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General good practice for anyone who wants to paint in oils…</b>
Your pallet</b>
The pallet you use is as personal as a fingerprint, will develop as you do and also depends on what you like to paint. But if you wish to paint figuratively, and have no idea what colours to choose a good starting point would be to buy:
These colours are ones I use in my paintings that have skin tones. I avoid buying black because it is such a flat colour. You can create much better dark tones from mixing or glazing two opposing colours, for example a rich blue and a dark brown.
Buying paint
On a tube of paint you will see the name of the colour written, if it has the word ‘hue’ at the end this means it is an artificial pigment, and the colour will not go as ‘far’ as a natural one.
I will try to explain; think of the strength of colour in a pigment like the strength of taste in a hot chilli. Some hot chilli’s are tiny, only a couple of cm long and yet the tiniest bit of this chilli in a meal will make the whole thing very, very hot to taste. The flavour goes a long way with a small amount. In the same way, pigments in oil paint have many different strengths. Blue pigment, for example is very easy to find in nature, making it cheap for paint companies to use, therefore even student-grade oil paints have natural blue pigment in. A tiny dot of this blue mixed with other oils will go a long way, But other colours, like some reds are much harder to find in nature, so the oil paint companies make an artificial pigment called a ‘hue’ they put this ‘hue’ in their cheaper paints. A 'hue' is not strong at all so you have to use a lot of it to get a good strong colour on your canvas.
When buying paints you will find them priced according to their ‘series’, paints range over 5 or 6 series depending on the brand. The cheap series 1-2 paints will have many more hues in than the expensive ones. Don’t go buying all grade 5-6 paints, that’s a waste of money, but I do recommend you buy one or two of the more expensive paints, colours you use a lot or perhaps that are important to a particular painting you are working on. It's amazing the difference it can make to your work.
NB There are many different ways of painting in Oils, this is my way and my way is mostly traditional. This advice is not set in stone; in fact I encourage any artist - however well established - to regularly experiment with new ways of working. I write this article so that I can help those who are confused by oils or by painting figures, and it is also for people who want to know how another artist works.
If anyone has questions relating to oil painting, please note me and I will try to include the answer it in one of my articles.
- 1. Good equipment – Save up or splash out on a couple of decent brushes and a few good quality paints (suggested colours below) you can expand slowly, you don't need to be rich to start painting. 2. A good cleaning regime – Keep your brushes and pallet clean, no point ruining your good brushes by leaving them covered in paint or festering in the jar of turpentine. Clean them as soon as you are done for the day with warm water and soap until the water runs clear, leave them to dry naturally. If you want a quick and easy way to keep your pallet clean Leebea suggested to me “I wrap the pallet in foil and then mix my oils on the foil, then when I'm done rip it off and throw It away. The pallet always stays clean.” I think it’s a great tip. 3. The book: The Artists Handbook by Ray Smith will take you through everything you wanted to ask about oil painting and more. I find it an invaluable reference. 4. Life drawing skills are very important for anyone wishing to paint ‘realistically’! I cannot stress enough how much this will improve your ability to paint and draw with accuracy. Take a life drawing class as often as you can to keep improving your skills.
Your pallet</b>
The pallet you use is as personal as a fingerprint, will develop as you do and also depends on what you like to paint. But if you wish to paint figuratively, and have no idea what colours to choose a good starting point would be to buy:
- Titanium white Lemon yellow Scarlet lake Burnt sienna Burnt umber Paynes grey Thalocyanide green Raw Sienna Cadmium yellow deep Flesh tint
These colours are ones I use in my paintings that have skin tones. I avoid buying black because it is such a flat colour. You can create much better dark tones from mixing or glazing two opposing colours, for example a rich blue and a dark brown.
Buying paint
On a tube of paint you will see the name of the colour written, if it has the word ‘hue’ at the end this means it is an artificial pigment, and the colour will not go as ‘far’ as a natural one.
I will try to explain; think of the strength of colour in a pigment like the strength of taste in a hot chilli. Some hot chilli’s are tiny, only a couple of cm long and yet the tiniest bit of this chilli in a meal will make the whole thing very, very hot to taste. The flavour goes a long way with a small amount. In the same way, pigments in oil paint have many different strengths. Blue pigment, for example is very easy to find in nature, making it cheap for paint companies to use, therefore even student-grade oil paints have natural blue pigment in. A tiny dot of this blue mixed with other oils will go a long way, But other colours, like some reds are much harder to find in nature, so the oil paint companies make an artificial pigment called a ‘hue’ they put this ‘hue’ in their cheaper paints. A 'hue' is not strong at all so you have to use a lot of it to get a good strong colour on your canvas.
When buying paints you will find them priced according to their ‘series’, paints range over 5 or 6 series depending on the brand. The cheap series 1-2 paints will have many more hues in than the expensive ones. Don’t go buying all grade 5-6 paints, that’s a waste of money, but I do recommend you buy one or two of the more expensive paints, colours you use a lot or perhaps that are important to a particular painting you are working on. It's amazing the difference it can make to your work.
NB There are many different ways of painting in Oils, this is my way and my way is mostly traditional. This advice is not set in stone; in fact I encourage any artist - however well established - to regularly experiment with new ways of working. I write this article so that I can help those who are confused by oils or by painting figures, and it is also for people who want to know how another artist works.
If anyone has questions relating to oil painting, please note me and I will try to include the answer it in one of my articles.
New Exhibition
Next weekend will be the opening night of my latest exhibition! I'm very excited about it as it is the largest collection of my paintings that I have ever shown. Anyone who finds themselves in the neighborhood of Amsterdam is most welcome to come and see it. I will be there from 18.00 to 19.00; I will also be celebrating my birthday that night!
Sunday April 27th 2008
Gallerie Buuf
1e Anjeliersdwarsstraat 36
1015 NR Amsterdam
~x0x~
Wow a DD
At a time when my life was feeling so dark... it is hard to tell you how happy it made me to see a ray of light in the form of a DD.
Thank you for your comments and thank you to everyone who watches and favs my work. I am ever grateful for your support.
If you're wondering where i've b
So i sold my soul to make some cash to live on, and it turned round and bit me on the a**. it will serve me right to try to make art for picky opinionated customers who leave no room for my own artistic interpretation. What's the point in hiring an artist if you want a robot? they might as well have bought a photo printed on canvas. it would have saved me and them a lot of time, energy and wasted money. So they ended the contract, leaving me financially in the red. I admit i made some mistakes with this one, it's been hard to give an estimate for such a large piece of work, and i thought i could do it a lot faster than it turned out to take.
Advice for Painters Part III
Advice for painters Part III
:bulletblue: Transparent and Opaque Paints
Transparent = so sheer as to permit light to pass through. Stained glass and clear plastic are transparent.
Opaque = not transparent or translucent; impenetrable to light; not allowing light to pass through.
By mixing a medium like linseed oil and turps to any oil paint you can make it transparent, and you can then use it for glazing. However, certain colours of oil paint are designed to be used as glazes. These colours are very dark or almost black when neat (not thinned with a medium), colours like: Alizarin crimson, Olive green, and Phthalo blue. When you unscrew
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yeah we've all ruined brushes in the past. i went through about 4 sets (some very expensive) before i learned to look after my tools!