Painter’s Hub

I welcome you all to a new series on oil painting. From this issue we will explore on oil painting and its amazing techniques. Oil painting is a fascinating medium. The joy of painting is elevated 1000 folds not only during the learning stage but more than that during the painting process.  

 

Any painting medium uses pigments to paint, so even in an oil painting we use pigment, but the difference is that these pigments are mixed with special oil called linseed oil. Many artists used other oils like poppy seed oil, safflower oil. But the most common oil practice is using linseed oil.

 

 

 Materials 

 

 

Before we dig deeper let us see the basic materials we need before we start the painting process. We do need a good set of hog brushes. Many different types of brushes are available, for beginners select 1,3,5,7 number brushes.

 

You also need a few colors, but to begin with you need 12 colors. Then as you progress you will be feel the need for more colors. During the next couple of articles I will explain how to create a specific color palette for your painting needs.

One of the most important materials that many beginners not give much importance is for the canvas. Many types of canvas are available in the market with different textures and in various sizes.

 

You will be urged to take a bigger canvas due to the interest in painting. But it is always advisable to begin with a small size. Preferably  take a size of a A3 size. And also a color palette is good for mixing colors.

 

 

The First Step

 

Once the canvas is selected, now you have to start the painting process. Now the crucial question comes to your mind. What to draw? You have various subjects to draw. Say still life, landscape or portrait. Before you paint sketch the subject with a HB pencil and compose the subject well. Composition is an important topic which I will cover in detail in the future issues. This article focuses on oil painting and its techniques. Once the subject is selected for painting, start the sketching and apply colors in your canvas.

 

In the next article we will explore more …