life with flowers. They put a beautiful bouquet in a vase, dismantled the sketchbook and fixed a canvas of the right size on it. Now you need to take artistic charcoal and with light strokes mark the contours of the future still life on a white canvas.

Next comes the time for underpainting, that is, the main color spots are determinedand shadows. The underpainting should be done easily, and the paints at this stage should be applied to the base in a thin layer. Let the work dry well for a couple of days, and then proceed to the detailing. This is the most interesting and creative part of the process. The final stage is the study of the smallest details, the so-called "revival" of the picture.

Take your time! It may take you a few days to finish your oil painting on canvas - that's a fact.

You need to know that the technique of oil painting is quite complicated, and you should not be upset if everything does not turn out the way you want. Persistence and hard work will definitely give positive results over time.

How to arrange the finished work?

When your work is done, let it dry, and then carefully varnish the finished work in several layers. Allow each coat to dry thoroughly before applying the next.

Be sure to arrange the picture in a frame or baguette. Baguette is best ordered in a special workshop. There you will be offered a choice of different samples and will be advised which one is better to choose. A lot depends on the design of the picture, so try to take this final stage with all responsibility.