Bruce the Chef

By: David Hoyles

As with most things, an oil painting begins with good planning, and the
art graceful oil painting is the same. Start with plenty of good
brushes, #1 to #10 (round kolinsky brushes are a good choice) together
with one or two #20 brushes to cover larger areas, and not forgetting
turpentine to wash the brushes afterwards.

The palette should be of hard, dark wood, wiped beforehand with linseed oil.

The paint itself should be of good quality and of the basic colour
range, making sure that all paints are compatible. Again, planning is
needed here as you may need to purchase any specific colours according
to the subject of your painting. The paint is a vital ingredient,
obviously, and as with most things, you get what you pay for. Do not
use cheaper paint for things they are not capable of doing; realise
their limitations. If you intend to use thick paint and bold colours,
then cheaper paint can be a practical alternative. However, with
cheaper paint, apart from using cheaper pigments, the pigment is not
ground up so finely. The manufacturer may also use a base filler to
bulk up the volume of the paint. This all means that the colour of the
paint will fade over time, so the brighter colours may well be alright
but the more subtle colours will suffer. Therefore, do not use them to
mix the more subtle colours or for paintings that are intended to last.

The more expensive paints, on the other hand, have much greater tinting
power. Therefore, when mixed with a white paint, which are usually
inexpensive, they will go a lot further and so it is not quite as bad
as it seems!

The canvas should be of a good quality, primed several times beforehand
and ideally it should be rubbed afterwards with fine sandpaper, all for
the purpose of covering and hiding the texture of the canvas.
To create a work of art, the painting itself should be planned out
also. It can be either be drawn on the canvas initially, or drawn on
separate paper and transferred to the canvas by carbon paper. Either
way, it should be sketched very approximately to start with, making
sure that the overall basic dimensions are in proportion, and then the
increasingly finer details can be added.

The subject of the painting should be something close to your heart.
Invariably, the more interest you have in a subject the more success
you will achieve. Large areas of the background should be painted
first, allowing sufficient time for drying in between coats. Some
people tend to wipe the surface after each coat with half an onion in
order for subsequent layers to be absorbed better. Foreground details
and finer details are added last. A final coat of lacquer can also be
added.

These are only some of the basics of creating an oil painting. Much can
be learned by watching an expert at work, regardless of the topic, so
you should make every effort to find a competent artist who can create
a work of art, with flowing, graceful lines in his oil painting. But
the internet is also an ideal place to gather a great deal of
information about different oil painting techniques.

About the Author:

David Hoyles is the webmaster and publisher of three oil painting sites Visit www.artgracefuloilpainting.com, www.adamsonartistoilpaintingseashore.com and www.art-graceful-oil-painting.com to learn more.

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