How do you start painting with oil paint, the techniques and brush strokes
I paint with oils one of two ways. The first is when I want a smooth painting, I paint like I was painting with acrylics. Lots of blending and smoothing. The second, when I want a lot of texture, I paint with a palette knife.
Just the same way you paint with acrylic or watercolours. But it doesn't wash off with water! So make sure you wear an apron or something and put newspaper on the table. And if you want to rinse off paint from the paintbrush, you need this liquid called turpentine. Also, IT DOESN'T WASH OFF YOU'RE HANDS! So if you get any off you're hands, wash it off with either turpentine or with soap. Water only smudges it, which I found out the hard way. Also, you don't paint on normal paper. You need to buy a canvas pad.
Organize the paints on the palette. Squeeze out a line of each color toward the edge of the palette. Use titanium white, ivory black, ultramarine blue, raw sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, burnt umber, raw umber, viridian, and pthalo green. This is a general portrait mix that varies among artists. Mix some basic values that you'll need in grays, browns, and flesh tones. To create a variety of flesh tones to work with, create values (dark, medium and light) of the following mixes: yellow ochre and white; raw sienna and white; raw sienna, cadmium red and white; cadmium red, white and a touch of raw sienna. Neutral tones can be mixed from raw umber and white as well as black and white. Pose and light the subject, if you're painting from life. If using a photograph, tape it to the wall or the top of your easel so you can see it clearly. Take a few moments to study your subject before you begin painting, mentally noting the proportions, coloring, and lighting. Paint the Subject Paint an underpainting first, which is just blocking in the dark, medium and light values on the canvas. Start with the dark values first. You can use acrylic paints for this, since they dry quickly and oil can be painted over them. If you use oils, don't add any linseed oil or other slow-drying ground at this stage. Start by painting the shapes of dark and light that you see when you squint at the subject, adding detail in later layers. Oil portraits are generally painted one layer at a time.
