Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Any oil painters in our midst?

GemFever

GemFever

Ideal_Rock
Trade
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Messages
2,419
I just searched the old Hangout threads for topics on oil painting, and found out that there are some amazing artists here. Wow.

I'm just starting in oil painting, taking a class for fun. The class is great, but the more I learn, the more questions i have. If there are any oil painters here who wouldn't mind giving advice, I'll just throw a few questions out there. And then go to the used book store to look for a copy of "Oil Painting for Dummies." ::)

- I tend to involve tons of paint when mixing as I try to get to the color I want. But then most of that paint doesn't get used on the canvas. I've been using disposable paper palettes so far, and they are great, but I feel bad throwing away all that paint (not to mention how expensive it is). Any advice on how to deal with the extra paint? I just got a plastic palette with a cover, maybe I can keep some mixed colors in there. Don't know how well it works in practice though.

- Mixing colors... bliss. Until I don't get the color that I want :errrr: My totally basic understanding of color mixing is that you get a few basic colors and you can make anything happen if you mix correctly. And to make colors lighter you add white. But I don't like adding white because it makes colors more muted... so if I want to get a translucent looking intense lavender... how do I get there with my basic blues and reds? Or should I go to the store and buy more colors?

- I love the idea of underpainting, but have so many questions about it. Starting from simple stuff like - how do you choose which color to underpaint? And more specific questions like -- how many layers of underpainting can there be? What's practical? If I'm trying to get a glowing lavender underpainting but the color I put on the canvas last night looks kind of dull... what to do? Can I have an underpainting for the lavender underpainting to make it glow more? Ufff so many questions! :confused:



I wish I could take a full semester of painting, drawing, and color theory *Right now* (impulsive, much). But I can't :(

Off to look for books! (suggestions welcome!)
 
Use an old window for a palette. Extra paint you can cover with a piece of plastic wrap so it has no contact with air, this will keep for a couple days. when you need clean space or to get rid of dried paint scrape it clean with a razor blade. Color is much more complex than just mixing three primaries. greens you really have to buy. good violets too. thin your paint with oil and or Liquin® to make it less dense; lighter,more transparent, but still same hue. adding white just makes things look chaulky which is fine if that's what you want.
 
Thanks VapidLapid! Making it chalky is exactly what I don't want. Will try thinning. Just got a heap of books from the used book store, this is gonna be a fun weekend of discovery :lickout:
 
Try mixing a little at a time and learn which colors saturate the mix. Say you want to mix a violet, pull a small drop of alizarin crimson with a quater size of ultramarine blue. You'll notice the alizarin is much stronger. If you mixed them half and half, you wouldn't notice the ultramarine at all.

I generally try to get the color the approximate value first then work out the color balance. If the color is too dark, you can't see subtle color nuances in your mixture and its easy to be surprised once you get all the colors on the canvas. Titanium whites tend to be the worst culprits for chalking up a color but there are other whites like Cremintz and Flake.

The underpainting is usually a technique of classical painting. It depends on how anal retentive you want to be. A friend of mine does a complete charcoal drawing that is as finished as a completed painting. He then sprays it with fixative and paints a greyscale version on top - again just as finished as a completed painting. Then he puts on thin color glazes for the darks and opaque paint for the lights. The beauty of this is he can paint a thin layer of alizarin and overlay another thin layer of ultramarine and get a much more vibrant violet than he would by straight mixing.

My teacher recommends no mediums because too much can compromise the integrity of the paint - making it change color over time. But if you're doing glazes, you have to use a lot of medium. Linseed oil is the safest but it takes a long time to dry. Other mediums like Vopal dry faster but they have a bad reputation for changing color.
 
Amelia, thank you so much for that detailed response! Awesome info, exactly what I was looking for. I am now tempted to follow your friend's technique for a simple painting I had in mind... What a cool experiment it will be! Thank you!!!
 
:read:

Perfect. Thank you. Loved that article. Definitely will try it out with a simple painting tomorrow. Or, well, will start tomorrow with the charcoal. I wonder though... on pg 2 the author says "You may want to use your favorite oil painting medium to get the paint to your preferred consistency and brushability." But I am under the impression that the first layer of paint should not have medium, but instead some turpentine to stick to the canvas better. Or is that irrelevant once you apply charcoal and the fixative? Hmm.

Until now, my idea of an underpainting was pretty much covering the canvas with a color that you want to show through in some parts of your painting, and affect the further layers of color. Now I see it can be so much more. Exciting!

Got a book on color today (pic of the cover below). It's already mindblowing :bigsmile:

color_manual_for_artists.jpg
 
I'm excited for you! It's so much fun.

GemFever|1355024906|3326607 said:
I wonder though... on pg 2 the author says "You may want to use your favorite oil painting medium to get the paint to your preferred consistency and brushability." But I am under the impression that the first layer of paint should not have medium, but instead some turpentine to stick to the canvas better. Or is that irrelevant once you apply charcoal and the fixative? Hmm.
Click to expand...

The paint won't stick to the canvas if you use straight turpentine. For the underpainting you only use enough medium to let the paint move easily from your brush to the canvas. Some brands are easier to work and therefore need little to no medium. If you're willing to take a little time to let it dry, just enough linseed oil to keep the paint from getting gobby should be enough. If you use turpentine, use at most 4 parts turps to 6 parts linseed oil.

Remember that first underpainting needs to be opaque, opaque, opaque! The transparent glazes only come after with the color layers and then only in the darks.
 
Reviving the thread... wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a cheapish online source for frames for canvas paintings?
 
Hmm, sorry, not sure. You mean frames to put your finished canvas paintings into? Are they already stretched?

Just a random tip, something I found for myself recently -- oil painting paper. I realized that stretched canvases took way too much space (in a small apartment) and since i'm just starting out, not everything I produce I necessarily want to put on the wall, so stuff needs to be stored (or painted over, but I"m not there yet). I saw a guy in my art class use this paper, it's specially prepped and ready for oil painting, but comes in albums like watercolor paper. My new favorite thing! :twirl:
 
GemFever|1357230493|3346319 said:
Hmm, sorry, not sure. You mean frames to put your finished canvas paintings into? Are they already stretched?

Just a random tip, something I found for myself recently -- oil painting paper. I realized that stretched canvases took way too much space (in a small apartment) and since i'm just starting out, not everything I produce I necessarily want to put on the wall, so stuff needs to be stored (or painted over, but I"m not there yet). I saw a guy in my art class use this paper, it's specially prepped and ready for oil painting, but comes in albums like watercolor paper. My new favorite thing! :twirl:
Click to expand...

Yeah... frames for stretched canvases
 
My mom got some at Michaels, I'm sure AC Moore and other crafts stores have a decent selection. It's nice to be able to see them in person. Sorry, I personally don't have any suggestions for online vendors. Hope you find what you're looking for!
 
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top