Oil painting is not an easy form of art. In fact, it’s a very complex process that makes use of a difficult coloring material. Oil paints are not easy to manipulate, unlike acrylic paints and watercolors. You need to be especially particular with your process of creating an oil painting. Otherwise, you may end up doing a complete disaster out of your artwork.
To be able to really create presentable oil paintings which are worth admiring, you need to understand everything about the art. First, let us learn about painting itself. Painting is the process of using a moist coloring material and applying it onto a medium using a brush. There are various methods of making paintings and they are classified according to their different characteristics. For instance, you can classify paintings according to the coloring material used for them like oil paintings, acrylic paintings, and watercolor paintings.
You can also classify paintings according to the type of subject that the painting is all about. If there is no comprehensible subject or idea that the painting is trying to portray, then it may be called abstract. If the painting is about nature and various natural sceneries, these paintings are called natural paintings. If the painting is trying to exhibit a person, it is usually called a portrait. These different kinds of paintings you can do if you have enough skill to control the paintbrush like a master.
But before becoming a master of oil painting, you need to understand first the different oil painting basics which serve as your guide in making your artwork. Oil painting basics include the materials, the subjects, and the simple techniques used by beginners to be able to get the hang of painting with oil paints. These are important for you to understand because using these facts and tips, you can become a much more professional oil painter.
The first thing to take note of is the materials used in painting. You need to have everything prepared. Of course, the oil paint should not be forgotten. You should make sure that the brand of oil paint that you are using is reliable so that you get the ideal colors and textures that you want to produce in your painting.
Apart from the paint itself, the brushes are also important to have. Prepare brushes from extra fine to extra thick tips so that you can create as big or as small a detail as you want to. The medium to be used is ideally canvas because oil paints hang more tightly onto canvas, unlike white paper. This will enable you to work easier using the oil paints.
Once everything needed is set, you now have to create a concrete idea or subject of painting that you want to work on. Do you want to create abstract art? Do you want to make a masterpiece of nature? Or do you want to paint your own face or a face of someone you know? For beginners, any of these is ideal but it’s best to focus on simpler but more definite images like humans, flowers, trees, sceneries, and the like.
You should also understand the different aspects of oil paint that makes it unique from most other paints. Oil paint is not easy to control. It needs precision and patience to be properly manipulated. You can’t make random color combinations and expect to be able to do the same colors in the future. Oil paints are hard to manipulate but if you keep on practicing your color combinations and your ratios and proportions, you will surely be able to get the hang of it after a while.