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In an attempt to copy the old masters, the artist may temper vibrant colors in the belief that an oil painting should look sombre. In other cases, the artist may strive for vibrant paintings and instead finds garish colors. How can the artist paint vibrant oil paintings?

Oil Painting with Bright Colors Rachel Shirley

The traditional view of an oil painting is often one that contains lots of earth colors. The prospective artist may therefore purchase a set of oil paints dominated with lots of browns and neutrals. The following may also cause a dull painting.

• Darkening colors with black. For example, adding black to green for foliage or black to flesh tint for shaded areas of portraits. Black and any bright color often results in dirty colors.
• Tempering vivid colors with neutrals in the belief they are always too bright.
• Painting alla prima can sometimes result in an oil painting that lacks depth of color once the painting is dry.
• Over-mixing oil pigments, causing the color mixture to lose its life
• Using too many colors in a mix, such as more than three.

An unsuitable frame may make an oil painting look cheap and amateurish. A thin gold frame or black plastic strip does any painting little justice. A wide rustic wooden frame will compliment a landscape or portrait painting.

Paint like the Old Masters

Many beginners believe that the essence of an oil painting lies with the old masters, which are noted for heavily shaded areas, known as chiaroscuro. Early oil painters were restricted in the colors they could use, as blue pigment (lapis lazuli) was costly to produce, which is why early paintings appear subdued. In other cases, bright pigments dulled with time.

Egg Tempera Techniques

Furthermore, the precursor to oil colors was egg tempera, which is essentially ground pigment mixed with egg yolk. Mixing colors was almost impossible, as each color had to be blended separately before applying onto the panel. This meant many of pigments were necessary for painting.

The Best Oil Colors

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Thankfully, times have changed and oil color manufacturing processes means that these restrictions are taken away. The artist may use any color at his disposal and mix the colors on the palette or the painting. In this respect, less oil pigments are necessary. Some artists will strive to emulate the old masters, having lots of earth colors within his palette. However, such a practice may not be suitable for producing vibrant oil paintings.

Colors that Cause a Dull Painting

Many oil painting sets contain unnecessary oil colors, which is why I purchase the tubes separately. Except for adding bulk to paint or mixing neutrals, I have found the following oil colors often lie redundant within my painting kit and many cause dull color mixtures:

Earth colors: Raw sienna, raw umber, yellow ochre (overrated in my view), brown ochre, cadmium brown, sepia, Vandyke brown.

Other unnecessary oil colors: Cadmium orange, flesh tint, sap green, olive green, lamp black, cadmium orange, paynes grey, Naples yellow and flesh tint.

These colors however, may prove invaluable in a watercolour or pastel kit. In oil pigment terms, the only earth colors I include in my color mixes are burnt sienna, a lovely golden brown, and burnt umber, ideal for creating rich warm darks.

How to Create Depth of Color in Oil Painting

Colors often appear dulled when an oil painting is dry. Varnishing it will bring out the saturated appearance of the colors again. But an oil painting that appears flat could benefit from glazing, a technique where a thin layer of oil paint is applied over a paint layer. Glazing adds depth and richness to oil painting, but more than four glazes are probably unnecessary.

Proper understanding of the color theory will prove invaluable for producing vibrant color mixes in paintings. I always include the three primaries within my palette. In printing terms, these are yellow, cyan and magenta. In oil pigments, I have found cadmium yellow (pale), pthalo blue and permanent rose pretty close. Ultramarine, cadmium red, viridian and lemon yellow are also useful.

External Links Relating to Issues of Dull Paintings

Further strategies for creating vivid oil paintings more in depth can be found on the following links.

• Build confidence in oil painting
• Primary color theory
• How to avoid dirty color mixes
• How to glaze with oil colors
• How to paint light and shadows
• How to mix greens
• Demonstrationon on painting shadows

Art insurance is a must if expensive oil paintings are to yield compensation should damage or theft occur. Peace of mind is priceless whilst a valuable painting is in transit, hung in an exhibition or in storage. But what is the best way to get an oil painting insured?

Art Insurance for Artists

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Insuring an oil painting could be a wise choice for various reasons, namely:

• Becoming an art collector and/or dealer makes art insurance crucial.
• An oil painting that has been in the family for years may not only have sentimental value, but monetary value. The rule often holds that the older an oil painting, the more valuable it is likely to become, particularly if the artist is of some note.
• An oil painting that has taken hours of painstaking work to achieve from the artist’s point may have personal value.
• An oil painting that has won prizes, received critical acclaim from official sources, and has been widely published, reviewed or recognised.
• An old oil painting may have been acquired from a house clearance, an auction or even (as in my case) from a car boot may have monetary value.

Insuring an Oil Painting

In the case of an old oil painting, a certificate of authenticity from an official antique dealer (a service that may also offered by a fine art insurance company) is vital. Specialised art insurance companies such as Loveart Insurance or Axa Art Insurance Limited might be the best option.

An oil painting that is not listed within Christie’s, Millers’ or Phillips’ books and schedules may only be worth the cost of the art materials to produce (the canvas, oil paint and the varnish). Thirty or forty pounds or so does not reflect the hours of labour to produce the painting. In such cases, a realistic appraisal of the oil painting’s value and itemising the artwork within the house contents schedule might be a better option.

Insuring Valuable Art

For costly art, extra diligence may be required. Photograph the artwork and keep copies within the insurance package. Record vital information about the painting, such as the dimensions, medium, style and the artist etc. Keep receipts, certificate of authenticity and any other paperwork pertaining to dealings with the artwork.

Very valuable oil paintings deserve as much insurance as possible. If the worst happens, and the painting is stolen, as least there is monetary compensation. Some is better than nothing, and the oil painting collector may use the cash to eek a little revenue from publicity, installing a security system or even offering a ransom for the painting’s return.

Cheap Art Insurance

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Read, read and read the insurance schedule. Ask questions and ensure that everything is covered. For instance, the schedule may insure the painting against theft, accidental damage, fire and flood, but what about the painting’s frame, which may also be valuable? Similarly, does the location of the painting have any bearing on the cover, such as damage in a public place? Omissions of the obvious can easily happen.

Adding valuable oil paintings to house insurance will often work out cheaper, particularly if the house has a good security system. Otherwise, using specialised antique insurance is worth paying out for if the oil painting is priceless, such as an old master.

Useful Links on Paintings

• Books on oil painting
• Oil painting materials
• Oil painting demonstrations
• Advice on using art materials

The artist who strives for realism may feel dissatisfied if a painting of a dog or portrait looks cartoonish. Mountains or rivers appear look cut out, shadows resemble dark smudges and flowers idealised. How does the artist create paintings that look convincing?

How to Make Paintings Look Real

Oil Painting with Realism Rachel Shirley

The reason why a painting lacks realism is often down to one thing: the dictatorial part of the brain that overrides what the eye actually sees. This dictatorial part of the brain may insist upon illustrating symbolic versions of objects regarding lines, shapes, colours and tone, which could be some or part of the following:

The sky is blue, all chairs have four legs, all fingers are long, children are scaled-down versions of adults, all shadows are dark, snow is white, the grass is green and all eyes are almond shaped.

When it comes to what the eyes sees, the above is often not true: Skies can be silver or indigo, chairs can appear to have three or two legs, fingers may appear stubby in foreshortening, children have different proportions to adults, snow can appear blue, shadows can be orange, grass can be violet and eyes can be lots of shapes.

These are simplified examples, but the dictatorial part of the brain may interfere with the painting process in very subtle ways which the artist may not always be aware of, such as how a line curves or the chromatic shift of the sky.

Why Paintings Look Disappointing

What is the solution to this dilemma? The theory is simple, the practice is more difficult: Shut off the dictatorial part of the brain. This will help not only the painting process, but the whole business of creating realistic art, including drawing, pastels and watercolours.

Illustrating the world how it actually is can be done by the following strategies:

View the subject matter in front as abstract shapes and lines rather than what it is. A cup is no longer a cup, but a jigsaw of colour and tone. Half-closing the eyes will help simplify this jigsaw.

• Keep looking at the photograph or subject matter in front. Not doing so means relying upon memory and the memory is the enemy of realistic art. Memory is where the dictatorial part of the brain takes over.
• If copying from a photograph, turn the photograph and painting upside down.
• Stand at least ten feet from the painting periodically. This will help the artist appreciate the painting as a whole rather than in its parts.
• View the painting through a mirror. This will reveal hidden errors in the painting.
• Take half an hour’s break from the painting and return with a fresh view.

Creating Realistic Tones in a Painting

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Working on a white surface will mislead the artist on the true tonal values of colours. Pale blue for instance will appear dark by comparison. Work on a toned ground. This entails the application of a thin wash of oil or acrylic paint over the painting surface, which could be grey or brown. This will kill the off-putting white and give a more accurate indication of the colour’s tonal value. I always include all tonal values in my paintings from pale to very dark to prevent the artwork from looking insipid or washed out.

Oil Painting Techniques for Realism

Overriding the dictatorial part of the brain will take the artist a long way towards creating realism. However, the artist may use art techniques to achieve a high finish. A combination of oil painting glazing and fine detail will create a photographic painting. Smooth effects can be achieved by applying two or three translucent layers of oil paint for skies or backgrounds for instance. A broken glaze can be applied for skin tones and dog fur. A few touches with a fine sable will create realistic hair and highlights.

Art Materials for Realism

The following are vital if the artist hopes to achieve photographic realism in paintings:

• Good quality photos.
• A good range of oil colours that include the primaries. Cadmium yellow (pale), permanent rose and pthalo blue are close to the mark. Other essential pigments are: titanium, ultramarine, cadmium red, burnt sienna, burnt umber, lemon yellow and viridian.
• Good quality fine sables such as Kolinsky. Winsor & Newton or Daler Rowney are good manufacturers of sable brushes.
• Linseed oil for thinning the oil paint to glazes.
• An alert artist.

There is more to achieving a high finish to oil painting than this article can cover, but the links below will explore glazing techniques and producing high detail in painting, as well as articles on this blog.

External Links on Creating Realism in Oil Painting

• Glazing techniques for oil painting
• Advice on buying sable brushes for oils
• Which art medium to use for glazing
• Using alkyds for glazing
• Mixing accurate colours
• How to draw accurately
• Flesh tones in portraits
• Oil painting art materials

The artist may set up a still life without due thought to the lighting. Shadows being non-solid may be overlooked, and may appear to fall off one side of the canvas when painted. This may compel the artist to fade them out as though diffused by strip lighting. The artist may further forget that pale objects may appear dark if lit from behind, portraying instead the object’s local colour. Such treatment may result in a painting that lacks atmosphere. How can the artist make best use of the light in painting?

Poor use of Light in Painting

Light is a vital factor in a composition, for light and shadow appear as solid to the eye as the objects themselves. Forgetting that shadows contain shifting hues and tones may result in black shapes that resemble holes in the painting. Subtle effects such as varying outlines and reflected light may also be overlooked, robbing the painting of all mood. But the following might help raise awareness of using light for painting.

The Best Use of Light for Painting

Examine the two paintings. It will not be immediately apparent that they comprise of identical compositions. The difference is simply the direction of the light. Light, especially sunlight, has a fundamental effect upon how objects appear, which is why it is such an important factor to consider in painting.

Both paintings were completed alfresco on two identical consecutive afternoons. The painting above was completed facing north; the painting below was completed looking west. Notice how different the colours are for both. The pudding basin is white, yet in both paintings, different colour palettes were used. The apple is bright red in one picture, yet it is almost black in the other. The actual colour of the objects is known as the “local colour” and will not always agree with the eye actually sees.

When it comes to painting, it is best to ignore the local colour but to record the perceived colour: If the apple is red but appears to be violet, paint violet rather than red.

How to Paint Light

The same object may often require a different palette when lit in different ways. Objects lit from behind will often feature tonal contrasts and subdued hues; a setting lit from the front will feature more definite hues and less shadows. In the case of the paintings, one required, ultramarine, burnt umber and liberal amounts of white; the other, burnt sienna, viridian, permanent rose and moderate amounts of white.

Shift the objects around under a light source and see how the shadows change in colour, tone and intensity. The hues of the objects will appear to shift too. Look for definite hues in white objects and bright colours in black objects. Natural light, particularly sunlight will emphasise these effects.

Painting Light from Life

Shifting shadows create challenges for the artist wishing to capture their essence, but being transient, time is a factor. I often record the shape of the shadows quickly and then block them in. Making snap judgments in colour mixing is often required. Once the shadows have shifted, don’t be tempted to alter them accordingly, for this could mess up the painting. Ignore them and continue with the other subject matter.

Painting light is more about capturing many moments in time, as opposed to photographing one moment.

• Books on oil painting
• Oil painting materials
• Guide to painting alfresco
• How to paint weather

An oil painting containing skies could end up looking featureless and lifeless if the sky element is poorly observed. The colour blue looks artificial and unconvincing; idealistic cotton wool clouds ruins an otherwise good landscape painting. How can the artist make the sky look realistic within the painting?

The Causes of a Bland Sky Painting

The following practices are often the culprit of a sky sketch that fails to convince the viewer, and which may contribute to an idealistic landscape painting:

• Overuse of the blue pigment Ultramarine
• Using only one blue pigment with varying amounts of white for the whole sky
• Painting with presumptions about the sky: the sky is blue, clouds are white, etc.
• Not treating the sky element with equal importance as the landscape
• Using only pale tones for the sky, resulting in a washed out sky
• Painting the sky element lastly when tired, which will result in a rushed sky that looks completed as an afterthought

Tips on How to Paint Skies with Realism

The following practices and thoughts will help improve sky painting, and will in turn help create a more interesting landscape painting:

• Skies can contain the most bizarre colours, such as violets, greens and crimsons, which can be seen in sunset paintings or mackerel skies
• Again, skies are not only pale, but contain contrasting tones
• Complete a series of paintings with only the sky, which will improve awareness of the sky
• If a sky looks boring, look for an alternative photograph as a painting resource which contains interesting clouds. Ensure the angles and lighting conditions are consistent with the landscape
• Use larger brushes than would normally use, to give the sky an impressionist feel
• Consider using impasto medium, which will add body to the paint, adding a textural element to the sky
• Resist the temptation to brush out any colour streaks on the painting. Allow brush marks to remain, which will add life to the sky painting
• Observe the sky sensitively before putting the paint down

Essential Art Materials for Painting Skies

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Although ultramarine is an important colour, and can often be seen on the zenith of a summer sky, other blues such as pthalo blue, cerulean and cobalt can be seen near the horizon, and will be interesting additions to the artist’s palette. Bright colours, such as permanent rose and cadmium yellow can be seen in sunsets. Burnt sienna, ultramarine and varying amounts of white often make a great colour for cloud bases. Good quality bristle brushes and impasto medium will create an Impressionist sky.

External Links on Painting Skies

• Painting mist and fog
• How to paint weather
• How to paint lightning
• How to paint mackrel skies
• Books on landscape painting

How to Paint Impressionism

Autumn Impressionism Rachel Shirley

• Sitting too close to the painting, causing each brush mark to appear to have more significance than it actually has.
• Using fine sable brushes throughout the painting session.
• Sitting in one position during the entire painting session or not viewing the painting in any other way.
• Painting onto a white support, causing pale colours to appear dark by comparison and resulting in a pale painting.
• Over-mixing the colours until they are completely even.
• Not using vibrant colours or tempering bright colours with browns and greys.
• Overworking the painting until it looses life.

How to Paint Impressionist Style

When striving to emulate the Impressionists, the following painting practices may be followed.

• Use only hog brushes no smaller than no.6, to force the artist to use economy with brush marks and avoid linear detail.
• Use every tonal value from pale to very dark within the painting. Working on a toned ground, such as grey or neutral colour, will give the true tonal value of each colour.
• Half close the eyes to simplify the view and cut out irrelevant detail
• Don’t use black to darken colours but the opposing colour. Red for instance, can be used to darken green.
• Don’t over-mix colours. Allow colour streaks to remain on the brush on application.
• Get up and view the painting from a distance. Turn it upside down or through a reflection to reboot the brain on what is vital about the painting and what is irrelevant.
• I believe every painting is allocated a limited number of brush marks before it becomes overworked. Make every brushstroke count. Allow imperfections to remain within the brushstrokes, and as soon as the artist starts to “fuss” over the painting, stop.

Vibrant Colours in Painting

Don’t be afraid to use colours neat from the tube. Juxtaposing them against neutral colours will make them appear more vibrant rather than cheap. Monet’s sunsets, for instance, contained lots of neutrals which provided the stage for the bright colours.

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External Links on Painting Impressionist Style

• Books on landscape painting
• Alla prima oil painting technique
• Impasto technique in oils
• Oil painting on location
• Demonstration on how to paint tomatoes
• Demonstration on painting cornfields

The background to a painting is often a forgotten element when a composition is set up. An empty and featureless area could be a problem unforeseen until the completion of the painting. This could ruin the artwork, regardless of how well the objects have been painted. How does the beginner overcome the problem of empty backgrounds in a painting?

How a Background can Ruin a Painting

The following practices are often the causes of unsatisfactory backgrounds in painting.

• Giving sole consideration to the objects within a composition, without thinking about the background shapes, for exmple when composing a still life setting.
• Viewing non-solid objects, such as clouds, reflections and shadows as incidental
• Using a neutral or pale colour for backgrounds. Similarly using one colour to represent a background within a painting, such as green for landscapes or blue for the sky
• Having too much going on in the background, causing loss of focal points within a painting
• Painting the background from memory, resulting in an idealised background which will fail to convince.

Background Colours to Painting

A good composition in painting can be achieved if the background is given equal importance as the foreground. These two elements to a composition are known as “negative” and “positive” shapes. Positive shapes are the objects themselves. Negative shapes are the spaces in between. The following suggestions on what to do with negative shapes may help solve the problem of what to do about the backgrounds in paintings.

• As well as looking at the shapes of the objects within a painting, give equal consideration to the shapes of the spaces between the objects. Look out for an imbalance in distribution. For instance, is there a large area of negative space within one area of the composition? If so, rearrange the objects or shift the viewpoint.
• Look out for any linear echoes which may jar the painting, such as too many vertical lines which may remain unnoticed in the background until the painting is completed.
• Simple elements make effective backgrounds, such as a pebbledash wall or crazy paving. Rustic wood, brick, climbing ivy, particularly under oblique lighting, add a textural element to a painting, which can be achieved by a painting technique known as Sgraffito.
• Use backgrounds to create contrast in hues, as well as texture. A background containing a cool palette adds interest to a foreground consisting of warm colours
• Juxtaposing complimentary colours such as violet and yellow, or blue and green will create a shimmering effect and add focal points to a painting. Introducing neutral colours will tone down a background that might be too garish

To heighten awareness of backgrounds, examine photographic snapshots and look for background elements which the photographer may not have been aware of. Use the same practice when deciding on a background for a painting.

What Makes a Good Background in Painting?

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Non solid elements within a painting could create effective backgrounds if given equal consideration to solid objects. Textures in clouds, reflections in water and dappled shadows could provide a focal point. Further ideas for backgrounds for paintings could be clouds formations, such as a mackerel sky, a silhouette on a curtain or a foliage cascade.

Links on Oil Painting Advice

• Oil Painting Demonstrations
• Oil Painting books
• Art materials

Acquiring an old oil painting or antique fine art may show signs of damage due to wear, tear and time. The temptation to do a DIY art restoration job may not be wise if the painting is valuable and could cause irreversible damage. What is the best course for getting the oil painting restored?

How to Care for Oil Paintings

Varnishing an Oil Painting Rachel Shirley

Like most things, time will age an object, and oil paintings are no exception. Lack of care, damp, heat and pollution can all contribute to damage. Prevention is better than cure, but the following practices may have caused an oil painting to age rather prematurely:

• Hanging the oil painting over a heat source such as a gas fire or radiator. The constant temperature changes and the drying effect could cause the paint layer to expand and contract, creating stresses. The result could be cracking.
• Placing the oil painting near a window under an intense light source could cause some of the pigments to fade or discolour.
• Storing the oil painting in a damp location could cause a fogging of the varnish layer due to condensation getting trapped between the painting and the varnish. Damp stains on the canvas may permeate onto the paint layer, causing tide marks or worse, the weave of the canvas to rot.

Varnishing an Oil Painting

A less serious problem, an old oil painting may dull over time due to the accumulation of dirt, dust and smoke in the atmosphere on the varnish. One need not worry, for this is the purpose of the varnish. After ten or twenty years or so, the varnish is supposed to be removed with a special varnish remover along with all the pollutants, and a fresh coat of varnish applied. It is only when the painting has been restored in this way that the colours jump out once again, as though freshly painted.

The temptation to over-clean should be resisted as this could damage the painting. Similarly, never try removing the varnish with an industrial varnish remover, spirits or abrasive agent. Special varnish removers for fine art are worth the investment.

Fine Art Restoration Services

The type of restoration required depends upon the nature of the damage. A particularly old painting, of prior 19th century may well benefit from the restoration by experts. Contacting an art restorer who is a member of the British Association of Conservator Restorers (BAPCR) is a safer bet. The following common restoration services are available:

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Oil Painting Cleaning: The most common and simplest of art restoration. The old oil painting varnish is removed by careful means and a fresh coat of varnish applied. An unvarnished oil painting may need cleaning via a different technique.

Canvas Repair: if there are holes, tears or scratches on the paint layer. In which case, the painting surface may need to be professionally patched.

Inpainting: a technique where damage to the paint layer due to peeling or cracking is restored. This entails building up the paint layer to its original state with carefully matched pigments and brushmarks. This is not repainting or over-painting, but replacing what is missing. Only specialist restorers should be commissioned to do such work, as matching pigments and the brushmarks of the original artist are painstaking.

Oil Painting Conservators

The best art restorers use minimum intervention to the oil painting, some using specialist in-house techniques such as micro-friction cleaning or composition lining. Micro friction is used for the removal of hard varnishes, where a controlled jet of small particles is propelled at the varnish to break it up for removal. All techniques used by a reputable art restorer should be reversible, meaning that the work can easily be removed by future restorers if required.

Information on Oil Painting Repair and Restoring

• How to varnish an oil painting
• Oil painting demonstrations
• Books on oil painting
• Oil painting materials

The beginner in landscape painting may find it difficult to pick up a paintbrush and make a mark. A fear of failure fuelled by an inner art critic could cripple all creativity before it has a chance to express itself into a sky sketch or a seascape. How can the novice artist produce satisfactory landscape art for the first time?

Creative Blocks to Landscape Art

Experiments with Paint Rachel Shirley

Worrying about getting the first mark perfect could cause the artist to continuously false-start the painting in an effort to capture a particular green colour mix or realism in clouds. Unchecked, this inner perfectionist could sap all confidence from the artist, creating a negative learning experience. But there are easier ways of overcoming the transition between a non-painter to a landscape artist.


Painting a First Landscape

Learning a new skill often entails being lenient and landscape painting is no different. This means learning to accept that mistakes will be made, some of which may turn out to be “happy accidents.” Unintended marks may add interest to the landscape painting and could be used to enhance future artworks. Alternatively, every mistake is a learning process.

Starting Out in Landscape Painting

Begin with mark making on a primed piece of card. Use each brush and try out each colour in turn. Aim to cover the painting surface with different marks. Use paint neat, dry, runny or thick. Mix two colours, then three. Try blending two colours into one another to create gradations. Lighten a colour by adding white, then try darkening it by adding the colour’s opposing colour (in the case of red, this will be green.)

Experiment with how colours look when placed against different backgrounds. The artist will discover that a dark colour will appear pale when painted on a darker colour, and a pale colour will appear dark when placed on a pale colour. This is good practice when gauging the tonal key of a landscape painting, such as painting clouds on a blue sky, or shadows over water.

Expressive Landscape Painting

Try out different brushes, palette knives, old combs, toothbrushes or sponges. View oil painting like a child learning a new skill. Above all, have fun and experiment.

When producing a first landscape painting, keep it simple with manageable goals. Experiment in private if need be and bear in mind that if the painting does not work out, it does not matter for this is all part of learning.

Begin by using a limited palette of three primary colours and white. Use a small painting surface of approximately A4 in size. Copy a photograph consisting of simple elements. This might be a sky, a tree, a river or a cottage. The aim is not perfection, but simply to complete a painting.

Tips for Beginners in Art

Resist the temptation to compare oneself with landscape art as seen in fine art books, such as those produced by the Impressionists or the Classists. Such comparisons will be unfair and could nurture an inner despair. Artists such as Constable and Monet could only reach the pinnacles they had by intensive practice fuelled by a passion for painting. Even they at some point would have produced an unsatisfactory landscape painting and made mistakes. Of course, fine art books continue to show only their best works.

Expressive Oil Painting Landscapes

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Try not to agonise over every aspect of the painting in an effort to get it right. Landscape oil painting often means letting go. Allow imperfections to remain, which might be brush marks, streaks of colour or irregular lines. Oil Painting is often about suggestion rather than illustrating every object in full. Cloud sketches and lake paintings for example, often contain broken glazes and thick impasto, which adds atmosphere and expression to the painting.

Improving an Oil Painting

Completing one’s first landscape painting is a big first step and may spark the inspiration to embark on a series of others. A painting that does not go to plan can be put to one side and another one begun. But learning to paint involves learning to accept mistakes will happen, and with the right view, provides the path to improvement, whether it is to capture reflections in water or snow caps on mountains.

Links on Painting Landscapes

• Books on oil painting landscapes
• Oil painting materials
• Demonstration on painting a stone circle
• How to paint greens
• Primary colours in art
• How to mix oil paint

The beginner in oil painting does not need lots of oil painting materials or to spend lots of money. In fact, great oil paintings can be completed by the use of a minimal amount and cheap oil painting equipment. All that is required is careful preparation and shrewd shopping.


Art Equipment for Oil Painting

Many artists use numerous oil painting tubes, which is fine, but the beginner can obtain any colour by merely three primary colours and white. Additional colours will come in handy if the artist does not wish to keep mixing colours to obtain a particular blue or red. Earth colours are also great for adding atmosphere and for monochromatic painting.

Primary Colours

The true primary colours are not any red, yellow and blue, but are the colours found in printing ink, which are magenta, cyan and yellow. The true primary colours do not exist in pigment, for a little impurity will always exist, but a close approximation can be achieved. Personally, I have found permanent rose, pthalo blue and cadmium yellow (pale) to be close to the mark, and include them within my painting palette.

Cheap Oil Paints

Briefly, oil paint is graded into two types: artist quality and student quality. The artist quality include organic pigments, which make them more costly. Personally, I have found student quality to be perfectly suited to any oil painting and I have used them extensively. However, I always stick to a recommended brand such as Winsor & Newton or Daler Rowney.

Recommended Oil Painting Pigments

I use the following pigments for my paintings without the need for lots of other pigments:

• A large tube of titanium white
• Permanent rose
• Cadmium red
• Pthalo blue
• Ultramarine
• Cadmium yellow (pale)
• Lemon yellow
• Viridian green
• Burnt sienna
• Burnt umber

Oil Painting Brushes

It is important to have good quality sable brushes for detail and blending. Avoid cheap brushes that have no springiness to the hairs. Round sizes 1, 3, 6 and 10 will suit most oil painting purposes. Bristle brushes can be purchased from DIY stores, but cheap ones that moult onto the painting must be avoided. Flat or round sizes 6, 9 and large is ideal for covering large areas and impasto techniques.

Oil Painting Surfaces

Wood, canvas, card and even paper make suitable surfaces for oil painting so long as they have been sealed with an acrylic primer or gesso size. I use acrylic polymer primer, a water based paint that dries water resistant, that can be purchased from art stores. A two coat application is all that is required, and because it is water based, is odour free and brushes can be washed in warm soapy water. Cheap ready stretched and primed canvas and art boards can also be obtained with shrewd shopping.

Painting Mediums

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Household turps must never be used for oil painting for their powerful odours and harshness to the brushes. Low odour artists white spirits or Sansador or Turpenoid is better. Linseed oil is useful for thinning the paint and adding lustre to the colours. Exploration with other artists's mediums will result in interesting effects. Impasto medium is an alkyd based medium that can be added to oil paint to add bulk for impasto techniques. Liquin is a quick drying alternative to linseed oil, and leaves a matt finish.

Other Art Equipment

Tool boxes with tiered drawers are ideal for storing oil paints and brushes, and can be purchased cheaply from DIY stores. A table easel or drawing board will make oil painting easier. And any non porous item is ideal to use as a palette. A china plate, varnished wood, or even cling film stretched over a surface.

The measures described will make oil painting easier, cheaper and more convenient. Further advice on oil painting materials and step by step oil painting demonstrations can be found on my websites on oil painting.

Useful Links on Oil Painting Materials

• Advice on oil painting brushes
• Advice on buying oil paints
• Types of gessoes for oil painting
• Advice on buying easels
• Advice on oil painting mediums
• Oil painting materials shop
• Books on oil painting

Teaching oil painting requires more thought than might first seem. An eminent oil painter does not necessarily make a good teacher, for a good art teacher must understand how students learn. This is where my book, How can I Inspire my painting Class? comes in.

A Book on How to Teach Art

Kindle Art Teaching Guide click to buy from Amazon

My book combines my experiences of oil painting and my experiences in teaching art. Having graduated from Kingston University, Surrey with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and attained a PCET qualification from Warwick University, I feel I have lots of useful information to share.

Within this book, the art teacher will find information on how to devise a scheme of work for oil painting, writing art objectives, managing a class, keeping students motivated and of course, ideas for oil painting lessons themselves. The book is divided into fourteen sections, from a beginner’s guide to oil painting, to assessing art work at the end of the course and health and safety. There is even a section on taking an art class on a field trip for plein air painting.

Learning Methods for Art

My book explains learning theories and how these can be utilised for art instruction. This includes the KOLB cycle, Ausubel’s Subsumption Theory and Bloom’s Classifications of Thought. Good understanding of how students learn will come in useful when faced with students who suffer low motivation, low self-esteem or the absolute beginner.

In many ways, a succesful art lesson course is one that concludes with every student producing artwork, evidencing creative development and finding inspiration to carry on painting.

Teaching Painting for the First Time

There are lesson plan ideas for around sixty oil painting sessons that cover subject matter from life painting, animal art and landscapes to still life and abstract art. Common problem areas are also covered, including colour mixing, perspectives and drawing ellipses. Lessons to underpin painting are also explained in detail, ensuring students do not stumble at the painting stage. Such lessons include Taking a Line for a Walk and a Tonal Study.

My book contains numerous colour illustrations and paintings. It is available on Kindle for the very competitive price of a few pounds (or dollars, depending on where you are).

Note: Hardcopies are available. You can either purchase the colour edition (containing colour images within) or for a fraction of the price, you can purchase the black and white edition. The print version’s statistics are: 46,000 words 90 images. 220 pages and measures 5.5inx8.5in (140mmx220mm).

Links to my other sites

Rachel Shirley paintings
Oil painting demonstrations

Rich Colours in Oil Painting Rachel Shirley

The following problem areas are usually at fault when faced with colour mixing with oil paints for the first time.

Working too closely to the painting often leads the artist to believe that small marks have more significant when viewed from afar. Using a fine brush when working over a large painting will also lead to a painting filled with small and insignificant brush marks that cannot be discerned from a distance.

Painting straight onto a white surface will make even the palest colour appear dark and deep by comparison. Working under a bright light will exacerbate the effect as the light bounces off the white surface of primed canvas, for example, making any colour, however pale, seem to have great significance and misleading the artist on its true tonal value.

Painting a white object such as snow, a snowy-haired pet or clouds may often send a subconscious message to the artist that the object is white, getting in the way of viewing the object honestly. The result is the automatic reaction of using lots of white paint.

Tonal Values in Colours

Capturing objects in a painting not only entails observing its colour, but also its tonal value. However, painting bright coloured objects such as tomatoes may lead the artist to forget about tones. Some colours are also presumed to have a darker tone than others, such as blues being darker than yellow. In fact, any colour can be darker or paler than another. Yellow can indeed be darker than blue; purple can be paler than orange.

How to Paint Rich Colours in Oils

To overcome wishy-washy colour mixes, try painting onto a tinted surface rather than white. An imprimatura is a thin wash of paint that kills the whiteness of the painting surface. I use acrylic, although oils will do. Acrylic dries water-soluble and quickly. Grey, neutral or earth colour is ideal for gauging the true tonal value of a particular oil pigment when it is applied on top.

Applying a pale colour onto a tinted surface will look pale rather than dark. Working from dark to light will also force the artist to examine the true value of pale colours. This entails painting onto a black surface. Applying mid-tones before the pales is a good practice for artists learning about tonal values.

You can also make an oil painting shimmer by painting onto an imprimatura of a contrasting colour to the painting itself, such as painting a picture of a green meadow onto a red imprimatura.

Rich Colour Mixes in Oil Paintings

The following tips on producing vibrant oil paintings may help the artist take chromatic risks and get out of the trap of mixing insipid colours.

• Try to include all tonal values in the painting, from white to very dark.
• Half close the eyes in order to see a colour’s tonal value. Darken it with the colour’s opposing colour rather than black. In the case of blue, this will be orange.
• Stand back from the painting to gauge the true significance of each brush mark. Using a wider brush than one thinks necessary may force the artist to use bold brush marks and take risks.
• Produce a small study on a scrap piece of card featuring a bright colour. Neat cadmium red for instance for an apple or yellow for a banana. Use the colour’s complimentary colour for shadows and darks. In the case of the banana, this will be violet

Tonal Keys in Painting

click to buy from Amazon

• Primary colours in art
• How to mix colours
• Glazing technque with oil paint
• Demonstration on painting dark to light

Via an article on Memeorandum I came across this painting by artist Jon McNaughton called The Forgotten Man. I like political paintings- there are a couple of Norman Rockwell-esque paintings of presidents playing cards that I like, and if this blog would start generating some cash via donations I might actually put them up in my room to provoke thought and discussion.

The Forgotten Man, by Jon McNaughton, depicts a scene in front of the White House with a man who represents average people the sitting on a park bench in the throes of depression. He is surrounded by all 43 presidents. In the forefront, purposefully ignoring the depressed man is President Obama, whose right foot is trampling over the Constitution. James Madison is next to Obama, pleading with him to stop. The painting, which uses objects such as discarded dollar bills and scraps of paper with individual constitutional amendments scrawled onto them as other symbols, echo's the views of many that President Obama is trampling on our Constitution in a way that no President has ever done and that this will not be good for future generations who wish to have the same protections of their lives, liberty, and property that their fathers and grandfathers had.

The painting can be purchased from the McNaughton Fine Art gallery. It comes in many sizes and can be printed on a range of canvas types, from prices ranging from cheaper to expensive.

Here is a small screenshot of it:

Poor lighting may make the brightest still life objects appear dull. The artist may find colour mixing more difficult, which will have a knock-on effect on the painting. Artificial lighting serves only to make the still life setting appear lurid, creating fuzzy shadows with no contrasts. But outdoors, even on a cloudy day, the contrast can be breathtaking. How does the artist prepare for still life painting en plein air?

Painting a Still Life Alfresco

Tips for Alfresco Art

The artist does not have to go traipsing off into the landscape to paint alfresco; one’s own back yard is ideal. The light that floods the garden is often far brighter than the light that filters indoors, even on a cloudy day. Objects appear more vibrant and contrasts between colour and tone more intense. As a bonus, new possibilities for still life subject matter seem to open out: tomato plants, wheelbarrows, deckchairs, trellises, gardening tools, swings, hanging baskets, urns, water-features, bird tables, garden ornaments, fish ponds, bird boxes – and natural light.

However, the simplest everyday objects can be used and when carefully arranged in the garden, exude a beauty rarely seen indoors.

Still Life in the Garden

Setting up a still life outdoors need not be difficult. A patio table and chair can be used as the painting station. I often use as tripod stool as used by campers or fishers, as it allows unlimited elbow room. Adjust the seating so the thighs are parallel to the floor. This will also make the paints easier to reach if placed on the ground.

An informal setting with minimal clutter is best. An easel need only be used if working large. Otherwise, affix the painting to a backing board via bulldog clips and prop against a patio table or similar. Place all art materials on an old sheet so that it can be gathered up quickly if the weather changes. Weigh down with stones if it turns breezy.

Practical Advice for Painting En Plein Air

Beware of hotspots in the garden and also of bright sunlight bouncing off the painting surface. If possible sit in the shade or under a parasol. Wear a hat and sunblock. A cool drink always comes in handy. There is nothing wrong with wearing sunglasses, for they cut out the glare and make the still life stand out. But take them off from time to time to check the colour mixes.

Optimum Use of Light for Painting

Plan ahead for such a fickle thing as sunlight. Conceive and sketch the composition on a dull day. This will negate pressures to get the paint down before the light fades.

Finding an interesting still life composition in the garden will involve viewing, walking around, taking notes and sketching. Swapping and changing the objects might sometimes be necessary. Take the time to get the drawing right. Make a note of where the drawing took place and how the objects were arranged. Taking due thought over this will ensure a successful painting on the day.

If the weather forecast is good, prepare the art materials in readiness. Consider where and when the shadows creep in on certain times of the day. It would be pointless to begin a sunlit painting in late afternoon if the sun sets behind the house.

Allow more time to complete the painting than one thinks. I find early morning or teatime in spring or late summer allows the artist ample time to record the shifting shadows. Diffused sunlight as seen beneath a parasol will take away the element of transience if the artist wishes. But if the painting does not turn out at first another can be tried without too much preparation, but painting alfresco in the garden is arguably one of the most unique ways of producing still life art that may prove addictive.

More about producing still life art in the garden can be found in my book Oil Paintings from your Garden, as signed copy of which can be purchased from Ebay (see visual link on the top right of this blog) or from Amazon.

Articles on Still Life

• How to paint flowers wet into wet
• Still life painting tutorial
• Books on oil painting
• Oil painting materials

Click to buy from Amazon

A book on landscape painting for artists wishing to find inspiration from the great outdoors, this book on oil painting offers comprehensive advice on all matters of this popular pastime.

Effective Oil Painting Techniques

My book is broken down into 10 chapters, exploring each aspect of landscape painting in turn and in depth. Numerous step by step demonstrations within inform the reader on how each project was completed, including a demonstration on painting Toronto, Stratford a sunset, Buttermere, making a home pochade box and numerous others.

The Colour of the Landscape

The foundations of landscape painting, such as colour mixing theory, composition finding and creating mood, aim to help the artist of any ability build confidence, improve and understand the elements of landscape painting. Creating mood is often the key to an authentic portrayal of a landscape, and this can be achieved by strategic use of underglazing and complimentary colours, explained in depth.

Background to Landscape Painting

Landscape art is indeed one of the most traditional forms of expression in Western Art, and is readily available, most often, a walk away. But putting it down in the way intended is another matter. This is where this book comes in.

Book’s Particulars

The interior of my book can be viewed in Googlebooks or on Amazon. Published by GMC Publications (2003) this book has 172 pages, full of colour photos, illustrations and diagrams, the book’s dimensions are 21x28cm and 1cm deep.

The book is broken down into 10 chapters, covering: a beginners’ guide to using oil paints, plein air painting, finding compositions by use of the viewfinder, skies, shadows, weather, water and using various resources such as photographs. Indepth sections on colour theory, tones, using photographs, making your own pochade box as well as several step by step demonstrations form only part of what this book offers. Click on image to purchase from Amazon.