Oil Painting Tips and Techniques: List of Topics and Links

When I was an art student in college and first learning to tackle oil paints, I felt frustrated by both the lack of specific information my professors were giving me, and by my own lack of knowledge in order to ask them the right questions. And so to the internet I went! However, even that was frustrating. Most of the time I didn't know the right question to ask, and the answers I did find were usually strewn over multiple sites.

And so, in order to help you avoid the same time-consuming, frustrating searches, below is a list of topics, organized into primary subjects, so that both you and I may have the information we need all in one place. If you have a topic that you would like me to cover and that isn't listed below, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

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Side Note: As I write each post, I will be linking each topic back to this page. If it is not highlighted in blue, a post has not been written yet.

About Oil Paint

• A Beginner's Color Palette: Part 1, Limited vs Semi-Limited Color Palette

• A Beginner's Color Palette: Part 2, A Semi-Limited Color Palette

• Oil Painting Basics: Understanding a Paint's Opacity, Temperature, and Tinting Strength

• Oil Painting Basics: Understanding an Oil Paint's Label

• Oil Painting Basics: What is Best Oil Paint Brand?

• Are Oil Paints Toxic? Yep

• Oil Painting Basics: Student vs Professional Grade Paints

Paint Colors 

• Characteristics of an Oil Paint: A Guideline to Purchasing the Perfect Paint Every Time

• Which White should I Use: Lead, Zinc, Titanium, etc?

• Which Black should I Use: Lamp, Mars, Ivory, Payne's? Or No Black at All?

• Yellow Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Yellow

• Orange Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Orange

• Red Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Red

• Purple Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Purple 

• Vantablack: Can an Artist really own a Color?

Mediums 

• Oil Painting Basics, Mediums Part 1: What is an Oil Painting Medium, How are they Used, and Which is the Best Medium?

• Oil Painting Basics, Mediums Part 2: What are Historical Oil Mediums, How to use Them, and Which are the Safest Mediums to Use?

• How to Keep Oil Pain Solvent Odors to a Minimum while Painting 

• How to Avoid and Fix a Yellowing Painting

Brushes 

• Types of Brushes: Hog Bristle, Sable, Synthetic, etc.  

• Brush Brands and What to Purchase: Level 1, 2, 3, what?

• Saving your Paint Brushes: How to Remove Old Dried Paint and Reshape your Brushes

• Going Green: Cleaning paint brushes without Turpenoid

• Cleaning your Brushes with Turpenoid 

• Decanting: How to make your cleaning Oil or Turpeniod stretch 

Painting Supports/Palettes 

• Types of Palettes: Wood, Glass, or Paper

• Color Palettes: How to Make your Own Glass Palette

• Color Palettes: How to Organize your Paint 

• Types of Supports: Board, Canvas, or Paper and How to Make Them 

Painting Methods 

• Three Oil Painting Rules: Fat over Lean, Thick over Thin, and Slow over Fast Drying 

• Direct vs Indirect vs Combination Painting: Differences, Terms, and Artists

• Colored Grounds / Imprimatura: What is it, What colors to Use, and Who Used Them

• Indirect Painting: The Flemish Technique or Classical Approach

• Indirect: Underdrawing

• Indirect: Underpainting and Dead Color

• Indirect: Overpainting

• Indirect: Glazing, true glazing vs color correcting

• How to Correct Dull, Sunken Colors: Oiling Out Vs Creating a Couch

• Direct Painting: Alla Prima vs Wet-on-Wet vs En Plein Air

• Direct: Impasto Painting

• Direct Painting: 10 Simple Guidelines to Colorful and Clean Paintings

• Tonking: How to Smooth Paint Strokes or Paint Thickness without Disturbing the Paint

• How and When to Varnish

• How to paint Convincing Shadows: painting the colors that you can't see 

• How to Avoid Mixing Muddy Colors

• Flesh Tones: Warm and Cool

• What you need in order to copy an Old Master or Modern Work

Color Theory 

• Hue vs  Color vs Tint vs Shade: What they are and How to make them

A small caveat: There are differing opinions all over the internet about each of these topics. The opinion I am putting forth is my own, but only after extensive research. I normally only decide what to write on a topic after I have found two or three agreeing opinions that stand out from all of the differing ones and I will be citing them when possible.

An addendum: Several of these posts originally appeared on my old blog, phin42.blogspot.com. The posts that appear here are updated and/or completely rewritten.

#arttips #arttipsandtechniques #howtopaint #oilpaint #katherinegriffinstudio