Need advice on oil painting!!! (Beginner)

Cafe Society
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Hi, I’m looking to start oil painting soon, but I don’t really have an idea on where to start. It’s not gonna be something expensive, just a couple of OK brushes, some paper and some oil colors.

However, I have some questions, and I really hope an experienced painter or someone with just some knowledge might be able to help me out. I’ve been looking at different sets from amazon, but since I can’t post links, just copy the name of the sets into google, and it’s the first one.

“Royal and Langnickel Oil Painting Art Easel Set” 27£ at amazon. which looks quite good for starters, what do you think?

And “Easel Artist Set-All Media-100 Pieces” for 43£.at amazon. which looks really good imo, but a tad expensive too. Is it worth the money? What would you recommend?

Thanks a million for input.

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bump

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I know you’re a beginner and you might not want to drop big bucks on equipment just yet, but, really, it’s best if you start out with quality supplies. “Artist sets” are convenient and cheap, but they’re often filled with low-grade paint and chintzy, useless brushes. You really don’t need much to begin oil painting, although what little you need can get pricey.

Really, all you need to get started is this:

Oil paint – Don’t buy super cheap stuff. I don’t know if they have Winsor & Newton where you are, but that’s what I’d start with. Colors you’ll need: ultramarine blue, pthalo blue, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow light, and cadmium yellow.

Oil brushes – You won’t need many, maybe five or six flats and filberts of varying sizes.

Brush soap – Something like this

Turpentine – Make sure it’s in a nice container

Palette – I buy books of wax paper. You could also use a small pane of glass, or some other slick surface.

Canvases – Paper works well too

Gesso – For priming your canvases

Easel – Or you could prop up your canvas
I would buy all of this stuff individually from an art supply store. Don’t get intimidated! Oil painting is difficult, the learning curve is steep, but it’s very rewarding once you get the hang of it.

If you’ve never picked up a paintbrush before, and all this seems like a little much to you, I would recommend starting with acrylic painting. Acrylic paint is cheaper, more forgiving, cleaner, and less toxic.

Make sure you get a book on, or at least research, color theory. One of the big hurdles for beginning painters is understanding how color mixing works. You should also find a good drawing book, one that talks about figure and gesture drawing.

Look around for figure drawing classes and painting workshops in your area. Having someone by your side that can give you a second opinion on your work can be invaluable. Also, meeting others who’re also learning will keep you from giving up as easily.

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I would add the following:

Other paint colors: sap green, flake white (large tube for mixing), cerulean blue, yellow ochre, burnt umber, Payne’s gray.

Instead of turpentine, see if you can locate a synthetic called turpenoid. No fumes and cleans just as well.

Easel: for a beginner, I’d go for a folding table top easel

Buy at least one larger blending brush 2-3". Also one or two palette knives.

Get a pad of palette paper for mixing your paints. It’s cheap and disposable.

You should also have a brush cleaning can. Buy one with a shelf at the bottm to help with cleaning and to allow any solids to drop through the holes. Some of them come with a brush holder, as well. A coffee can works well for storing brushes when dry.

Keep a copy of the color wheel nearby, unless you’ve already got all that memorized.

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The sets you linked to are ok. I strongly suggest taking a community college class or a local art league class. While agree with the previous poster about decent paints there are more important things to concentrate on first like technique. I quickly browsed the YouTube vids on painting lessons and most of them I saw were not what you want.

There are some good books out there that will help you get started. Here’s one that covers the basics: link

Practice, practice, practice.

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Moved to Cafe Society from GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

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Color selection:

Those colors mostly aren’t what you paint with directly. You mostly use them to mix the colors you do need to paint. You do the mixing on the palette.

The usual basics are two reds, two blues, and two yellows (a warm and a cool shade of each), a medium green, black, and two earth colors (yellow ochre, and burnt sienna are usual), plus a large tube of white.

If that paragraph isn’t totally understandable, then it would help to read up a bit on color theory before starting to sling the paint around.
I heartily second PlainJain’s suggestion of community college classes (or the equivalent institutions where you are – prices in £ suggests Britain).

They may recommend that you take design and drawing before tackling painting. This is sort of like doing weights, cardio, and range-of-motion to prepare for participating in a sport – everything goes better when you have good basics.
Misc: Good brushes are OMG expensive – buy few, but quality, and take good care of them.

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hi. i’m a professional artist w a degree in painting, and hope i can lend some input.

may i ask why you want to start with oils? i am not against oils, but typically it is better to start with an easier medium like acrylics. now, i know–“easier” is a little subjective–

but in terms of mixing, binders, extenders, drying time, workable “open” paint time, etc, there are a ton of variables to consider. i like acrylics because they dry fast (sometimes too fast–which is why you can either 1. add an extender medium OR go with Golden’s Open acrylics which have a retarded drying time and are workable much like oils. i also like acrylics because you can learn rendering and color mixture/balance and more fundamental art techniques at what i think is a quicker pace. you can get through single paintings faster and move on. and finally, i like acrylics because they are water clean up.

there are likewise “water clean-up” oils, but i have never tried them.

for colors and sets, all the above posts are correct–you don’t want to go nuts with top-shelf supplies, but you don’t want to get the low priced crap, either.

i would suggest buying a beginner’s color set (at this point i would REALLY emphasize finding a local art supply store, as they will be far better to deal with than ordering online. if you are near any universities, there should be some very good supply stores). often they have sets that will get you a nice basis for getting going.

brushes are a crap shoot. i’m just being honest–

this gets into some esoterica, but there are brushes for standardized techniques and uses (ie fan brushes for painting foliage or flowers) but i have never in my life adhered to such rigors. personally, i do the best work with low-grade hog bristle brushes. you can find sets that run in round-tip or flat tip, from sizes 1-10. i use these for almost everything i do. i go through them quickly (only you will be able to determine with a brush is spent) but since they are cheap and sold in sets, it works well for me. i like the stiff bristle the hog hair brings and it works fantastic for my style.

there are extremely expensive, specialized brushes (i have one that cost $260USD), but really how you paint is the most deterministic factor in what brushes are good. sable and synthetic sable brushes are very soft bristled and work fantastic for more wet-into-wet painting. i like to paint right on the edge of drying so i can blend with more control, which is why i both like acrylics and hog bristle.

so.

all that said, my advice would be to not buy-in with super expensive materials unless you have a very good idea what your technique will be. if you need to explore how you like to paint, maybe get a mixture of sets and experiment.

good paint goes a LONG ways, and your colors like black and white, your yellows and reds will end up being the most important colors to concentrate quality on (in my experience, that is. i use a lot of black and a lot of white, and if they do not cover well or are too “thin” and require multiple layers, you have to adjust technique to make the poor quality of the paint work.
likewise, yellows and reds will always be both your least lightfast colors and least covering. reds nearly always cover poorly unless you get good quality. both red and yellows (oranges, too) bleach out in sunlight faster than any other colors are well ((i do mural work outdoors a lot)).

i know i am throwing a lot at you, and i am sorry–but this is what i do.

for your substrate, of course gessoed canvas is the standard. these can be bought pre-stretched and pre-gessoed, or you can buy raw canvas/gesso and stretcher bars and do this your self (hint: DON’T. just buy it!)

you can also buy canvas illustration board (it is thin and not on wooden frames) or you can paint on stretched linen.

another option that i encourage is painting on board or masonite. it is common to paint on either masonite or MDF. i love buying masonite–you can buy it in various sized sheets at home improvement stores and it yields more square footage for your money.

i do not know how it works (you seem to be from a non-american country,) but here, you can buy the largest sheets for around 10 bucks and they will cut it into whatever sizes you ask for free. i like masonite and MDF because they have a perfectly smooth surface (unlike canvas which has the fiber-weft pattern–something most people really like. i, however, find it distracting).

that is about all i have for now.

please feel free to ask any questions as i will help as much as is possible.

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Hi people, thank you so much for your replies.

dontbesojumpy: thnx for the info, that was alot of great advice =) I’d like to paint in oil, well, cause that’s whats most appealing to me. Van gogh and monet are my favourite, and their works strike me as no others. Also, I would like to paint in an impressionist style when my abilities allow me to. =D Is that hard btw?

I live in Denmark btw, and there are no real paint supply stores close to me. I have to order either from a danish website, or amazon. And the latter is by far the cheapest. I’ve been looking at some Winton oil paints since people here all said quality paints, first and foremost… Are these ok?

About canvas’… I understand that the gessoed canvas’ or masonite / MDF boards are good when you’re painting a motif. But since I’m a starter, I’d really just like a stack (?) of ready-to-use oil painting paper to practice techniques and to just get started, before wasting hundreds of canvasses. (I don’t know if I got it right, but correct me if I’m wrong :p). It IS possible to get paper for practicing, right? I also heard that the paper / canvas size should be relative to your brushes sizes… so confusing! >.<

About brushes: I see that there alot to choose from. I don’t know if sable or synthetic sable brushes are for me, since I’ll be painting with oils…? :o I’m not so sure on those brushes, but I understand (as you say) I’ll be needing different types and diff. sizes. I don’t think those on Amazon are of great quality, so I might as well try to find a store near me. Can you give me some simple points as to what I should look out for? (Considering I’m a beginner… and I’d like to paint like Monet. :D)

Thanks alot

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Also: does anyone know of an, preferably active, forum for painters?

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That paint is fine, although there’s not many colors in that set. You not only need red, yellow, and blue, but “cold” and “warm” versions of red, yellow, and blue. See my last post where I listed those colors. You should read up on color theory and color mixing, especially if you’re going to be painting in an “impressionistic” style.

Don’t worry about matching your brush size to your canvas size. Oil paper is great for practicing and you should be able to find it at your art supply store.

I would buy bristle brushes, not sable or synthetic. Bristle is cheaper than sable and higher quality than synthetic. You should buy fiveish flats and filberts of varying sizes, and, as Chefguy added, buy a big ass brush that you can use for priming or blocking in large areas of your canvas.

You could buy this all online, but I would suggest visiting an art supply store in your area, even if it’s a little far away. That way you can get everything in one trip, pay no shipping costs, and have a real live person to ask questions to.

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Hi solsolsol, thanks for your reply. And yes, I did see your former message too, thanks for your time!

The reason why I chose the 6-pack set is because I live in DK and not a lot of resellers are able to send to me, and everything else is too expensive. There’s an affordable oil color set with 4 more colors, but I don’t really think it has all that you mentioned? http://www.amazon.com/Windsor-Newton-Winton-Oil-Colors/dp/B004OKRI9S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1347203973&sr=8-4&keywords=winton+oil+paints

I will try to find an art store to buy those brushes. And the brush soap and turpentine. Any good brand brushes I should be looking for?

Also, I may sound like a retard, but is it safe / normal to paint in your own house (apartment)? I guess painting in your bedroom is not so good for your health, or what say you?

again, thanks alot!

Btw, it suprises me that amazon has almost no brushes for sale… so either way I’m forced to look in a store, I don’t think those 5$-set brushes online are worth very much.

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Edit: actually the only one I can buy is the 6-pack one :v

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Edit again:

Since I can only buy from one reseller,i twould be pretty smart to buy multiple things from the same, to lower sending fees.

The ones I’m buying from do have some brushes too. Maybe you’d be so kind as to take a quick look at some of these and tell me what you think? http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=me%3DA31YA4NER71376&field-keywords=oil+paint+brushes

I don’t really know if the price is good for what you get. Hopefully you can tell me :slight_smile:

Thanks.

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those prices seem reasonable.

and practicing on any oil-painting paper would be fine.

impressionism isn’t TOO lofty of a style to shoot for…you’ll need some pretty basic fundamentals in place first. not that going straight for impressionistic style will be a disaster or anything,but think about wanting to learn guitar, because you want to play heavy metal. you can’t just stat out playing metal…you still need to learn chords, scales, and other basic elements.
painting is the same.
i would suggest going to your local libraries and finding books on beginner painting techniques (or maybe even some videos). you might even try google or youtube.

this is all a bit out of my element, as i am not a teacher, so i don’t have good advice as to how to direct your approach.
impressionism isn’t a regular painting blend technique, it incorporates a technique called stippling.

here is a “monet for beginners” video. search around for stuff on youtube. maybe it can help.

you might consider getting a set of oil pastels (sometimes call craypas) which are basically professional “real artist” crayons. they are much softer than normal crayons and leave more of the medium on your substrate (it’s like a waxy chalk). we started out in hs art doing impressionism with oil pastels an it was a good way to get our stroke technique figured out before committing to paint.

this next bit is a bit of editorializing and some personal opinion, so you can disregard it if you’d like.

…
i really disagree with people telling you to buy tons of colors.

as a beginner, it will take some time and practice to mix colors. technically, the more you buy, the less mixing you will have to do. but color theory is such a fundamental aspect of art, and i think nearly all student-grade/amateur art looks amateur because people are using color straight out of tubes. life isn’t solid colors…when people use color straight of tubes, it looks cartoonish.

theoretically, anyone can do anything with a red/blue/yellow/black/white set. it takes some effort, but honestly starting EXTREMELY basic and working your way up would be the way to go. again, comparing it to guitar: you don’t start out learning massive barre chords and major 7th with massive fret spans and long pinky-reaches.
you start with tiny little easy chords, like D chords and get better at those until you are ready to add a little more in as you get more comfortable. fancy chords are fancy colors. sure, they add a lot–but you can play the same songs with basic chords (they just don’t have as many frills and are not as “fancy.”

starting you, you can be overwhelmed by color choices. there’s literally every color in the world available. and many opinions as to what a “basic” pallet would be.

you don’t need a warm and cool version of each color…you instead need to learn how to add warms and cools to basic colors to understand what “warm” and “cool” even means.

that said, i think you can get by on some pretty basic starter sets and just about any starter brush set. once you have supplies and start painting, you’ll be painting. you can agonize over making some perfect decision, but no one here will have the “right” answer–only personal advice. only you will know the right answers–and you won’t know them until you start doing it and messing around and seeing what you like, what works for you, what doesn’t, what you don’t like, and go from there.

i can tell you my favorite brushes and fiber-tips, but you might hate them. you might not be able to do anything with them. i can’t do much with a sable brush unless i’m doing watercolor. you could give me an extremely expensive set of oils in every color and i will still mix from basic colors, never using many of those tubes.

i will say the more options you have, the closer you are starting out to where you want the color to be. some browns are really hard to mix (i only use burnt sienna and burnt umber and mix all my browns from these, but that is me…my point is i buy those rather than mix my own browns from opposite colors…tube browns always look better).

i can also assure you that you can paint with nearly any quality of paint or brushes, you’ll just quickly realize the pitfalls of these things. in a pinch, i have finished murals with craft paints, the cheapest of the cheap, and you can make it work. beyond any doubt better materials make things so much easier (think of it like using your hand to drive a nail vs using a rock to pound it in, using rock vs using a hammer, using a hammer vs using a screw gun, using a screw gun vs using a nail gun, etc. each is a much better, easier solution than the preceding, but you can still build a whole house with just a hammer).

i say that because i feel like it is every easy to get intimidated by supplies. both paints and brushes have hundreds of varieties, levels of quality, and price points. i feel like it is easy to get a little intimidated. but don’t stress too much–just get some nice stuff you can afford and get started–you can always upgrade to better stuff when you feel like you have a better handle on everything.

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for economy, a large drawing pad and oil pastels is a great jumping-off point. the technique is a fantastic basis for painting–it’s a mixture between drawing and painting, really–and drawing is a necessary fundamental for painting. maybe consider doing this in conjunction to your painting materials. it’s less fussy, no real clean up and yadda yadda yadda.

btw, that’s the other thing about oils–you need mineral spirits to clean your brushes, a place to dispose of the spirits when you are a done (around here you cannot put it down a sink. in college, we had to store it all in a massive barrel until a chemical processing company came to get it). you need things to cut your paint (linseed oil is the typical choice) but you can also using a product called Liquin that is a gel-medium you use in place of lindseed oil…Liquin makes the paint dry faster.

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I work at an art supply store. I don’t paint with oils very much, but I’d like to weigh in on a few things.

Oil paints: For beginners, I recommend Winton for traditional oils and Artisan for water-soluble oils. Not having to worry about solvents is a good thing, so I use Artisan.

Colors. The above “two of each primary” is good, but I’d get a green, too. Mixing greens is difficult, so don’t kill yourself over it. Phthalocyanine Green is too strong, so go for Viridian.

Brushes: Don’t buy cheap brushes, they’ll fall apart and leave bristles on your canvas. You don’t have to go broke, just don’t cheap out. Size and shape are up to you, but buy larger than smaller.

Don’t buy: Real turpentine, smelly and toxic (get Turpenoid or similar). Flake White is lead white, use Titanium White instead.

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HI, thanks for ur reply. but I’m still a lil uncertain as to how you cleanse your brushes. People talk about turpentine being bad, but aint turpenoid the same, just odorless? (just as bad?). And I don’t know if you can get it in Denmark… What size brushes would you recommend? I already got the paper, it’s ready n’ all :p…

I heard you can use oil to clean your brushes, instead of that toxic turpentine. Is that true?? I don’t really understand, sorry. And do you also need soap and water? >.<

Thnx

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The basics of cleaning oil paints:

  1. Using a paper towel or rag, squeeze as much paint out of the brush as you can.
  2. Put some ordorless mineral spirits (that’s what Turpenoid is, a mild solvent not nearly as toxic as genuine turpentine) into a metal or glass jar along with a screen to scrub the brush:smack:es against. Like this. Scrub off the remaining paint in the screen, it will settle at the bottom. One paint manufacturer rep says to use two jars, one for clean and one for muddied liquid.
  3. Let the brush dry. You can dry it on a towel, but be careful as solvent-soaked fabric is a fire hazard. Keep such rags far away from ignition sources and out of sealed containers.
  4. Lastly clean the brush with brush soap and water. You may not need to do this part all the time. Brush soap has some conditioner in it to protect the bristles.

It’s not a bad idea to have a separate set of brushes for different colors. Just a tiny bit of leftover blue can muddy up yellow, for example. Some colors will stain brushes no matter how much you clean them.

Turpenoid is a brand name of Weber, an American company, for their odorless mineral spirit. Winsor & Newton has a similar product called Sansodor. That should definitly be available.

As for size, hold up the brush to your paintng surface and imagine how many brush strokes it would take to cover it. Detail size brushes are fine if you start with larger brushes first. Trying to cover a 16x20 (50x60cm) canvas with a size 1 brush with take forever.

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Ok, thanks for your input. I was at a store today and the lady there said the synthetic brushes are best for details… is this true you think?

Also, im not sure if they have that Sansodar. Is Terpentine really that bad? :stuck_out_tongue: However, they have some ethanol for cleansing, of some sort. I think. Called “Sprit” in danish…

And do I need the soap, or just optional?

Thx for ur help =)