Basic Oil Painting Materials For Beginners and Purchasing Tips

By Michael Orlando

Deciding to practice the art of oil painting was a great one, but now you’re faced with what you need to buy in order to get started. Oil painting materials can be very expensive and a vast majority of materials to choose from. This materials list will carry you long into your early years of painting and is budget conscious.

Choosing a good easel can be difficult. But the most important characteristic is that it is STURDY! When I got started oil painting, I did not have the money to buy the kind of easel I needed. So I went to the local home fix it store and bought an 8 by 4 sheet of ¾ inch plywood for about $15.00. I put it up against a wall in my basement and put some support screws at the top of the board and into the ceiling joist and instant easel! The reason why it works so perfectly is that it’s big, so you can put up any size canvas, and it does not get much sturdier than that!

You also never had to adjust anything, because you put the canvas where you want it. This brings me to the next important note though. I staple gun my canvas to the easel flat and stretch them after the painting is done. That’s another reason why the sheet of plywood worked so well. I have used it for years and years and painted many paintings on it, so I have gotten my $15.00 out of it.

But I do also have a portable easel that I spent about $180.00 on. I use that for when I paint upstairs or outside etc. The next things are white bristle brushes (get a variety of them) some sable brushes (get a variety). I would suggest getting REAL animal hair brushes, no synthetics. The real animal hair brushes are the best, they handle the pigments better, and it’s more natural. I had a bunch of synthetic brushes early on and I got rid of all of them, garbage in my opinion. One of the most valuable things I have near my brushes is REAL cotton Qtips. They are way better than some of my good brushes. You can create very subtle strokes with those and soften edges. Get a box of 500. Once you start using them, you will go through them fast! But get some wire cutters and cut them in half. It’s tedious, but trust me, if you don’t do it, you will waste more of them and start getting paint all over the place. You will be glad you did this, and don’t forget some kind of jar or tin to put them in.

This may be preference, but I would suggest getting disposable palettes. They are pads of wax coated paper. When you use one up, tear it off and your ready to go. I also suggest getting two of them. One is for putting your colors down, and the other one is used for mixing only. Trust me, your going save a lot of paint and disposable palettes this way.

There are a variety of oils you can mix with your pigments and you should experiment, but start with COLD PRESSED Linseed oil. In brief, it’s extracted from trees differently and is a great general purpose oil. I use it all the time and that’s all I use. You will need a palette knife to mix the oils and resins into your pigments. An alkyd resin will be needed in order to speed up the drying times of some pigments. There are a variety of brands but just ask for one that is for general purpose until you know which ones you want.

Paint thinner or mineral spirits are essential, but be sure to get a type that is not too smelly or strong; it’s not good to breathe it. You will also need a brush washer to put the paint thinner in and wash your brushes. Get some rags for messes and cleanups.

There is a large selection of pigments to choose from, but the first consideration is making sure you buy pure pigments/colors. Brick red is not a real pigment. Here’s a list of the pigments you need to get started and will carry you well into your early years of painting. Titanium white, raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, burnt sienna, ivory black, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, cadmium green cadmium orange, chromium oxide green, cobalt blue, viridian, dioxazine violet, French ultramarine blue, paynes grey, charcoal grey, yellow ochre, sap green, pliers to untwist stuck paint caps, and toilet paper to wipe your palette knife, and those little artist cups with caps so you can put your linseed oil and alkyd resin in.

If you’re using your own prepared canvas, you will also need blue masking tape and a square so you can draw out the size of the painting you’re making and mark it with the tape. Get a color wheel. They are a huge help until you start to know what certain mixes will do etc. It’s important to have a good artist soap to wash your hands because you never want to get any artist materials near your mouth and eyes etc.

You will also need some plain ivory bar soap for washing your brushes. An important item is a metal trash can that can be made air tight. This is where you will put all your oil painting trash! Curing resins, oils, pigments and thinners are all very flammable and given the right conditions, they can spontaneously combust! But in a metal garbage can that’s air tight, you have nothing to worry about.

Lastly is the canvas. You can get canvas boards, stretched canvas etc. The canvas boards are good to practice on, but I also suggest preparing your own canvas and buying it unprimed. I have another article out about this and I will have a “how to” video about it on ustream. But you can also buy the pre-stretched canvas. You can just start painting on them, but they are way overpriced.

This list should get you oil painting immediately and carry you well into your early years of painting.

Michael Orlando is a veteran motion picture visual effects artist, and most recently has been concentrating on his oil painting career and building his art business. His original fine art oil painting can be seen at http://www.etsy.com/shop/orlandoart.

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