If you don’t have oil paints, then what to paint with. Oil Painting Basics

For art painting They use oil paints, which contain pigments and oil. This provides rich colors during the drawing process. bright colors, prolongs the durability of the painting on canvas. This type The materials are not easy to use and require mixing with an organic solvent and special preparation of related products. Familiarize yourself with the rules for choosing paints and the range of manufacturers on the market.

What are oil paints

There are single tubes and a set of oil paints for general and artistic purpose. The latter are prepared by grinding pigments in bleached refined linseed or nut oil, and sometimes other drying components are added to it. The finished mixture is applied to a previously primed surface. Depending on the type, the chemical composition of oil paint differs.

Compound

The quality of pigments and binding components varies in composition:

Standard ones consist of piments based on cadmium, cobalt, and coloring earth.
To prevent discoloration, non-yellowing oil is added, but the rest is based on linseed oil.
Earthy colors in ocher, sienna and umber are made from naturally occurring pigments.
The most expensive subtypes include light-resistant organic pigments, this allows you to achieve brightness and purity of the main color.
The more expensive the pigments, the more balanced the drying time and the more natural the shade.

How to dilute oil paints

You can simply paint with paints, squeezing them directly from the tubes onto the palette, without diluting. To make them not so thick, a special component is used. Thinner for oil paints is oil - linseed, hemp, nut. It is sold in art stores, has no odor, but increases the drying time of the painting to several years.

Another substance is white spirit, but the artist does not need to use it for dilution - only for washing brushes and palettes, otherwise the quality of the primers will deteriorate. Professional artists mix thinners by pouring the solution into an oil can. Composition options may be:

tee - equal proportions of painting (dammar, mastic) varnish, hemp or linseed oil, white spirit thinner;
Instead of white spirit, you can use turpentine.

Which oil paints are better?

Both beginners and professional artists. These are special departments for creativity, including online stores. They sell popular products from famous brands that creative people buy more often than others. Manufacturers rating:

Master class, Ladoga - produced by the Leningrad Artistic Paints Plant.
Gamma - a company from Moscow uses flax and poppy components.
Daler-Rowney is an old English company.
Maimeri is an Italian brand with a palette of 80 shades.
Old Holland is another old company, only from Holland.
Pebble is a French line of highly artistic products for professionals.

Oil paints for painting

How much oil paints cost depends on the type of product chosen. The cost is influenced by the pigment used, the binder base, the volume of the tube and the reputation of the company. Domestic Sonet and Ladoga can be bought from 130 rubles per tube of 30-40 ml, products from foreign manufacturers cost from 200 rubles for the same volume. It is more profitable to buy kits - each tube separately will be much more expensive.

Podolsk Products for Artists

The domestic manufacturer offers high-quality thickly grated oil products at an affordable price:

Model name: for oil painting;
price: 109 rub.;
characteristics: quantity 46 ml, natural resins, yellow amber;
pros: thick, bright pigmentation, color purity;
cons: expensive, no imitations.

Natural pigments are contained in another line of a similar brand, suitable for beginning artists:

model name: Italian series;
price: 104 rub.;
characteristics: 46 ml, no brush;
pros: original earthy colors;
cons: poor range.

Nevskaya palette

The brand from St. Petersburg offers to buy tubes one at a time or in a set. The second one costs more:

model name: set of artistic oil shades;
price: 2620 rub.;
characteristics: 12 colors, 10 ml each;
pros: tube release form;
cons: no brush, delivery.

Individual tubes can be purchased from the same brand for less, making them popular among students:

model name: Sonnet;
price: 376 rub.;
characteristics: 10 ml, cardboard packaging;
pros: bright, rich colors, cheap;
cons: not the highest quality components.

Gamma

This is a popular domestic brand that produces a wide range of creative materials:

model name: Studio;
price: 155 rub.;
characteristics: 46 ml;
pros: wide range;
cons: not found.

The second series produced by the company is the Old Master line, distinguished by its wide range:

model name: Old Master;
price: 155 rub.;
characteristics: 46 ml:
pros: comfortable tube;
cons: not found.

Master class

The Nevskaya Palitra art factory produces a Master Class series containing turpentine, acrylic and oil components:

Model Name: White Lead:
price: 186 rub.;
characteristics: 46 ml;
advantages: increased durability;
cons: no discounts.

In addition to zinc and titanium white colors, the series offers a wide range of different shades to suit every taste:

model name: Master-Class;
price: 522 rub.;
characteristics: 46 ml;
pluses: wide range, shine;
Cons: high cost, no sales.

Art Materials

Another Russian brand is the company Art Materials, which pleases consumers with a large palette:

model name: NORMA PROFESSIONAL;
price: 674 rub.;
characteristics: 35 ml, light fastness level 4 and 5;
pros: 84 tones, do not leave raised strokes, low consumption;
cons: half of the shades belong to the high price category.

For drawing oil paintings in the alla prima (raw) painting technique, another series from the same manufacturer is suitable:

model name: professional series;
price: 674 rub.;
characteristics: metal tube, 35 ml;
advantages: good adhesion, homogeneous creamy consistency, high pigmentation, environmentally friendly product;
cons: expensive, no promotions.

Malevich

Set of paints with original name Malevich will be useful for beginners and professional masters:

model name: set;
price: 3860 rub.;
characteristics: set of 14 colors, 40 ml each;
pros: there is a brush, thinner, varnish and a metal oiler included, the light fastness rating is 7 points out of 8;
cons: not honey, cardboard packaging.

In addition to the oil set, you can purchase separate, convenient, economical aluminum tubes:

model name: Pro;
price: 315 rub.;
characteristics: 40 ml;
pros: high-quality light-resistant components, can be written without dilution, fine grated consistency;
cons: not found.

Ferrario

Italian masters They know a lot about developing creative products, so they launched the Ferrari brand on the market:

model name: Da Vinci;
price: 313 rub.;
characteristics: 60 ml;
pros: thin, high light fastness, suitable for canvas, cardboard, paper, wood;
cons: among the thinners there is white spirit.

The ARTIST OIL series has been developed for professionals, which features a soft, comfortable transparent tube:

model name: ARTIST OIL;
price: 674 rub.;
characteristics: 100 or 250 ml;
pros: high pigmentation, thin consistency, can be applied with a brush or spatula;
cons: 24 shades.

Winsor & Newton

One of oldest factories The English company Winsor & Newton, which produces a rich palette, is considered to be in Europe:

model name: WINTON;
price: 600 rub.;
characteristics: 37 ml;
pros: high pigmentation, good coverage and light fastness, 47 colors;
cons: sold only by piece.

For professional craftsmen, the factory offers a line of the same name, which differs high quality:

Model name: Professional;
price: 420 rub.;
characteristics: 5 ml;
pros: light-resistant natural components, you can choose different degrees of transparency, 96 colors;
cons: small volume.

Maimeri

The Italian factory Maimeri produces tubes individually and in sets. The latter are more profitable because they cost less:

model name: CLASSICO;
price: 4750 rub.;
characteristics: 12 shades, 20 ml each;
pros: the kit includes a palette, no waxes or additives, safflower oil for light colors;
cons: limited edition.

Wider color palette The classic line, produced in a professional volume, is different:

model name: Idea;
price: 605 rub.;
characteristics: 60 ml;
pros: suitable for different materials, textured effect;
cons: expensive.

Sonnet

Sonnet brand products have been developed specifically for painting using synthetic components:

model name: Sonnet;
price: 179 rub.;
characteristics: 46 ml;
pros: same drying time, 51 colors;
cons: suitable only for brushes made of kolinsky, synthetic, bristles or palette knives.

From the oil paint sets of the same manufacturer, the following series in 12 mini-tubes is distinguished:

Model name: Sonet oil set;
price: 1564 RUR;
characteristics: 12 pcs. 10 ml each;
pros: light-resistant organic pigments, many pure colors, transparency, UV protection;
cons: cardboard packaging.

Sennelier

The French brand Sennelier has been known since 1887 and produces time-tested art materials:

model name: Etude;
price: 453 rub.;
characteristics: 34 ml;
pluses: brightness, intensity, light fastness, color range - 36 shades;
cons: none.

Another line of the French company is Artists, suitable for professionals and beginning artists:

model name: Artists;
price: 392 rub.;
characteristics: 40 ml;
advantages: economical consumption, high-quality pigmentation;
cons: none.

Royal Talens

The Dutch manufacturer offers several lines on the Russian market. Oil Van Gogh is popular:

model name: Van Gogh;
price: 2220 rub.;
characteristics: 20 pcs. 10 ml each;
pros: vegetable oils, color depth does not change after drying;
cons: cardboard box.

If you don’t need a set of oil paints, you can buy tubes separately, but they will be more expensive than the collection:

model name: ART CREATION;
price: 765 rub.;
characteristics: 200 ml;
pros: brightness, color saturation, light fastness;
cons: only professional volume.

How to choose oil paints

If an artist is just starting to work with oil, he will need advice on choosing materials:

the more stars in the marking, the higher the light resistance;
the level of shading of the square in the designation indicates covering properties; a completely shaded square indicates a high percentage;
It’s better to buy in separate tubes;
dark colors choose a smaller volume;
Beginners are advised to choose Ladoga or Sonet paints, professionals – PEBEO.

Video

The oil painting technique is not only more complex than most other painting techniques, it is also more expensive in terms of materials. Using texture and different techniques application allows you to realize the most diverse fantasies of the artist. This is why oil paintings have their own special charm, and many artists and even those who paint only for themselves want to learn this technique.

Let's take a closer look at the basic things that will be useful to us in order to learn the art of working with oil.

So, how to learn to paint in oils? What do you need for this?

Oil paints;
Fixative;
Palette;
Glue;
Flat brushes (preferably made of natural wool);
Easel (canvas, canvas on a stretcher);
Palette knife;
Eraser and simple pencil for outlines;
Tracing paper, carbon paper and other little things.

1. Buy everything you need for oil painting

After purchasing paints, the second most important thing is canvas, although the oil technique is quite applicable on hardboard, plywood or metal, sometimes coarse burlap is also used. But let's return to canvases, as the most common medium for oil paintings. They come in two types - cotton and linen. The first ones are much cheaper. Linen canvases, in turn, are divided into large- and fine-grained. Coarse-grained ones are best suited for textured paintings (for example, landscapes or those requiring deep depiction of texture), fine-grained for more detailed techniques. There are canvases stretched on cardboard (up to 0.5 x 0.7 m in size), they are cheaper, canvases on stretchers are more expensive, but they come in much larger sizes.

Don’t forget also about tracing paper and carbon paper, we will need them in order to transfer the image from the sketch to the canvas itself.

2. Preparing the canvas or any other surface for painting

First of all, we make several sketches and a final pencil sketch. Before you paint with oil on canvas, you need to prepare it. To do this, we glue it and carefully prime it, so the paint will adhere well, and the active substances contained in it will not destroy the fibers of the canvas. When everything is dry, you can transfer our sketch to the canvas using tracing paper. For some multi-layer techniques, the sketch can also be covered with a thin layer of primer.

3. Choose a drawing technique and decide on a concept

This material was intended primarily to answer the question “how to paint with oil on canvas for beginners,” so it’s best to use basic technology– alla prima. Its essence is to paint in one step (layer), there can be several approaches, but it must be completed before the paint dries (about 3 days, depending on the thickness of the strokes). Colors obtained by direct mixing are lighter and more natural.

The multi-layer technique is more complex, but it allows you to use the full potential of oil paints - to create deep and voluminous textures. The first, thinnest layer is called “underpainting”; it is done with highly diluted paints. This sample layer is a kind of test that helps the artist determine further tonality, the possibilities of using light and shadow, etc.

Subsequent layers begin to draw details, convey the subtleties of composition, color and texture. In one of the last layers, linseed oil is added to the composition to give the colors richness (it also prevents the colors from “fading”). When the paint is completely dry, the painting is coated with a fixative varnish. This usually happens after 6-12 months.

4. A few technical details that will have to be taken into account

Concluding this short article, which can be called “How to paint with oil paints? A step-by-step guide for beginners", we will touch on several non-obvious aspects of working with images related specifically to " oil technology».

In addition to a pencil, a sketch on a primed canvas can also be made with charcoal or diluted paint;
Objects of toroidal or spherical shapes are drawn with twisted and crescent-shaped movements with a brush, and conical ones with triangular movements;
In order to get a smooth gradient color transition, it is better to use very flat brushes. Paints can be mixed both on the palette and directly at the transition point with the proper skill. Brush movements should be cross and close to reciprocating. It is better to work from a darker area to a lighter one with a clean brush so that the color is distributed more organically. When completing strokes, you should use a parallel technique.

Layers used for shading should be laid over a dry coat of paint. To obtain a light shading layer, the paint is diluted with a special solvent, and it is applied from a horizontal position with a core brush. To adjust the color of the design when glazing, apply strokes in the same vector as on the layer being processed.

Here is a short and rather general answer to the question: “how to paint with oil paints on canvas.” In order to understand each of the techniques in more detail, you will have to spend more than one day reading and months of practice, but for now, try the simplest methods and draw. May inspiration always be with you!

Most people choose needlework or other options as a hobby. artistic creativity. Moreover, due to the same mass-produced goods, the demand for handmade things increases. Photos or computer images are printed multiple times. You can make a unique thing by learning how to paint oil paintings. Even a beginner can understand this painting technique.

Even if you try to repeat your plot perfectly twice, exact copy still can't do it. This is what creates the uniqueness of works of art.

Materials required for work:

Host.
Different colors.
Brushes.
Solvent and a small container for it.
Special palette for mixing.

Masters also use palette knives- special metal elastic shovels with wooden handles, which are used to apply paint to the base. It is important for a beginner to master brushes.

In addition, masters paint paintings on easel or a high-quality sketchbook if they go to work in nature to depict oil paintings from life.

Landscapes for beginners are complex plot. It is better to create pictures using your imagination or using photographs. This will make it easier to depict the landscape.

According to professionals, working on an easel is easier, since it’s easier to step away and inspect the result of the work. At first, you can try to practice on the surface of the table, but it is better to take some kind of board and place it on your chair at a certain angle. You will get an overview of your work and you will be able to evaluate its quality well and notice your shortcomings in time.

Remember that paints are used up quickly, so you need to purchase them separately and in large quantities. The release form comes in different sizes. White paint disappears the fastest, but black paint is consumed in very small quantities. First you need to decide plot, and then buy paints of appropriate colors and shades.

In order to draw autumn bouquet you will need one set, but for a summer bouquet a completely different one. In order not to waste your budget on unnecessary colors, it is better to take only the necessary ones in approximately the required quantity. All colors and shades can be obtained with only three main colors(yellow, red, blue), as well as white and black.

Gallery: oil painting (25 photos)

Creating and selecting a base

If you want to make drawing easier for yourself, buy from specialized stores ready-made basics for work on which you can immediately apply paint. They cost a decent amount of money, but they are just right for a beginner, as they greatly simplify the work.

Another great option is use of fiberboard. Every man's household contains scraps of this material, which remains after repairs. It is easy to find it by asking friends, relatives or a loved one. Surely someone has used it and has leftovers of this stuff in their garage.

The shape of the fiberboard sides is different, one looks very smooth, and the other is quite rough, vaguely similar to a woven structure. Both forms can be used, but it is worth applying to a rough surface. more parts and layers of primer, otherwise the color may become dull, since the paint will sink a little into the structure of such a product.

If you decide to try painting a landscape in oil for the first time, you can take a ready-made fiberboard base with a primer already applied. You need to take a small sheet, no larger than a landscape one.

If you want to make a DPV base with your own hands, an easy and inexpensive way is use of simple gelatin, you can add PVA glue to it to make the color white. This primer must be applied in several layers, allowing it to dry first. Three times will be enough. You should feel that the surface has changed. After preparing the base, you can proceed to creating the picture.

Master class oil painting

After creating the foundation and preparing the materials, we begin work in stages:

Make a line drawing on the canvas using a simple pencil or paint.
Focus on the distribution of shadows and highlights (where there will be bright and dark areas).
Create the background and any large objects.
Start drawing small shapes and details.

Sometimes move away from the picture to evaluate the results of your activities. Mix on the palette as you paint. different shades flowers. The last step is to frame the painting.

Master class on oil painting for beginners

In this master class we will draw the sea!

Description of drawing step by step:

First of all, you need to prepare the picture with which you are going to paint the sea. Place the canvas on the easel. Create the first strokes on the canvas, making the main background. Wait a little until it dries completely. If you follow the advice of the master class, then you will be able to paint a picture with oil paints of the sea. After finishing drawing, you need to decide on a name, most importantly, do not forget to leave your initials on the work. Authorship is very important because it makes your work stand out.

The most common material in painting is oil paints, which use vegetable oil. Secrets of drawing like this art material is not hidden from us, but on the contrary, many share their experiences and offer their oil painting lessons for beginners. Everyone can create their own masterpiece. All you need is patience and time! The technique of painting with oil paints has many pitfalls. Therefore, oil painting lessons will be able to show all the stages step by step and reveal secrets.

Oil painting for beginners

Before you run to watch a master class on oil painting, you should purchase paint and everything you need for this painting technique. Let's start with the most basic.

Oil paint
In stores you can find both individual tubes with specific colors and sets that may contain everything an artist needs. However, do not rush to purchase a set, because it is better to choose a couple of individual containers with primary colors. Such paints will be of better quality. Put together a custom set of six to seven colors that can be used to create any other color.
Brushes
It is best not to purchase a set of paints that come with several brushes. They won't best quality. Therefore, choose for yourself those tools that are suitable for you and fill everything you need. For oil paints, we select high-quality and simple brushes. For the first time, it will be enough to have several brushes different types. For example, you can choose flat, bristly and round. Then we select the size of the brushes.
Palette knife
In addition to brushes, many artists use an artistic tool such as a palette knife. With its help, you can easily mix colors on the palette, as well as create interesting three-dimensional effects on the canvas.
Solvent
To thin out thick oil paint. You can use linseed oil or its derivatives.
Add-ons
Beginning artists should stock up on foundation oil painting in the form of a stretched canvas, a wooden palette, a jar of water, an apron and a lot of old rags. A special box for art materials wouldn't hurt either.

Oil painting technique

There are two main types of oil painting techniques: a la prima and multi-layer painting.
The a la prima technique involves quickly applying paint to the canvas. Here you should not make preliminary sketches with charcoal or pencil. However, the drawing is also created gradually, but with very quick strokes. The more paint in every detail of the picture, the better! Moreover, the next day you can correct it and finish it.

For other techniques, multilayer, the process will be longer. After all, such a painting will have several layers, and for one to dry completely it will take at least 3 days. Required condition for this technique - a preliminary pencil sketch. It is also recommended to apply primer. Then you can apply the first layer of paint. This oil painting technique is suitable for landscapes and any natural objects.

Step by step oil painting

Before starting the drawing process, you should prepare your workplace. After all, for oil technology you will need a lot of materials and tools at once. We choose a place in the room closer to natural source light and open window. After all, the oil has a strong smell.
We make a sketch on canvas with pencil or charcoal. We outline smooth auxiliary lines to build the composition. We draw large details and smoothly move on to small ones. At these pores, think about where the light will fall and where the highlight, penumbra and shadow will be located. This will give the picture a realistic look.

Let's move on to choosing a color for each element of the picture. On the palette we place the primary colors that will give new complex shades. For beginning artists, this moment will be difficult, because our brain “sees” colors a little differently. For example, to paint a clear blue sky with clouds, you'll start mixing paint on your palette and then realize it doesn't match. After all, this shade turned out to be much brighter than intended. Also, experienced craftsmen know that details painted at night will have a darker tone and richer color. But if a day is planned on the canvas, then the objects will be bright.

Let's move on to paints. The first layer of each object must be painted with liquid oil paint. To do this, we use linseed oil or any other solvent. The next layers can now be applied in thick strokes. Let's start drawing in a convenient way and using techniques.

Oil painting on canvas is often a lifesaver for beginning artists. After all, if you apply the wrong color, it can be easily removed, since the paint dries very slowly.

After applying the first layer, give it time to dry completely and only then apply the next one. This usually takes about 3 days. During this period, you can slightly correct the details in the drawing or correct mistakes, or maybe completely erase them with a damp cloth.

Layer by layer, a complete picture will emerge. To preserve its beauty and brightness of paint, it should be fixed with varnish. To do this, wait until it dries completely. It all depends on the number of layers on the canvas.

We coat the picture with varnish, place it in a frame and place it in a prominent place! Now oil painting for beginners is gradually moving to a new level, where you can learn new techniques.

The art of painting is a vast layer of world culture, rooted in the prehistoric period. In the Paleolithic era on the walls of the caves in which they lived primitive people, drawings depicting animals and birds began to appear. It is characteristic that primitive contours drawn with ash, clay or chalk always depicted animals that could be the object of hunting. If people were depicted, then they were necessarily hunters.

Buffaloes and mammoths

More conscious painting, and already in a sense colorful, appeared later, in the 12-10 centuries BC. For example, a buffalo was depicted with ocher, accidentally found by a cave artist, and its horns and hooves - with coal, deposits of which were everywhere in those days.

Oil paints for painting in an extremely primitive form began to appear in the 10th-7th centuries BC. Spectral and chemical analysis determined the presence of natural pigment in the patterns on basalt stones. Several images were painted with paints that contained egg yolk and white.

How and with what to draw?

Still genuine artwork oil paints appeared only in the 15th century AD. The art of painting has acquired a material basis. Oil paints began to be widely used by artists thanks to the efforts of the Dutchman Jan van Eyck, who actively promoted them and even created an entire theory on the topic “How to paint with oil paints.”

Incident at the Museum

The Dutch or Flemish school of painting is one of the most subtle artistic techniques. Each brush stroke of the masters of the 15th and 16th centuries is distinguished by unprecedented naturalism. When Flemish paintings, still lifes and landscapes were exhibited at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 1984, an expert group of artists gathered to evaluate the paintings. One of the paintings suddenly attracted everyone's attention. The painting showed a vase that sat on the kitchen table with a bouquet of freshly cut flowers. A drop of dew fell from one of the flowers onto the tabletop. It was depicted so realistically that the group leader asked all the artists present: “What is your opinion, how do you see the level of technology?” The painters replied: “The drop is so real that you want to brush it away with your hand...”

The drop of dew depicted by the Flemish artist has not dried in six hundred years. Perhaps, thanks to such drops, the art of painting is eternal.

Oil paints for painting

A modern set of colors in the artistic palette contains about twenty names:

cadmium red;
titanium white;
cobalt blue;
fuchsin is persistent;
cadmium yellow;
ultramarine blue;
lemon cadmium;
pink paint;
the paint is bright red;
viridon greens;
scarlet cadmium;
azure;
light yellow ocher;
cadmium orange;
mauve paint;
light green cadmium;
Indian yellow;
gas soot;
purple dioxin;

How to paint with oil paints so that the image is rich and expressive? Of course, experience is needed, which does not come immediately. But the first steps can already be taken now, and for this you need to purchase some supplies.

Where to buy?

Specialized art stores sell a variety of kits and kits for artistic creativity. Oil paints for beginners in a small set can be bought relatively inexpensively; they will be enough for drawing simple pictures. It is best to master the basics of painting by depicting any objects. This could be a bowl of fruit, a yellow apple with a red side, a cut watermelon or a bunch of grapes. Novice artists do best with fruit and vegetable themes.

How to paint with oil paints if you have nothing else at hand? Of course, you need a canvas or cardboard sheet of a suitable size for the work. They can be purchased at the same art store, along with thinner and several art brushes. Canvas for oil paints can be sold ready-to-use, coated with a special primer, or in the form of a piece of coarse fabric that you will have to prime yourself. If you do not have experience working with ground coating, then it is better to buy a ready-made canvas already stretched on a stretcher.

Paint brushes come in several types depending on size, hair quality and hardness. Each type is designed for a specific job. Wide and hard brushes are suitable for applying backgrounds; softer brushes perform more important work in drawing out the details of the image. And thin ones are needed for final finishing, applying the smallest touches.

How much to buy?

Art kits that include paint brushes can be quite expensive, but you shouldn't buy them because only a small part of the kit will be used and the rest will sit idle. For a beginning artist, you need 3-5 brushes of different styles. This is a wide flute, two medium-sized brushes (numbers 2 and 3) and a pair of brushes numbered 1 and 0. In this set you can paint anything: from a still life or landscape to a portrait of your favorite dog. Although a portrait with oil paints is a very delicate work, and you will be able to cope with it only after gaining experience.

There are several painting techniques that you can follow to achieve success. The technique of painting with oil paints is complex and varied. To depict any object, it is necessary to create many shades by mixing colors. Moreover, even an experienced artist cannot guess the right combination the first time. The work of creating a painting is based on constant correction of the initially obtained tone. This is a fascinating, but quite unpredictable process.

What is required from an artist?

How to paint with oil paints to achieve the first time good result? First of all, perseverance is required from the artist. In addition, you need at least basic skills, the so-called basics of painting. Oil paints, a painting master class that will teach you how to use them, become clear and easy to use as you study them.

Education

How in the best possible way use oil paints? We offer the first stage master class for beginners.

After the canvas is stretched onto a stretcher, it must be primed. This is necessary so that the paints are not absorbed into the fabric structure, but are laid out in an even layer over the entire surface of the canvas.

The simplest, but fairly reliable primer is a mixture of PVA glue (polyvinyl acetate dispersion) with water-based paint for finishing work. The proportion should be in equal parts, 1:1, the mixture should be stirred well and before applying to the canvas, diluted with a small amount of water to the consistency of thick cream. After this, you can cover the surface of the future painting with primer. As soon as the primer has dried, check it with a light touch of your fingers for adhesion. If it does not stick, then the canvas is ready for use.

Next stage

Next you need to apply the background to the canvas. This can be a background picture or a monochromatic painting of a certain part of the picture. For this work, you can use flat, hard brushes or a palette knife - a pear-shaped metal spatula. This tool is convenient for applying paint in a thin, even layer, and then making the coating as thin as possible so that you don’t have to wait too long for it to dry. As you know, oil paints dry very slowly; this process can take a month or two. Therefore, you need to be prepared for a long break from work.

The background coating has dried, you can proceed to the next step.

Next in line is drawing the contours of the sketch. This is done with a pencil lead if the background of the picture is light in color. On a dark background, contours can be marked with sharpened white chalk. In any case, it is necessary to outline all the contours before the process of painting with oil paints begins.

If the picture should depict several objects, then you need to start with the largest one. For example, this is a ceramic jug with a handle, and four cups are placed around it. Next to them is a small vase with plums, and behind it are several sweets scattered directly on the tablecloth. This plot involves the use of several colors of oil paints: brown, dark blue, black, yellow, red and white.

Shadows as part of the drawing

Since the drawing begins with a ceramic jug, a little brown paint is squeezed onto the palette, which must be diluted to the desired consistency. You can put the finished paint on a brush and make the first strokes. After the jug is drawn, it should be shaded. This will require the same brown paint, but darker. Add a little black to the existing one and stir. Then we apply the shadows, it’s not difficult, the painted jug itself will tell you where the dark stripes should be.

The jug is ready, let's move on to the next part of the drawing, the cups. They are also ceramic, and thus the task is simplified. After all the cups are depicted, they are also shaded. It is necessary to monitor the direction of the shadows, since the conventional light in the picture falls on both the jug and the cups at the same angle. Compliance with the rules of angular lighting is one of the foundations of painting.

Glass or faience

The next stage is a vase with plums. There may be certain difficulties in the image here. The vase should not be made of glass, since glass gives many shades, in some places it is transparent, in others it is darkened. Depicting these nuances will be quite problematic. It is better to draw a vase made of earthenware, which will require elementary shadows and nothing more.

With plums, everything is also simple, the main thing is to depict them from such a perspective, as if they were partially covering each other. If the drawing is done from life, then this is not a difficult task.

Finishing touches

Dark blue paint is most suitable for depicting plums. In places of their contact it is necessary to use thin curved lines to indicate this. You definitely need to draw plum cuttings; they will emphasize the artist’s idea. But naturally, not every plum should have cuttings; in total, five or six of them should be depicted, no more.

And the last “characters” are candies. The main thing here is to outline believable contours, and you can color the wrappers however you like. After the painting is finished, it must dry. It’s better to put the canvas somewhere in a corner, facing the wall and check it from time to time.