Painting Tips
I am not going to presume to tell anyone how to
paint. I am truly a beginner in painting mediums, and I can see a lifetime
of learning before me. So I am just going to share a few tips I have
learned so far:
Get a teacher! The best you can get. In
fact learn from different teachers, because it will help you find your own
style. But there is a mountain of science behind color, light, visual
perception and the way the paints perform which I think even a natural
genius would need to study before beginning to paint skillfully.
Unless you are rich, start with student grade
paints. You need every color in the rainbow, but not every color on
the shelf. If you are starting out on your own, invest in a color
mixing guide which will help you select a good foundation of perhaps a dozen
colors. Learning to mix your own colors is an important early step.
At least with oils, you almost never use black.
It is a "dead" color (this according to my instructors, I don't
grasp the reasons, to be honest). Instead of using black, mix umber
and a deep blue to create a rich color which passes for black.
You do not need turpentine, linseed oil or other mixing
mediums. You can paint with straight paint, or thin it as desired.
Buy the best brushes you can afford. This appears
to be particularly true with watercolor brushes. Flat brushes seem
best for oils, I like "brights', which have shorter bristles.
Paint with large brushes. Sizes #6 and 8 are recommended, though I'm
dependent on my #4s.
One very important tip I learned from one of my
teachers is that, contrary to popular belief, you do not need to clean oil
paint from your brushes using harsh chemicals. Squirt a little
Palmolive dish soap into the palm of your hand and swirl the brush in
it. Rinse the brush and your hand, repeat three or four times till the
brush is clean. With just a touch of soap, shape the tip of the brush
and set it to dry. Your brushes will last much longer and get just as
clean.
When I am painting, I keep a couple of brushes set
aside for whites, so I don't have to spend time in the middle of of a
painting session cleaning dark colors from my brush so I can switch to
light.
Buy an oils palette that fits in your freezer.
Between paint sessions, cover your paints with plastic wrap. pressing it
down over each little mound of paint and put it in the freezer. Oils
will last months this way.
Watercolors may be allowed to dry in your palette and
then rehydrated when you are ready to paint again.
"Tooth" is the roughness of your paint
surface. The more tooth, the easier it is to get paint off your brush
and onto the surface. A very heavy tooth may have so much texture that
you get skips in your paint coverage. Texture and thickness of your
paint surface are important in watercolors. Watercolor pads are good
for beginners.
Whether you use a stretched canvas or a canvas board is
purely personal choice. Masonite is a popular surface for a lot of
pros, but it has no "tooth", and requires some skill to work
on. Try to use larger canvases when starting out, 16x20 is good.
Easels are well worth the cost, and simple wooden ones
can be had cheaply. Not only are they invaluable while you are
painting, they are a great place to keep the wet piece between
sessions. If you are short on space, put a hanging hook or loop on the
easel and hang the entire thing on a wall out of the way.
The most important element of any painting is your
drawing. Spend as much time and effort as necessary to create a great
drawing. If you can draw with paint, that's the best choice. If
you draw with pencil or chalk or transfer the image with carbon, you'll need
to "set" it before you begin painting with oils. Make a thin
mixture of paint (umber is good for this) and turpentine. Using a
detail (small) brush, paint over all the lines on the canvas. Make
sure you cover everything, as the graphite or chalk can smear your
oils. Avoid going back and forth over the lines, it can dislodge the
graphite and let it rise to the surface of the paint. If this happens,
you will need to repeat this on those spots. You should include
shading at this point. You will end up with a sort of sepia toned
version of your finished painting. This is called an "under
painting". Allow to dry, it should take only a day or two.
Now you are ready to begin painting, and that's about
as far as I can take you. Good luck!
