On 28 May, 2013 With
Oil painting lessons and techniques: Materials It remains to speak of those tools which are not essentials, but conveniences, to painting. Even as conveniences, however, they are of importance enough to have an influence on your work. You can paint without them, but you will work more easily for the having of them; and something of the sort, although not necessarily of the same kind, you must have. You may improvise something, in other words, to take the place of these, but you would be wiser to get those which are made for the purpose. The Box.—First, the box for oil paints. You must keep your things together somehow, and it would be as well that you keep them in…
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On 1 Oct, 2012 With
Oil painting materials and techniques: PALETTES The most important qualities in a palette are that it should be large enough, and that it should balance well on the thumb. Whether it is round or square is a slight matter. The oval palette is usually best for the studio because the corners are seldom of use, and add weight. But for sketching, the square palette fits the box best. Get a palette much larger than you think you want. When you get it on your thumb the mixing-surface is much less than there seemed to be before it was set, for all the actual surface is between the row of colors and the thumb. If the palette…
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On 30 Sep, 2012 With
Portrait and Figure Palette White. Cadmium. Chinese Vermilion. Orange Cadmium. Light Red. Yellow Ochre. Rose Madder. Transparent Gold Ochre. Raw Umber. Cobalt. Blue Black. Terre Verte. PREVIOUS PART NEXT PART
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On 29 Sep, 2012 With
Oil painting materials Oil Paints Oil paint is a mix of a powdered pigment bounded with a medium of drying oil. Linseed oil is commonly used as a carrier in oil paint. Oil paints can be mixed with linseed oil as a medium to make paints more fluid; this medium also increases glossiness and makes paint more transparent. Linseed oil comes as cold pressed, alkali refined, sun bleached, sun thickened, and polymerised (stand oil). Traditionally, the old masters used to prepare oil paints themselves. Today, ready-made oil paints available in tubes from any art supply shop. It is possible to paint with oils without diluting them with solvents, by using brush pressure to spread the paint out thinly. In…
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On 22 Sep, 2012 With
Oil painting techniques Introduction Welcome to the Web Art Academy Club! We are fine art teachers Natalie Richy and Vladimir London, and have created the Web Art Academy for fine art students who want to learn traditional oil painting and drawing techniques. The fine art video lessons presented in the Club are valuable for both beginning and advanced students. If you have just recently started your fine art education, this course would be very helpful to obtain a good understanding of oil painting methods. If you already have knowledge and experience in painting, this course would still provide many advanced know-how strategies you could use to improve your painting techniques. You will discover what oil painting…
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On 3 Sep, 2012 With
Oil painting essential materials and techniques: Grinding Pigments Grinding.—The color which the artist uses must be most evenly and perfectly ground. The grinding which will do for ordinary house paints will not do for the artist’s colors. Neither will the chemical processes suitable for the one serve for the other. Not only must the machinery, but the experience, skill and care, be much greater for artist’s colors. Therefore it is that the specialization of color-making is most important to good colors for the use of the artist. Reliable Makers.—If you would work to the best advantage as far as your colors are concerned, both as to getting the best effects which pure pigments skilfully and honestly prepared will give you,…
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On 31 Aug, 2012 With
Oil painting essential materials and techniques: Good Paints and Pigments Good Paints.—The three things on which the quality of good paint depends are good pigment, good vehicles, and good preparation. The pigments used are of mineral, chemical, and vegetable origin. The term pigment technically means the powdered substance which, when mixed with a vehicle, as oil, becomes oil paint. The most important pigments now used are artificial products, chiefly chemical compounds, including chemical preparations of natural mineral earths. As a rule, the colors made from earths may be classed as all permanent; those from chemicals, permanent or not, as the case may be; and those of vegetable origin fugitive, with few exceptions. Some colors are good when used as water colors, and bad…
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On 28 Aug, 2012 With
Oil painting essential materials and techniques: PAINTS Of all your materials, it is on your paints that quality has the most vital effect. With bad paint your work is hopeless. You may get an effect that looks all right, but how long will it stand, and how much better may it not have been if your colors had been good? You can tell nothing about it. You may have luck, and your work hold; or you may not have luck, and in a month your picture is ruined. Don’t trust to luck. Keep that element out as much as you can, always. But in the matter of paints, if you count on luck at all, remember that the chances are…
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On 25 Aug, 2012 With
Oil painting essential materials and techniques: Care of Brushes Care of Brushes.—The best of economy in brushes lies in your care of them. You should never let the paint dry on them nor go too long without careful washing. It is not necessary to wash them every day with soap and water, but they would be the better for such treatment. Quite often, once a week, say, you should wash your brushes carefully with soap and water. You may use warm water, but don’t have it hot, as that may melt the glue which holds the bristles together in the ferrule. Use strong soap with plenty of lye in it—common bar soap, or better, the old-fashioned soft soap. Hold several…
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On 22 Aug, 2012 With
Oil painting essential materials: Selection of BRUSHES Selection.—Never buy a brush without testing its evenness, as has been advised in the care of sables. Feel carefully the end of the bristles also, and see that the “flag” is there. All brushes are kept together for packing by paste in the bristles. See that this is soaked off before you test your brush. Round or Flat.—It will make little difference whether you use round or flat brushes. The flat brush is most commonly preferred now, and most brushes are made that way. So you had better get that kind, unless you have some special reason for preferring the round ones. Handles.—Whether the handles are nicely polished, also, is of no importance….
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