Oil painting seems complicated. Many people don’t start this particular hobby for that reason alone. Instead, they work with acrylics, which are water soluble. However, nothing compares to a beautiful oil painting filled with layered, textured paint. If you’ve decided to take the plunge and test out oil painting, here are ten tips from Oil Paintings Gallery.
1) Hold Your Brush So That It Moves In A Fluid Manner
While you can hold your brush in many different ways in order to get different amounts of paint on the canvas, ideally, you should hold it at the very end of the handle. This forces you to place the paint on the canvas in a very fluid motion.
2) Use Every Angle Of The Brush
Most paintbrushes have different sides to them. Each side creates a different paint effect. Make sure to use them all in order to create a painting with varied strokes.
3) Apply the Paint With Different Textures
Oil painters have the unique ability to create different textures with various brushes and tools. Take advantage of this by using as many tools as possible.
4) Don’t Forget About the Painting Medium
The painting medium is quite useful and can always be applied to the canvas in order to add some dimension.
5) Stop Contaminating Your Colors
The best thing about oil painting is the ability to create your own colors. Feel free to do this. What we’re talking about here with contamination is the practice of dipping your brush in one color, not cleaning it all off, and then using another color on that same brush. This isn’t mixing; it will create a muddled mess.
6) Mix Two Colors As Often As Possible
The results of this are quite vibrant and will stand out on the canvas. Never stick with one single color when you can make something much prettier.
7) Never Over-Mix Your Paint
It’s possible to over-mix paint. Yes, you do want to combine several colors to make one of your own, but you don’t want to mix them to the point of destroying that final texture. These textures are what will make your painting unique.
8) Too Little Paint Is Usually A Bad Thing
Never sell your vision short. Instead, use as much paint as possible in order to make your vision come to life. If you use too little paint, your final results will suffer.
9) Use A Wet On Wet Effect
Most artists stick with the dry brushing technique and neglect to include this one in their repertoire. A wet on wet effect can add quite a bit of dimension to a painting, further helping the image “pop” off of the canvas.
10) Take Advantage Of The Palette Knife
Every good artist, especially the ones at an Oil Paintings Gallery, have a palette knife that they use in order to lay thick streaks of paint on the canvas. By taking advantage of this useful tool, they’re able to create some very interesting works of art.
