• Business and Finance
• Family
• Computers and Internet
• Auto and Trucks
• Education
• Health
• Hobbies
• Home Improvement
• Legal
• Marketing

• Home
• Arthur's Articles Home
• Browse Categories
• Browse Authors
• Submit an Article
• Search for Articles

Home » Hobbies Articles » Oil Painting Tips For Beginners

Oil Painting Tips For Beginners

Start your oil paintings with an acrylic underpainting - When you start an oil painting using oils, it can take some time for that initial layer to dry. Starting your painting with an acrylic underpainting however is a wonderful time saver as acrylic paint dries quickly and oil paint can be applied over the acrylic.

Make certain you have good lighting - I didn't realize how important good lighting was until I painted outdoors for the first time. Good lighting brings out the color and also lessens the strain on your eyes. If you can, paint in a place that gets plenty of natural sunlight. If you cannot afford this luxury, purchase a good indoor light. Check out http://www.ottlite.com/ for a great selection of lighting products.

Make sure you have good ventilation - If you are using materials like oil painting thinners and cleaners in your studio; make sure you have good ventilation. Some of these chemicals can be quite toxic so use caution when working with these products. Consider using a water miscible paint like Grumbacher Max Oil Paints. Max Oils can be diluted with water thereby eliminating the need for solvents.

Fat over lean - Follow this rule and you will reduce the chance of your paint cracking. Each layer of your oil painting should have a higher oil content then the ones below it.

To create the illusion of distance in your paintings paint receding objects with cooler less intense color. Objects that advance are warmer and more intense.

If you are feeling uninspired don't get discouraged. Try taking a walk outside, breath in the air, look around at the beautiful earth God created. Try playing music while you are painting. You will be surprised how music can affect your painting. Visit a museum or local gallery. Viewing other works of art can really get your creative juices flowing.

When holding your brush avoid holding your brush like a pencil too close to the bristles. Oil brushes are made long for a reason so that you can paint further away from the canvas. Practice holding the brush toward the middle and end of the handle.

Maintain a clean organized working environment - Get yourself into the habit of keeping your work area clean and organized. Have an abundant supply of rags or paper towels nearby. Get a few glass jars for storing mediums, solvents and your used brushes while painting.

Brush Selection and Care - You should probably invest in a good set of brushes. Cheap brushes are not recommended as they shed their bristles quite easily while painting. I prefer working with Hog Hair brushes, but oil painters also use sable and synthetic sable. Avoid nylon brushes, as these are better suited for acrylic paint. My brushes include a variety of flats sizes #3, #6, #8, #12, a #4 fan, and a few small rounds for detail work. Selections vary from artist to artist, depending on painting style usually, but the above mentioned work fine for me. Take excellent care of your brushes. This is very important, especially if you have an expensive set of brushes. You may want to do a search online for more in depth brush care instructions. If you do not clean and store your brushes properly, you will ruin them, simple as that. Use a quality brush cleaner and preserver that you can purchase online or at your local art store.

I hope these oil painting tips have helped. Oil paint is not the easiest medium to work with. I recall the first panting I ever completed. It was a complete nightmare, and I almost threw in the towel. I have been painting for over 5 years now and I am still learning and improving every time I pick up the brush. Don't give up. With time and practice it will become easier and more rewarding.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Increase Profits With a Small Investment of Time and No Money

The less a business pays for goods and services the more profit that business generates. How does a small business with limited purchasing power get access to lower cost goods and services? The answer is simple. Pool the purchasing power of many small businesses to increase the purchasing power of each individual business. The implementation of forming a buying group can take lots of time, money and resources. Most small business owners have little of these buying group ingredients.

The concept of many small to mid-size businesses joining together to form buying groups has been around for a very long time. The implementation of the concept has only been available for a few years. Just about all of the national buying groups that have started operations in the past five years are no longer in business. I will tell you why many of these buying groups were not successful later in the article. Some of the few surviving buying groups have formed an alliance that offers their members access to greatly discounted pricing with a total of 37 national vendors. The Hospitality Buying Group was the first national buying group to offer a FREE lifetime membership to any business in any industry. This group recently started the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance which offers free lifetime memberships to all the national buying groups in the alliance. The only investment the business members make is the time to compare the prices of the alliance vendors against what they are currently paying.

By now you are thinking that all of this sounds too good to be true. If the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance gives away lifetime memberships then how do they make any money? If the members are not a revenue stream then the only other revenue source must be the vendors. The vendors pay the buying groups commissions on all purchases made by their members. There is no risk for the vendors because they only pay the commission after they have been paid by the buying group members. The commissions are very low so the maximum discounts can be offered to the business members.

Some credit card companies, like American Express, offers a small savings or a percent cash back reward to their customers for using vendors in their network. While saving 2 â€" 5 percent with credit cards is good, a 10 â€" 50 percent savings with buying groups is much better. Buying group members will only be contacted by the alliance vendors they select. As the buying groups get more established more vendors are interested in offering their services to group members.

If the concept of the buying group is so good then why do most buying groups fail? Most of the failed buying groups spent a few hundred thousand to over a million dollars just to get the buying group started. To make matters worse they have large operational expenses. This is going on at the beginning of the buying group's existence while the group has few vendors to offer potential members. To keep the group functioning they need to charge members $500.00 - $10,000.00 annually to join the group. With few vendors the members can only expect to save a few thousand dollars annually. Many small business owners are not willing to take the risk of purchasing a membership in a buying group that may not generate significant savings. This results in few buying group memberships sold. The buying group can't pay their operational expenses resulting in reducing the sales force. This results in decreased revenues and finally the buying group ceases to exist.

The successful national buying groups that make up the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance were all started with an initial investment of just a few thousand dollars and thousands of labor hours by just one or two individuals. Their operational expenses in the beginning were just a few hundred dollars a month plus lots of labor hours by the owners. As the buying groups grew the revenues were reinvested back into the buying group. The use of technology reduces the operational cost of the buying group. This approach results in a successful buying group with a positive cash flow. This information should put potential members at ease because they know the buying group will be around for a long time.

This is a very special time in the history of buying groups because this is the first time an alliance of buying groups has ever been formed. With the free lifetime membership, total freedom to select one or many alliance vendors and a growing alliance of buying groups makes this the best time to participate in the buying group alliance. You can which national vendors the Hospitality Buying Group Alliance offers by going to: http://www.hospitality-buying-group.com/.