Welcome to the third installment of The Great Tutorial Adventure, where in this News feature, I'll be covering the topic of oil painting.

Oil painting has been around for centuries, and it is what the great masters used to create their magnificent works of art. Oil painting is still in wide use today.

Oil painting can be intimidating to someone who has never used the medium before. It requires patience and good decision-making in order to create successful paintings. Oil paints dry very slowly on their own, though there are different mediums the painter can add to make the paint dry more quickly. For that reason, they can blend into each other much more effectively, but it also means that the painter must consider what he or she is painting over, and whether the paint is dry or not. Otherwise, he or she is likely to make "mud": a blend of colours that creates a mucky brownish-green.

Oil paints do not wash off in water; rather, solvent is required for washing brushes and thinning paints and mediums. Even mild solvents, such as Gamblin's Gamsol, have fumes, and for that reason it is important to have lots of ventilation when painting. Oil paints also have a tendency to yellow slightly over time after they have dried. Some mediums will increase the yellowing effect, so it is important to understand what different mediums do to the paints. It is also important to apply gesso primer to the surface that is to be painted, otherwise the paints will start to degrade the material of the canvas, linen, or panel.

MATERIALS


WALKTHROUGHS


HELPFUL LINKS
RealColorWheel.com
Martin Ridley Oil Painting Tutorial
Jess Bates Oil Resource

Be on the lookout for more Great Tutorial Adventure articles!
Happy Painting!

Vol. 1: Watercolours
Vol. 2: Acrylics