The Beginner’s Guide To Oil Painting

Cheap Joe’s mini art lessons are meant to provide beginners with a starting point into the world of various art mediums and techniques. Since oil painting has been around for hundreds of years, and is still such a popular art form today, we decided it was time to select it as one of our topics. In this post, we’ll teach you everything you need to know to get started with oil paints. You’ll learn how to set up your workspace, choose the right tools, and practice various techniques.

Oil Painting Tips For Beginners

Oil paints are a popular choice for many artists due to their unique textures, various technique opportunities, and their vibrant colors and hues. They’re similar in consistency to acrylic paints, but because they feature an oil base, they take much longer to dry which allows for more blending time.

For someone who’s just starting out, this method of painting can seem pretty daunting. There are many steps to complete when it comes to preparing to begin your painting, but once you become familiar with the process, you’re going to love working with this medium. Here are some of our tips for beginner oil painters – let’s walk through them together.

Step 1: Organize Your Space

The first step is to make sure you have the right materials and space to work with oil paint. Choose a room with plenty of light, or even head outside for some natural sunshine. When using oil paints (especially indoors), you need to make sure you have good ventilation. You’ll also want to cover the floor with something to protect it from any paint spills. Old sheets or drop cloths work well for this.

Step 2: Select Your Surface

Oil paint is extremely versatile, so it can be used on a variety of surfaces such as paper, canvas, or even wood. For beginners, we recommend practicing on thicker oil painting paper before moving on to canvases. But if you’re using a canvas or wood panel, make sure you either get one that is pre-primed for oils, or that you purchase a gesso primer to do it yourself. Your surface needs to be primed to prevent the chemicals and oils in the paint from damaging the surface. The primer also acts as a base coat, offering an additional layer for the oil paint to adhere to.

Step 3: Find the Right Tools

Choosing the right tools is a vital step for any oil painter, and the two main supplies you’ll need are paintbrushes and the oil paints themselves. There are many different products available, and they can range in price and quality quite dramatically. As a beginner, you don’t have to purchase the most expensive options, but you still want a few quality pieces to practice with. Once you get the hang of it, you can start investing in the higher-end stuff.

• Paintbrushes: For this type of painting, you can use either natural hair brushes or synthetic brushes. We recommend choosing a small set of three or five brushes of different shapes and sizes to practice with. No matter which brushes you choose, make sure to clean them frequently, both during your painting process and when you’re done. Look for oil or acrylic painting brushes, not watercolor brushes, to make sure the bristles are stiff enough to handle the heavier body of oil paints. Although soft sable brushes specifically for oils are perfect for glazing. Rounds, filberts, and flats are useful brush shapes for oil painting.
  
  
• Paints: If you’ve ever browsed the oil paint selection of a craft store, then you know that they can get expensive. However, there are still some great affordable options out there for beginners. The American Journey Professional Artists’ Oil Color Set is a great option for anyone just starting out. The Royal & Langnickel Essentials Deluxe Box Painting Chest is also an affordable option that includes oil starter suppplies and other painting media. When you’re ready to upgrade, we have plenty of high-end options available at Cheap Joe’s. We often recommend Van Gogh or Winton Oils for starters; and American Journey Oil, Gamblin, or Williamsburg for professionals.
  
  
• Oil painting mediums: you don't need a bunch of mediums to paint with oils. Just one good basic medium like linseed oil, Gamblin Galkyd, or Winsor & Newton Liquin is all you need to mix in with the color to add flow, gloss, and transparency. You can also use solvent to thin paint. You'll find it easier to layer and paint over colors if you thin with solvent on the first layers, an oil medium on the middle layers, and straight oil paint on the top layers.
  
  
• Oil painting solvents: traditional oil paints require a solvent to thin the paint and clean brushes, unless you're using water-soluble oils which can be thinned and cleaned up with just water. Odorless mineral spirits is always a good choice and can be reused over and over. Always keep it in a lidded jar, work in a ventilated area, and dispose of it and any rags soaked with it safely.
  
  
• Paint palette: flat glass palettes are best for oil painting because they are easy to mix color on, they don't absorb paint, and are easily cleaned with a window scraper.

To view our complete collection of supplies, check out our Oil Painting page.

Step 4: Practice Techniques

Now that you’re more familiar with the tools you need to paint with oils, it’s time to learn some techniques. Many techniques can be applied to oil paints, and the ones you use vary depending on your skill level and personal preference. Here are a few of the most popular ones for beginners that you can practice on your surface:

• Underpainting: Underpainting refers to both toning the blank surface with an overall color on which to paint, and providing a value foundation to build your painting on. We recommend using thin layers of oil paint mixed with solvent to block in the basic composition of shapes, light, and shadows.

• Alla Prima: This is a wet-on-wet technique that involves painting the entire surface without allowing the layers to dry. It speeds up the painting process, so it’s rather popular among artists and works well for painting outdoors or when you want to finish a painting in one sitting. Alla Prima paintings often feature fresh, energetic brushwork.

• Scumbling: also known as dry brushing, scumbling is the technique of scrubbing straight oil paint over an area of already dry paint to add visual texture and change the tone or color of the underlying color. The underlying color might even peak through.

• Glazing: This technique is essentially the opposite of alla prima, using the same concept but allowing each layer to dry before adding flowing color that's been made transparent with glazing medium over other colors to change their hue and value. This will give your painting a glossy layered look, and you’ll see a visible sheen and texture.

• Impasto: This is a popular technique that involves the use of thick, stiff-bodied oil paint or oil with impasto medium added to create interesting surface textures. It’s useful when you want to add highlights, shadows, or depth to a piece, and usually happens in the last layers of the painting. Many artists recommend using palette knives and other painting tools to apply the paint thickly.

Learn The Basics of Oil Painting

Ready for more? Check out our Art Lessons and Workshops. This post serves as a basic introduction to working with oil paints, but we hope all of the beginners out there can take the information from our art lessons and start falling in love with the mediums. If you’re ready to start working on bigger projects, check out the Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff YouTube channel. We’ve been posting painting tutorials and tips for years, and we’re always adding new content. As always, if you have any questions, go ahead and give us a call!