The most basic collection of oil paints should include the following colors: cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, titanium white, and mars black. You can use a combination of all of these colors to make any hue on the color wheel. (eg. yellow and red to make orange)[2] X Research source You will find that you likely will run out of white paint the fastest, so buy a large tube of this while purchasing small or medium tubes of paint for the others. Avoid buying “student sets” of paint, as these will seem like a good deal, but offer the poorest quality supplies. Also avoid buying sets of paint that come with paint brushes, as the brushes will likely be of poor quality as well.
Choose a few basic paintbrushes of a high quality material. You don’t need many brushes to start out, but get a few of each kind. Start with differing sizes of round, flat, and bristle brushes. Synthetic brushes are made of a very soft, fine bristle while natural hair brushes are a bit rougher. Use both for different painting techniques. You will also need a palette knife for blending paints, a painting palette, canvas boards or stretched canvas, and some old rags and jars for cleaning your brushes. Oil paint is very thick directly out of the tube, and must be made thinner for the first layers using white spirits or turpentine, and a blending medium such as linseed oil or poppy oil for later layers. The rule is ‘Thick on thin’, and this prevents later cracking or separation of layers. [4] X Research source Optional supplies include an easel or drafting desk, an apron, a drop cloth, and a specialized box for carrying all your supplies. [5] X Research source
Oil paint can give off fumes, so make sure that your area is well ventilated with an open window or door. [6] X Research source If you are using an easel, adjust it to the correct standing or sitting position and angle. Make sure that it is sitting in such a way to make painting comfortable for you, not difficult. Put on old paint clothes to protect your nice clothes and skin. Oil paint is notorious for being exceedingly difficult to clean off, so make sure that you take precautions to avoid coming into contact with it. If you have long hair, pull it up into a ponytail or bun to make sure that it does not fall in the paint. Remove any rings or bracelets that you might be wearing.
Composition is the placement of items on the canvas. Choose the best placement so that the eye is drawn around the entirety of the canvas, rather than left to linger on a single spot. Negative space is the space around an object. If you are using an item in real life and are drawing it onto your canvas, draw difficult areas by looking at the space around the figure rather than at the figure itself. Consider what you will fill the negative space with once you start the painting in order to make your subject pop. Make note of overlapping figures, as these add depth to your composition. If your subject doesn’t have any overlapping shapes, consider rearranging until you do. This will add realism to your painting.
All light sources cast shadows, but if they are directly above the subject it can be difficult to see them. Try moving your light or your subject so that the shadows and highlights are more obvious. You may not have incredibly dark shadows or incredibly bright highlights. In fact, you likely will have a range of values that are all very near each other. Don’t be concerned if your light source isn’t creating a strong definition of shadows and highlights.
A painting set at night will be darker and richer than one during the day, which is most likely brighter. Check the color of the light source; on a bright sunny day, your subject will have a golden glow. On a gray day, the light is diffused through the clouds giving your subject a gray tint. You may also have actual colored lights - such as neon signs or tinted light bulbs - that affect the colors of your subject.
Use a color wheel to help you find colors to mix. The color wheel shows primary, secondary, and tertiary colors and how to make them. Pure hues are colors that have not been mixed with either white or black. You can mix the primary colors to create the secondary colors. To create a tint, add white to your paint. This will lighten it and make a more pastel color. To make a shade, add black to any paint color. To make a tone, add white to a shade (any color with black added). Tones are the most widely used, as they represent most of the everyday colors we see.
Try painting basic subjects. All figures are made up out of a few basic shapes: the cube, cone, cylinder, and ring. Paint these in the form of real subjects, such as a box or orange, or paint a flat form of each. To thin your paint, use a blending medium (linseed oil or terpentine) mixed with your paint. Don’t use too much to start, but gradually add more until you get the consistency you want. It takes three days for a layer of paint to dry enough to add a second layer to the top, so be patient while you wait for your paint to dry.
Try blending your paints. This is the process by which you slowly fade two or more different colors (think of a sunset). To do this, add layers of paint so that they are directly adjacent to each other on the canvas. Then, use flat brush to smooth the paints together, working with the direction of the blend. Try creating a glaze. This is when you use a solution of 1/3 linseed oil,1/3 terpentine, and 1/3 varnish to create a transparent color. You can use this mixed with any paint color to create a see-through hue over dried paint. [9] X Research source Use stippling to create small dots. Use a natural bristle brush (dry often works best), and tap it vertically against your canvas. You can build up these dots to create a more opaque figure. Try using a palette knife to paint. This technique is great for landscapes and creating movement on your canvas. Scoop up a bit of paint on the bottom edge of the knife, and sweep it across the canvas to create thick layers of paint.
Sometimes it is possible speed up the drying process for oil paints by storing the painting in a well lit, dry and warm room. Choosing paints that have a faster drying time can also assist in speeding up the drying time.
