Basic Method of Oil Painting:

• Study your subject matter

• Plan your composition & placement of objects; if outdoors, use a viewfinder;
  rearrange unpleasant still life or portrait sitters (optional: do several charcoal sketches on paper to resolve problems.)

• With a large brush and thin paint, make marks at top, bottom, and sides of canvas to mark outer boundaries of composition.

• Make the preliminary drawing with a small round brush dipped in a light color diluted with plenty of solvent

• Study the subject matter, looking for mass tones and value differences; don't paint brilliant colors at this stage; mass in the background tone first, it establishes the key tone to which all the other masses must be geared; cover the most important shapes with broad strokes of color; work to the foreground, to the bottom of the canvas, painting flat, unshaded tones covering the entire painting surface with color; use big brushes, save little brushes for details

• Develop the picture with color - work thin to thick, save thickest color for last stages; add complementary color shadows, objects become 3-dimensional; add lighter tones & highlights to illuminated sides, darker tones to shadowed sides.

• Work from loose to tight, start with broad strokes and big color areas.

• Plan color mixtures before touching brush to canvas.

• Correct and refine your drawing wherever you see weaknesses; work dark to light, background to foreground.

• Step away from the canvas at intervals, to return to the canvas with a fresh, critical eye; add details, continue to correct mistakes, make refinements.

Paint Handling Tips:

• Setting up the palette - follow color wheel: cools (G,B,V) & warm (R,O,Y) and white; keep paint from edges; squeeze tubes from bottom and roll up empty portion; squeeze out colors on top edge and L side if R-handed, or R side if L-handed; leave lower edge & middle for mixing.

• Mixing colors - think before mixing, choose color/hue to mix & decide exactly which colors to use, don't poke into several colors on the palette. start with the lighter color, use palette knife to scoop a generous amount and add the other color to it, mix & add from there, keeping mix in one place, don't spread out too far on palette; can mix colors with a brush - scrub colors together in a circular motion; mix colors with knife get brighter, cleaner mixtures.

• Avoiding mud - 2-3 colors & white, 3+ colors = mud; usually use 2 colors. rinse brush in between picking colors, wipe blade with paper towel or paint rag.

• Diluting colors - colors are too thick from tube; in beginning, dilute paint with pure solvent for preliminary drawing and block in; then change to 50/50 medium & paint- preserves creamy consistency; keep cups clean, wipe brush hairs with towel/rag or rinse in solvent & dry with towel

• Test color mixtures/color charts - to reveal how the colors on your palette behave when mixed with one another; be methodical.
  1. get 12 sheets of canvas-textured paper and mark each with one color name
  2. mix that color with every other color/hue on your palette and paint a patch 1" square; add white and paint another patch next to it, label with initials; vary proportions of colors - mix in equal quantities, then more of one color & less of the other, then more of the other color with less of the first, and remember to paint and label patches. this is the fastest way to learn how to mix colors.

• The pressure of the brush on the canvas influences the application of paint; used lightly or with a heavy touch.

• A highlight is best applied thickly.

• Seldom use color straight from the tube - mix tones and various hues

• Paint smooth things smoothly and rough things roughly.

• More medium = wider brush stroke.

• Be yourself - don't copy painting style of others.

• Dip brush into white first - keep it clean!

• Avoid charcoal or pencil to draw on canvas, tends to dirty the paint

• Use the whole scale of tone values; to darken a color use a brighter version of same color; to darken a shadow, glaze it with a dark, transparent wash

• Use large, dry brush to "dust away" hard edges; start painting soft edges, sharpen edges selectively; apply paint with tip of brush & leave it alone.

• Don't begin a painting with a bright color; work dark to light.

• Use complementary colors side by side

• Try optical color mixing - use dots or lines of the components of a color

• Paint the way the object grows; mass in clusters, don't paint individually (grapes)

• Details do not make a painting; fundamentals should be your goal.

• Step back often; turn canvas upside down; use a mirror; sit or stand.

• Squint, squint, squint!

• Rules can be broken-once you have mastered the skills!

Brush Painting Techniques:

Whether painting with bristle or soft-hair brushes:

• Thin color with lots of solvent & sketch main shapes with a small, round brush.

• Color/block in the biggest, most important shapes with big, flat brushes; thin paint to a milky consistency with a touch of medium and solvent.

• Still work with big, flat brushes, refine & adjust colors & shapes; no details yet.

• Work with medium-sized and small brushes to place final touches and details. Don't overdo it!

• Resist the temptation to use small brushes; the right brush is the one that seems too big for the job!

• Hold brush in middle of the handle, not like a pencil too close to the bristles.

 Correcting Oil Paintings:

• Scraping - correct as you work; don't try to cover up wet paint by painting over it, scrape that paint off the area with palette knife (wipe the blade on a rag ) will leave a ghost image which repainting will cover.

• Wiping - dip a clean, lint-free paint rag in solvent and scrub away wet paint after scraping the excess with palette knife; this eliminates the ghost image.

• Repainting - to repaint a dry canvas - gently sand area with steel wool or fine sand paper (takes off some paint & roughens surface a little); moisten surface to be repainted with some medium on a clean, lint-free paint rag; then paint over; ** don't be too careful when repainting, be spontaneous, don't leave sharp edges

Methods

Methods of Applying Paint:

• Underpainting - for a tonal composition in one color or one in grays; painting the canvas the darkest tone - not usually any lighter than raw sienna; underpaintings must be thoroughly dry before glazing with other colors.

• Overpainting - any paint applied over a base coat, whether alla prima, or a glaze, scumble or a combination.

• Glazing - thin, transparent film of color through which the underpainting shows; cannot mix with white (opaque); any strong color which keeps its intensity when diluted with lots of medium (with turpentine and oil) can be used; glaze small sections with a good sized soft brush; underpainting must be dry; don't glaze w/ cerulean, Naples yellow, Mars violet, or Indian red; darkens the undercoat.

• Scumbling - used over a dry underpainting; can darken or lighten the undercoat; use opaque paint, meaning the mixture contains white; apply lighter, brighter, dry consistency (no medium) of paint by rubbing a small amount of paint over the surface, using an old, stubby brush with short, soft bristles; gives a dusty or hazy look; can be used to lighten tones in background.

• Dragging - dry consistency of paint is used like in scumbling; use a good brush dipped into dry paint, lay it lightly on the dry underpainting and drag brush delicately across.

• Alla-prima - Italian for "at the first" - the direct approach - applications of opaque mixtures of colors in shapes, consistency is thick to absolutely cover the area over which they are applied; sometimes called "wet-into-wet;" there is no underpainting or overpainting; all painting fundamentals are combined in one coat of paint.

• Impasto - Italian for " thick", a dramatic brushwork creating texture using buttery, pasty paint directly from the tube; saved until final steps of painting; be selective when adding impasto texture, use short, stiff-bristle bright and paint directly from the tube with no medium.

• Color mixing on the canvas - magical quality of oils is slow drying time, after blocking in of colors, use a smaller filbert and stroke by stroke add color to the wet surface; leave gaps between strokes to let underlying color show through; colors blend physically and optically.

• Expressive brushwork:
  -Be selective about detail - have strokes follow the direction of the form; use as few strokes as necessary to make the subject look convincing.
  -Put thick paint over thin.
  -Use brushwork to create texture - use thick paint direct from tube (no medium).
  -Use brushwork to create atmosphere - dilute paint with lots of medium.

Other Terms:

• Chiaroscuro - technique of using light and shade in pictorial representation

• Plein air - technique of painting on-site

• Toning the canvas - done before painting - with either acrylic thinned with water or oil paint thinned with turpentine.

Note: The information above has been sourced from the www

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