Learning Oil Painting and Painting Tips

I was very excited when starting out with the course and my excitement is still going. It was great how the instructor started out by answering my own personal questions that I was so nervous about asking my friends in the very first painting lesson. Gayle showed *me* (at least that is how it felt) the best way to set up a painting room and still life display. Although my room isn't quite big enough due to its smaller size ( I rent a tiny townhouse), I was able to rearrange my furniture to make it as close as possible.
She then when on to answer my doubts about the best way to clean up oil and acrylic paint, store left over paint, and how to mix paint for different consistencies.
Wow, I thought, this is one amazing course!

Visit my visual art blog at http://blog.visualartgifts.com and my visual art website at http://www.visualartgifts.com

Even taking the course out of the shipping box was an amazing experience. It has its own binder with plastic sleeves for all the DVDs and painting music. The is also a large pocket for holding the lesson book. The lesson book for Learn and Master Painting is great because it is a quick way to see what will be covered in the videos as well as showing the important tips for the lessons (with photos) and a list of needed supplies for the lesson.

Painting can be an expensive activity so if you are planning to sell your paintings or donate them, consider saving your art supply receipts in a folder or in your Learn and Master Painting Course binder. Later you'll have a better idea of how much each work cost in materials for calculating your minimum sale price.

I love painting trees since I live in a megacity. Here I can't get good photos of trees so painting them is the only good option. Three of my tree paintings, winter free branches study, Christmas tree in forest, and the autumn foliage tree were part of specific lessons in the Learn and Master Painting Course (see link in the page introduction for more info)
I'm not an expert painter, I am learning to paint with the course. Before I only did photography, photo manipulations, and digital abstract art. I still prefer doing those kinds of art, but painting is also great fun.



I've also linked to some digital tree paintings below.

This may not be true where you live, but I've discovered that imported oil and acrylic paint is typically 2-3 times more expensive than national and local brands. Save money by buying quality local paint instead of more famous imports.
Most of my paint colors can be found as paint manufactured here in Mexico City. I only buy an imported brand when a color I need is not available locally. This means I can get more colors and larger tubes than if I bought imported paint. This is also important if I later decide to sell my originals. I won't have to charge as much!

While a traditional wooden board is great for a palette for oil paint, acrylic paint will dry even faster on those and you won't have any time to clean up before it is dry. In fact acrylic paint dries so fast, sometimes it is dry before I can get it on the support!
So instead of worrying or buying disposable palettes, save your fast food trays from delivery or when you eat out as your own disposable acrylic palettes.
Similarly, many prepared food at the supermarket is also sold on trays, just be sure to wash them and let them air dry before you use them as palettes!

Here are links to a few of my digital paintings where I am experimenting with painting using a digital drawing tablet. In some ways it is more difficult and in others it is easier. Digital painting is easier in that you can get the color you want without running to the store or wasting paint mixing colors until you get the right tone. It is harder in that you can't adjust the "quantity" of paint that goes on the virtual brush.


The Orange Chair by Christopher Johnson

You need several items to get started with oil painting or acrylic painting. Here's a basic list to get started.
1. An easel - I recommend a studio easel or a desktop easel if you are short of cash.
2. Brushes - Brushes can be flat, round, or tongue shaped. I suggest getting 3 different sizes of each.
3. Paint - Get extra white and burnt Sienna (dark gray-brown). Get at least two shades of green, red, blue, yellow and get a purple/violet and an orange. Most other colors can easily be mixed from those.
4. Rags - Rags are great for wiping oil paint off of brushes
5. Solvent or baby oil to clean oil paint from brushes
6. Palette - Some easels come with a wooden palette which is fine for oil painting. If not, get one.
7. Gesso - Gesso is used to prepare a canvas or panels for painting. This is very important for oil painting, but not urgent for acrylic paint.
8. Medium gel - Medium gel can be mixed with oil paint to get different thickness.
9. A small jar for holding water for placing brushes used with acrylic paint so they don't dry out while you work. Another jar could be used for holding solvent for brushes used with oil paint.

While digital paintings using a tablet don't require any drying time at all, acrylic and oil paintings require different time to dry.
If you are in a hurry, it is best to paint with acrylic paints. Acrylic paint dries in just minutes. That is really two fast and you'll find your paint will dry before it is on the canvas at times, but it will also be ready to sell the same day if you have an urgent commission.
If you prefer to paint with oil paints you must be aware that it will take at least a day for oil paintings to dry to touch and up to several weeks for an oil painting to completely dry depending on how thick the paint is and if thinner was used. It is a good idea to have an extra easel so you can paint more than one painting at a time.
Don't apply heat to an oil paining. That is dangerous because there is a risk of fire. Just put the oil painting in a well ventilated and NOT dark place for a week or two before putting it on display for sale. Oil paintings kept in the dark like a closet seem to start to yellow.