Oil Painting Lesson - Introduction To Oil Painting Fundamentals

This article will provide beginner oil painters with an introduction to the basic fundamentals of oil painting.
To accurately convey your feelings about the subject you are painting, you should learn and understand the fundamentals of oil painting like drawing, color theory, value and composition. I hope to give you a better understanding of these fundamentals in this article. This article is meant to be an introduction. You should study these topics further on your own when you have time.

DRAWING

Learning to draw, as a foundation for oil painting, is one of the most valuable skills a beginner oil painter can have. Many new artists usually frown upon the idea of drawing first. They would rather jump right into painting, as most beginners do. Nothing is more rewarding for a painter, than working with color, but if you want to gain experience working with values, form, and space, then drawing is something you should consider learning. This is not to say that you should master drawing, as it is an art form all in itself, but do spend time drawing and sketching your subjects before you work with color. Did you know that in art schools, many years ago, students were not permitted to work with paint until they successfully spent at least a few years drawing first? They must have been very restless, but imagine how skilled they became before they ever lifted a brush. You should at the very least have a basic understanding of drawing techniques before you begin. Check out Amazon.com for some great beginner drawing books that will give you a well rounded introduction to drawing and techniques. A book that is highly recommended by artists is: "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards".

COLOR AND VALUE

Color is probably the single most exciting part of oil painting. It is truly amazing how an artist can take a two dimensional surface and create the illusion of depth and distance using color. To accurately depict a three dimensional scene using color requires much practice and an understanding of color theory and how to mix colors. The basics of color are value, hue, saturation and temperature. The value of a color is how light or dark it is. The hue refers to the color itself as it appears on the spectrum of colors. The saturation is the strength or purity of the color. The temperature of a color is how cool or warm a color is. For instance a cool color is blue and a warm is red. Artists can use temperature to give the illusion of distance. Cooler colors tend to recede into the distance, as in a distant mountain range, and warmer colors tend to advance closer toward the front of a picture. Color theory is a very broad topic, one that deserves more thorough attention. A great book on color theory and mixing is "Color Mixing the Van Wyk Way: A Manual for Oil Painters".

COMPOSITION

Have you ever visited an art museum and a particular painting just grabbed your attention and drew you in? Something in that painting kept you there looking and studying it. One element the artist successfully used in that painting was composition. The artist laid out the shapes and divided the space in the painting in such away that appealed to your senses. Here are some points to consider when developing your composition:

1) Avoid putting the main focus of interest in the center of your painting. 2) The areas of your canvas should be divided into parts of different sizes. For instance, if you are creating a landscape painting, do not put the horizon right in the center of your painting. 3) Do not place all the interesting parts of your composition on the left side of your painting. People read from left to right so they will have no reason to continue viewing the rest of your painting. 4) Avoid placing an interesting or important element of the painting too close to the edge of the canvas.

There are other elements that contribute to good design in an oil painting. Here is another good book to study if you would like to learn more about this fascinating aspect of painting: "The Simple Secret to Better Painting: How to Immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition by Greg Albert"
I know all this information seems overwhelming at first. Oil painting can be very challenging in the beginning, but don't let that intimidate you. The most important thing to remember is to never give up and keep painting. You will learn from your mistakes and grow as a painter. Everything will come together in time. Happy Painting!
By Ralph Serpe
Published: 4/5/2007

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The art of oil painting

Discover different methods to create oil paintings, directly from expert artists. Descriptions of the tools required to do oil painting and their importance.
In recent years many people like to have their own oil paintings. There are few companies in the market who offers 'a painting from photo' services. The whole process is done online when the customer sends his digital image directly to a studio who paints it. Once the artist finishes the painting, he will send it to the customer. A painting from photo is highly complicated it is one of the most difficult style of painting. An artist who paints according to a given photo should be highly skillful and must have a long experience in paintings. There is no other style that requires such high level of technique. Any mistake in the painting may cause the customer to reject the painting. If a customer sends a photo of his daughter, hoping to have an oil portrait of her, he expects that all his daughter's details will be capture carefully in the painting. If the artist makes a slight change in the facial details, it may change the whole appearance of the child. Therefore, the artist must have tools to help him to make the right proportions of the subject. When we talk about paintings from photos, we must remember that proportions are the basics to a successful painting. The artist has various tools that he can use in order to start a painting according to a given photo. If the artist doesn't use any tool and paints only according to his intuition, the painting will have a more artistic feeling but on the other hand it will be less accurate and may show the subject in the wrong proportions.

Listed below are some of the most popular tools an artist can use while making a portrait from a photo: Roller: a roller is a special tool designed for artists to enable them to draw the outer lines of the subject to the canvas according to the proportions in the original photo. This special roller is placed on the photo and on the canvas at the same time, when the artist moves the roller on the subject in the photo, it moves in bigger proportion on the canvas. The side of the roller that moves on the canvas has a pencil attached to it so when it moves, it draws lines on the canvas. This is an accurate tool, it is cheap and it is easy to use. Copy paper: some artists will print the photo on a paper which is in the same size as the canvas. They put a copy paper between the canvas and the printed image so when they move a pencil on the printed image, it is transferred lines of ink to the canvas. This is an accurate tool, it is relatively expensive but once you have the printed image it is fast to paint the proportions. Printed canvases: in the last few years a new technique has developed to help the artists to capture the fine details and colours in the painting. This new method is very simple, The artist prints the image directly on the canvas. After the photo the artist will paint over the print. The quality of the painting is related to the number of layer that the artist uses to cover the print. The print is a tool that shows the artist the correct proportions and colors of the original photo. however, if the artist use only one ore two layers to cover the print, the painting may lack the artistic feeling because it will be very similar to the photo. Another disadvantage of the print is that if there are not enough layers to cover it, the oil paints might fade or break after few years. The reason is that the ink layer doesn't have good reaction with the oil paint. The longevity of an oil painting is determined by the quality of the canvas, the oil paints, the print thickness and the numbers of layers. (which should be 3-4 layers for an oil painting). To solve the problem cause by the ink, there are new printers which produce prints based on watercolours. Projector: this tool is preferred by many artists. The artist puts inside a special projector which projects the photo directly on the canvas. The image is shown on the canvas in full colours and the artist uses a pencil to mark important details on the canvas. This method allows the artist to see and draw the correct proportions of the photo directly on the canvas. Discover the perfect gift for a wedding, anniversary or any other occasion.
By Assaf Kostiner

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