Have you always wanted to learn how to oil paint, but never had the time? Why not try today?
How to Oil Paint: The Color Wheel
A color wheel should be an essential part of your painting supplies. A color wheel will help you pick complimentary or contrasting colors more easily. The wheel will help keep you from making color-choice mistakes.
How to Oil Paint: Forms
Nature, at its simplest, can be broken down into five forms, the cube, the cone, the cylinder, the sphere and the torus. The torus is shaped like a donut. As forms are added together, you can create objects. For example, a fir tree is a cone on top of a short cylinder.
Understanding forms can help you in additional way. For example, the form can dictate the type of brush stroke that you use. When dealing with cylinders, you will make parallel stripes with your brush while cones will have triangular strokes when painting and blending. Cubes, like cylinders, use parallel strokes. Spheres are painted using curved and oval strokes. Torus shapes use both curved and parallel brush strokes in their composition.
How to Oil Paint: Initial Drawing
Many artists prefer to sketch in their drawing before they start to paint. The drawing itself doesn't have to be complex. In fact, an intricate drawing is probably a waste of time because the drawing will soon be buried in paint. Try using general shapes.
If you use paint thinned with paint thinner for your drawings, you won't have to fix the canvas. However, if you decide to use charcoal or pencil, you will have to spray a fixative on the canvas before you start to paint. When using a pencil, you stand the risk of cracking the gesso, so be careful. If the gesso is damaged, you will have to gesso the surface again.
Painting with oils is a challenging and rewarding experience. Learn, experiment, and enjoy.
 | Artistic painting techniques can seem mysterious and difficult for beginners, but a little practice makes them seem like second nature. |
 | Knowing some tips and landscape painting techniques can help you with your own artwork. Landscape painting is a vital art that calls out to painters both amateur and professional. |
 | Even if finger painting wasn't your forte as a kid, you can still learn watercolor painting techniques that will help you create beautiful watercolors of your own. Watercolor painting is both one of the easiest and most beautiful art media. |
Expert painters and designers know how to mix colors, and you can, too with these simple tips and tricks. |
Knowing how to paint flames might mean the difference between owning a car and owning a hot rod. |
