Here is a wonderful 5 part oil painting video tutorial by Artist William Gelvin that teaches how to paint what you see.  This is a long video series, but well worth it.  You will need about an hour of free time to watch this series.

There are times when a beginner will  paint what he thinks he knows about a particular subject and not what is right before his eyes.

Now, this is not to say that you should always paint what you see exactly. Sometimes it is more important to paint what you know, especially if your eyes are not trained to see color and value correctly, as in a portrait for instance.

In this oil painting lesson for beginners, William uses a subject that he has never painted before: a shiny gold watch.

Shiny metal objects are probably one of the most difficult things for beginners to paint.  That is because a beginner is not observing the watch correctly. William teaches you how to observe the watch differently, to break it down into a bunch of small shapes, which makes painting it much easier.  Learn more by watching the videos below. Enjoy!

A really big thanks to William Gelvin for sharing these videos.  To learn more about William and to view more of his excellent video demonstrations and tutorials, follow this link to visit his YouTube Page.

Paint what you see! part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyTuZ7Jg-Hc

Paint what you see! part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18DjDAPZHfQ

Paint what you see! part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W12s0LavbSA

Paint what you see! part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkIPNpVesI0

Paint what you see! part 5

About Barbara

Barbara A. King is a self-taught artist. Born in Irvington, New Jersey. Barbara took to art as soon as she was able to hold a crayon. Throughout her childhood, Barbara developed an appreciation for her majestic surroundings. She would often sit in tress for hours with pencil and pad, or sit in a meadow with a canvas. Years of artistic expression made it clear that Barbara’s life would be centered upon her passion for art.

To learn more about Barbara and to view her work, please visit her website by clicking here.

Oil Painting Demonstration – Peacock Feathers

Materials Used for this Painting

My Palette of Colors

Acrylic Yellow Lemon

Dioxazine Purple

Cobalt Blue

Indigo

Cobalt Turquoise

Raw sienna

Perlene Red

Thalo Yellow Green

Viridian

Ultramarine Violet

Raw Umber

Sap Green

Van Dyke Brown

Warm White

Metallic Gold

(One Coat Glazing Medium)

(Two Coats damar Varnish)

My Brushes

# 6 Bright

# 4 Bright

# 2 Bright

# 0 Bright

# 2 red Sable flat

Small soft mop brush

10 X 30 Canvas or what ever you have.

STEP 1

Cover the canvas with lemon Yellow acrylic paint. You can draw your peacock feathers on the canvas. Your lines will not show. I do not draw in the lines when I paint. I did this so you all can see the shape of how to start a peacock feather. The main part of the feather is shaped like an egg.

Start with what I call the eye.

Work your way out to the outside of the feather.

Oil colors for the eye: Cobalt Blue, Indigo, Dioxazine purple.

Make a mix of these colors for the eye.

Brush in the mixed colors for the eye.

First ring around the eye. Cobalt Turquoise, using a sharp chiseled edge of the brush. Go in the direction that the feathers grow,around the eye with short strokes. Now blend and soften the edge, with a clean dry soft mop.

Second Ring: Mix Raw Sienna and a small amount of Perlene red # 6 Bright brush. The brush should always have a very chiseled edge. Soften edge with soft mop brush.

Third Ring: Mix Tholo Yellow Green and Viridian With # 4 or 6 Bright what ever brush works better for you. Always use short strokes at the top of the feathers. I can never say this enough “CHISELED EDGE”.

Next Ring: repeat second ring.

The last ring , mix Ultramarine Violet and Raw Umber with a # 2 Red Sable flat Brush.

Lightly pull lines though all the rings in the direction the feather grows. (to the top of the feather)

Used your mop brush very softly go over all the rings to smooth out any hard brush lines.

Feather Quills is a mix of your greens, purple, raw umber and warm white.

The top of your quill is your green mix. Middle quill is your purple and raw Umber mix. Bottom of the quill is warm white.

Blend the colors together were the colors meet.

When all your feathers are done and quills are done, move to the outer edge of the feathers.

Now the fun begins!!

Mix Sap green and Van Dyke Brown more to the green side. Use a # 6 Bright. Your brush should have a very very chiseled edge.

Keep your feather lines very close together. If you have a maulstick , this would be the time to use it to steady your hand.

This part of the painting takes a lot of time and patience. The feathers must be from the top to the bottom of the quill. You can fill in as you go. You will be going back and forth to your palette many times to reload your brush. You will also have to see what feathers are going to be in the background and what feathers are in the foreground.

When your painting is dry you may use a light coat of metallic gold on your painting. Use the Metallic gold only on your eye and feather rings. This is optional.

When your painting is dry, put a thin coat of glazing medium on your painting. When the medium is dry use one coat damar varnish on your painting. Six months later put your second coat of damar varnish on your painting.

When I painted Proud Peacock I did things a little different with the background. I did not use an acrylic paint. I used a mix of gel, cadmium yellow and titanium white. This is for you people who don’t mind waiting for a background to dry.

I hope you all enjoy painting peacock feathers. Just a little note to all the people who are new oil painters. Never give up and don’t let any one tell you, you will never be a good painter. If you would like to see more of my work, please go to www.barbaraaking.com

If you have any questions, please let me know.

About Lacey

Working mainly in oil, Lacey Lewis is an award winning contemporary realist figurative artist who paints in a classical style. Whether or not one is versed in the elusive language of visual design, Lacey’s paintings communicate to the viewer as she purposefully chooses recognizable aspects of reality to recreate on the canvas. It is vital to Lacey that her art at a minimum expresses the beauty that she observes in her subject. Often that expression of beauty is an end in and of itself. Other times, it is used as a lure to entice the viewer to look a little longer so that a deeper meaning or narrative may be revealed to them.

“I take it as an opportunity to learn about a person; their essence, where they’ve been, the image they project. I want to create a record of someone’s whole being, not just their physical likeness, through a beautiful and well composed work of art.”

Lacey offers Classes, Workshops & Private Lessons. Please click here to visit the instruction section of her website for more information.

Lacey’s artwork is available for purchase. You can buy her original paintings and drawings, or you can also purchase fine art Giclée prints of her work. Lacey also accepts commissions for figurative and portrait paintings.

Please click here to visit the purchase or commission section of her website for more information.

Figurative Oil Painting Demonstration By Lacey Lewis

“Amy Pinning Her Hair”

	After priming an 11 x 14 inch hardboard panel with acrylic gesso, I painted a mixture of raw sienna, ultramarine blue, titanium white and some medium across the surface and then wiped it with a rag. Next, I roughed in the figure and the shadows, indicating general plane changes especially on the back. Some pink flesh color was added and the dress was roughed in as well.
	During this session I focused on the near arm and face area, defining the forms more clearly. I added less diluted strokes of the burnt sienna/ultramarine blue/white mixture to the background to contrast with the warmth of the flesh.
	Here the face is developed to a greater likeness of the subject and some areas are restated. Slight changes complete the background. The dress is painted in with thicker paint and the purple is used in the downward facing planes of the shadowed areas both to indicate reflected color and also to add to the unity of the work.
	The forms get their final adjustments and definition. Some transitions are smoothed while others get a harder edge. The likeness is completed and the hairpins are added. As the dress color was added into the shadows on the flesh during the last session, skin tones are now added into dress to create a greater sense of form and unity. Finally, the signature is added.
Amy Pinning Her Hair Oil on Panel, 14″ x 11″ Giclée Print of this Painting Available

In this oil painting video lesson for beginners, artist Wilson Bickford demonstrates how to paint leaf trees using a 1 inch foliage brush.  Starting with a canvas that has been pre-painted with a blue sky, Wilson applies a dark green foliage made up of Sap Green, Ultramarine Blue and just a bit of Burnt Sienna to dull and darken the mixture.

Wilson states that the Burnt Sienna takes some of the “Greeniness” out of the green, which can make the tree look unnatural.  After the first application of dark green paint, Wilson then demonstrates how to apply highlights to the tree.  For the highlights he uses a mixture of Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow and a touch of Sap Green to create a light and bright mixture that he dabs over the darker color. These oil painting techniques that Wilson Demonstrates in this video are very reminiscent of Bob Ross Painting Techniques, of which I am a big fan.  Enjoy the video!

Oil Painting Technique – How To Paint a Leaf Tree With Wilson Bickford

A big thanks to Wilson for providing this free oil painting lesson. You can learn more about Wilson by visiting this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqwX_y4WUt4

I have a wonderful oil painting tutorial to share with you today by artist Karin Wells. Hopefully you remember Karin. I conducted an interview with her not long ago. If you did not have a chance to read that interview, I recommend you take some time to read it by clicking here and become better acquainted with Karin. She is a very talented artist and I am delighted to be featuring her work here again.

The following oil painting lesson will demonstrate Karin’s oil painting technique for creating water drips on a vertical surface. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. The second part, “How to paint water drops on a horizontal surface in four easy steps”, will be published next week.

Enjoy!

Painting Drips and Drops By Karin Wells

How to paint water drips on a vertical surface in four easy steps.

This little 8″ x 10″ painting has a lot of water drops. I add these details to a dry painting surface at the end.

I posted the largest file allowed for this so you could see better detail if you click on the above picture.

Here’s how to do it when the light source comes from the upper left:

DRIP STEP 1

I use a dark color – raw umber works for me but any transparent dark will do. You are making the shape of a drip. A drip will occur on a vertical or slanted surface. A cast shadow will be on the lower right (i.e., Darker).

DRIP STEP 2

You will be looking through the water and it creates a soft shadow on the top left and the harder, sharper cast shadow on the lower right side of the drip.

Detail (above)

DRIP STEP 3

Light will be reflected on the top right and will define the top of the drop. I use Zinc White so the original color shows through. The light does NOT touch the shadow and we want to see the untouched color of the surface between light and shadow.

DRIP STEP 4

Lastly, add a highlight in the shadow area. I use Titanium White for this as I want it to be clearly defined and opaque.

Detail (above) from Apples Still Life (below).

Apples Still Life, 8″ x 10″ Oil on Linen

Go to Part 2: “How to paint water drops on a horizontal surface in four easy steps”

Grab a cup of virtual coffee and stop by my Painting Studio to see what’s happening. Also come visit my Portrait & Landscape Galleries.