Step By Step Oil Painting Tutorial By Dan Schultz

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About Dan

Dan Schultz was born in New Mexico in 1975 and soon began to take an interest in art. He enjoyed art classes through his primary and high school years, and studied commercial art at Pensacola Christian College in Florida. He received his degree with a focus on illustration and graphic design, but he never felt driven to pursue either as a career. After college, he continued to sharpen his drawing and painting skills by attending Cottonwood Artists’ School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and it was there that he realized for the first time his desire for a career in fine art.

He chooses to work in a classical style because he deeply connects with traditional works which aptly express reality. “Art should bring about a respect for life and God’s creation around us,” he says. “I want to do my best to faithfully render what is beautiful to me and hopefully others will find that beauty reflected in my work.”

Please do take a moment to visit Dan’s Website by following the link below. Much of the artwork on his website (beside what is in his current galleries) is available for purchase directly from his studio. I know Dan worked real hard on this oil painting tutorial. I am sure he would appreciate your visit. If you have time, why not drop him a line as well.

Follow this link to visit Dan’s Website.

West Wind - An Oil Painting Demonstration by Dan Schultz

For this studio painting I used Claessens double oil primed linen canvas, #15 (my usual painting surface). This painting, as with most of my larger paintings, was completed using a photograph as my reference. (My wife, Sarah, is the lovely lady in the photo. Somehow I doubt she would have been very excited to pose in the middle of a field long enough for me to do the painting from life.)

Step 1:

When doing a painting of this size (or larger), I am most comfortable starting with a fairly detailed drawing of my composition. In this case, I use vine charcoal directly on the canvas. I make sure to take as much time as necessary on this step since it will provide me with the direction I will follow for the rest of the painting. As I draw, I take careful measurements using my reference photo to make sure everything ends up the right size and in the right place. (On a side note, I carefully measure when painting smaller sizes too. I just don’t necessarily do a charcoal drawing first.) I always double-check my drawing by looking at it in a mirror. Somehow seeing the image in reverse makes it easier to see my mistakes.

Step 2:

Now that I am ready to paint, I take a few moments to think about how I will proceed. When doing smaller paintings, I will often work on the whole painting at once. But, because this painting is a little larger, I decide to start in one area and work outwards. This way I have the freedom to stop if I need to, and when I return it won’t matter if the paint has started to dry because I (hopefully) won’t have to work on areas that I’ve already painted. (I always prefer to work wet-into-wet so I can easily handle my edges without having to repaint over dry paint.) Of course, this requires some planning as I begin, but it’s also a fun way to work because I can see the painting begin to take shape fairly quickly. So now all I have to do is decide where to start! I’ve found that the easiest way for me to establish my value range for a painting is to start in an area with strong, dark values and some good contrast. For this painting, some of my darkest values are in the focal point (Sarah), so it makes sense for me to start there.

Step 3:

I do a lot of squinting at my photo and at my painting to compare the value relationships between shapes. If I get the relationships right, I will be able to continue through the painting without having to go back to change any of the values.

Step 4:

As I continue, I also pay attention the edges between shapes so that they won’t all end up looking the same. In order to lead the viewer’s eye to the focal point, I make sure to keep my sharpest edges there, while softening other surrounding edges in comparison. One of the keys to good edges is variety.

Step 5:

As I work on Sarah’s white coat in the picture, I keep in mind that photographs have a tendency to incorrectly portray color information, especially in extremely light and dark areas. As a result, I must think about the sunlight from the day I took the photo and remember the effect its color temperature had on the entire scene. (This is where all of that continued practice painting from life pays off too, because I have information in my mind from experiences painting in these very conditions.) Since I remember that the color temperature of direct sunlight is warm, I make sure to add warm colors to all the areas of the coat that are in the direct light. As a result, the shadows are relatively cooler when compared to the light areas.

Step 6:

Sarah is now mostly finished (along with the most critical part of the painting.) The farther along I get in the painting, the more comparisons are taking place. Every shape I paint has to be correct in drawing accuracy, value, color, and edges when compared to what I have already painted. This is why it is so important for me to be accurate as I begin. If I get to this point and notice that one of those main components is incorrect, I will either have a lot of repainting to do, or it will be time to decide to just start over. (And yes, unfortunately this has happened.)

Step 7:

Fortunately, I don’t see any glaring errors at this point, so I am free to start working on the background. The challenge of a background filled with trees is to keep from adding too much detail and distracting from the focal point. Yet another benefit of starting with the focal point is that now I can compare the rest of my painting with it and make sure that it still predominates. So I try to discern the major shapes in the trees and only put in what is necessary to give the impression of many trees and branches.

Step 8:

As I block in more of the background trees and foreground grasses, I keep the paint fairly thin. This allows me to apply thicker paint on top when I get into more detail, and I can also let some of this initial wash show through in the finished painting. Again, this gives me some variety of texture which is pleasing in the same way as variety in my edgework (which I mentioned in Step 4).

Step 9:

Now that I have the background all blocked in, the time has come to start working on the foreground trees. As I mentioned when I was ready to begin painting back in Step 2, I took a few moments to think about how to proceed. One of the things I took note of was that my darkest values in the scene were actually in these foreground trees. Therefore, I had to hold back a bit on how dark I made the shadows in Sarah’s skirt so that when the time came to paint the foreground trees, they would be the darkest elements. This helps increase the illusion of depth in the painting since it “pushes” Sarah farther into the background because the darkest values on her aren’t quite as dark as the foreground trees which should appear closest to the viewer. I also had to remember that my camera saw the shadows on Sarah’s skirt and the value of the foreground trees to be about the same, which gave me another reason to be careful about how dark I made the shadows on Sarah’s skirt.

Step 10:

I start adding details to the trees and grasses, taking care that they don’t become too interesting in comparison with Sarah. After all, she’s most important!

Step 11:

It looks like the whole right side of the painting is pretty much finished now. Painting the values correctly in the grasses at the bottom is somewhat tricky. I have to squint and make more comparisons between the grasses and other values in the painting so that the shadows and lights on the grasses will be correct. Just like painting the trees and branches, I try to look at the big shapes in the grasses so I don’t get them too detailed.

Step 12:

Almost finished now! All that’s left is to finish the trees on the left in both the foreground and background. So all I have to do is treat them the same way I’ve treated the other trees in the painting.

West Wind • Oil on Linen • 16″ x 28″

Step 13:

I always look at the painting in the mirror one last time to make sure nothing is incorrect or distracting from my focal point. Often an edge that is too sharp or a distracting brush stroke needs to be softened. Once those are corrected to my satisfaction, the painting is finished!

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How to Paint Cat - Painting Demonstration by Richard Ancheta

Richard Ancheta first began to paint at the age of 12 years old and took painting lessons with well known Filipino artist and illustrators. His devotion and vision as an artist are promising. He studied Multimedia Design at Montreal International Academy of Design. Richard works in various mediums: oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel and charcoal. His works have been featured in newspapers, magazines and books. He boasts 20 years of experience in painting, illustration, advertising and graphic work.

How to Paint a Cat Easy Oil Painting Techniques Painting Demonstration by Richard Ancheta April 5, 2008
These are the three photographs of a Siamese Cat name Siegfried and the owner asked me to paint an original oil portrait – a birthday gift that will last forever. Good reference photographs are important to capture the likeness of the model. Let’s begin the challenge!

1

Sketching: Sketching is the backbone of the painting, failing to be precise in this stage will suffer retouching again and again in the following stages. Precision in the early stage will merit all the trouble of minimizing the errors, the draftsmanship of the subject. The tone values will be rendered and will forecast the result of your painting when seen in black and white. I use an ordinary HB pencil in outlining the drawing and add tones to where you will drop the values of the next coloring stage. After the sketch is completed, I lightly spray with fixative to protect the pencil from smudging.

2
The Ground Color :Glaze the whole canvas with the subject’s middle tone. As the cat has a pale yellow ochre (acrylic), it dries quickly. Again, it protects the drawings from smudging and eliminates the brightness of canvas. It helps also to close the pores of the canvas in which sometimes you will leave small dots of whites.

3

Blocking and Blacks: Oil painting begins. I start painting the darks by mixing burnt umber and vermilion and cobalt blue. With this three-color combination, softer blacks are created, rather than using solid ivory blacks that create unevenness and holes on the canvas. However, solid ivory blacks give depth when used in the pupils of eyes. Blocking determines the weight composition of the lowest value.

4
Painting the Background:Anticipation of color contrast is also important and forecasting that in the end of the painting session the colors will be harmonized and let the main subject stands out. I choose hot colors for backgrounds and balance them with harmony cool colors of blue-greens, repeating the colors from the pillow.

5
Color Balance :The value of color plays the mode of the whole painting. It gives expression. Hot colors focus the eyes; and to balance the breathing, cool colors minimize their intensity. • Hot colors: red, orange and yellow. • Cool colors: blue and green

6
Color Blending : I prepare to blend the backgrounds by using a fan brush. For more softer and subtle effects, eliminate intricacy of brush strokes that steal attention from the overall impact.

7
Tone Gradation: Tone gradation is a technique that I use in my paintings because it classically and smoothly divides the transition of values. It simply defines, as from dark to light gradation.

8
Painting Upside Down: Why invert the painting? Removing the picture image from your eyes allows greater concentration and eliminates developing a series of tones starting from the highest value, the white. Inverting and/or rotating the canvas make strokes easy, allowing for texture and fur directions.

9

Detailing: The logic of using brushes is also important. Using big, broad brushes at the start immediately covers the large canvas space. Shifting to medium and very small brushes allows for organizing and improving the speed of your painting process. In this stage, I demonstrate the trick of flattening my round brush to create a chisel mode for my brushstrokes in order to create very tiny lines for fur texture. Continuous glazing of colors gives more depth; and overlapping colors one on top of the colors gives more dimension as you approach the satisfaction of declaring the painting finished.

10
Final Stage :My final stage is visualizing subject volumes and impact of highlights. Add some touches; redefine shade and shadows. Let the painting dry, then varnish repeatedly until achieving the desired luminosity. Don’t forget to sign your painting.

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“Vineyard Patterns” - An Oil Painting Demonstration by Jennifer Young

1. Step one: Choose a scene.
I often head out to the Virginia mountains to do some plein air painting, and on a morning last week I visited Veritas Vineyards in Afton Virginia. This is a beautiful winery and there are many possibilities for painting subject matter. However, my umbrella broke and I haven’t yet purchased a new one, which can make painting on location in an open field a bit difficult. If the sun is shining directly on your canvas, all you see is a bunch of glare and your paintings end up turning out way to dark and muddy as a result.Having said that, I can’t stress enough how important it is to take the time to choose a scene that excites and interests you. You have a better chance of producing a much better painting as a result. Luckily I came upon a nice shady spot in a private area off of the main road past the winery’s tasting room and became excited about this scene:
Okay, so it loses something in my photograph, perhaps! But what I liked about this scene was the abstract shapes and patterns formed by the sweeping lines of the vines and ground. The light was constantly going back and forth behind cloud masses, making painting with consistent lighting very difficult. But that is the fun challenge of painting on location!
2. Lay out the design.
My paintings usually begin very inauspiciously, I’m afraid! All I want to do at this point is plan my layout and get the elements of the scene down in very abstract shapes.
As you can plainly see, I have to work quickly with the changing light, so I don’t do a lot of detailed drawing. In fact, I’d say I do far fewer details in the plein air drawing stage than I do in the studio, and if any one were to come upon my painting at this stage they would hardly be impressed! But the marks mean something to me, and I guess that’s what matters. In the coming days I will continue to unfold this plein air painting demo, so stay tuned!
3. Lay in the sky:
I like to lay in the sky as early as possible in my process. The sky is the source of light and generally it appears to have the lightest tonal value in most landscape paintings. By laying in the lightest value first I can more easily judge value relationships (the relationship between lights and darks) for the rest of the painting.
Step 4
With my sky in place, I can now judge how dark the mountain range should be. I begin to block in the distant mountains and trees, still with very little detail.
Step 5
After I’ve blocked in the distant trees I step back and begin to reassess my composition. What is my focal point? The eye tends to like to zoom in on something when looking at a composition, and up to this point I’ve been focusing more on the abstract shapes of the vineyard to move the eye around the painting. This is good, but is there something more? I’ll let you know what I decide in the next installment!
I look again at my subject and notice a little tree in the field. To be honest, I am not sure that I had noticed it before. I decide to play up this element and use this as my focal point or center of interest:
The light is really changing a lot now. Sun shines intermittently on my scene, but behind me there are some pretty threatening clouds. I decide I had better not dawdle around any more if I want to get this painting finished!
Step 6
To help my process along, I try and pre-mix large piles of the various colors I see in the rest of the landscape.
Step 7
I add a little more detail to the focal point tree than I do the background trees, which will help to push the little tree forward in the picture plane.
Step 8
I really have to look hard to see the subtle variations in the green shades, but once I start painting in the ground and the vineyard, my picture begins to take shape.
Step 9
The clouds called off their threats so I was able to relax a little and put the finishing touches on my painting right there on the spot.
“Vineyard Patterns”Oil on Canvas, 12×16
My process for painting in the studio is very similar to my process on location. The exceptions are that I don’t have size limitations, nor do I have to deal with the changing light, bugs, and sunburn! On the other hand, painting on location is an exhilarating challenge and helps me to develop my observation and decision making skills. It also gives a far better understanding of the play of light on the landscape. Depending on the lighting conditions, color temperature changes dramatically. In a session of changing light like the one I had, I needed to make a decision early on about which lighting condition I wanted to go with, and then commit that to memory in case the sun went away completely! Painting on location, (or “en plein air”, as the Impressionists used to say) is a wonderful complement to my studio work. I often use my plein air sketches and studies along with the many, many photos I take on site, to develop larger paintings in the studio.
These images are original works copyright of Jennifer E. Young, and are protected under International Copyright laws. They are for online viewing purposes only and may not be copied, saved to a computer hard drive, reproduced or distributed without the express permission of the artist.
	Jennifer Young is a professional artist from Richmond, Virginia, most known for her vibrant landscape paintings of France, Italy, and the American South. She is inspired by the beauty she observes on her frequent travels, and paints on location as often as possible.In addition to teaching painting workshops (www.jenniferyoung.com/paintingworkshops.htm) , she exhibits in galleries in the southeastern U.S., as well as in her own gallery and working studio in Richmond. Her paintings have been purchased internationally by both corporate and private collectors. She also maintains her own online gallery (www.jenniferyoung.com) and writes frequently about painting, art tips, travel, and the artist’s life on her blog, “Paintings of France, Italy, and Beyond” (www.jenniferyoung.com/blog.)

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Oil Painting Tips- All About Oil Painting Brushes

Oil painting brushes come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and this can sometimes overwhelm a beginner. This article will provide you with an overview of the various oil painting brushes available and help you decide what kind of brushes you should invest in.

BRUSH TEXTURES

Oil painting brushes come in two different textures basically, and they are classified as hard and soft. Hard brushes are generally referred to as bristle brushes and they are quite resilient. Hard brushes are made from hog’s hair and they are strong and stiff. They will hold a good amount of paint and can handle the oil painting medium quite well. I personally prefer working with bristle brushes exclusively as I tend to paint rather rough and direct.

Soft oil painting brushes are made from softer hairs that come from animals like sable, squirrel, or mongoose. Softer brushes will generally give your painting a softer smoother appearance and are more often used for finishing or detailed work. Sable brushes are the most expensive usually but there are synthetic brushes made of nylon that are very good substitutes for sable. They are more resilient and cheaper than sable.

BRUSH SHAPES

There are five shapes to brushes that are generally used and each is meant to have its own function. I prefer to paint with flats, brights and fliberts of various sizes, and only occasionally make use of the other shapes. This is my preference and you will certainly develop your own the longer you paint with oils.

Flats

Flat oil painting brushes have a wide square end with medium to long hairs. Flat brushes generally have a lot of spring to them and can hold a lot of paint. You can use these brushes for broad sweeping strokes or you can turn the brush on its edge to create fine lines. Flat brushes are great for earlier stages of a painting when you are blocking in large areas.

Brights

Bright oil painting brushes are similar in shape to flat brushes but the hairs are shorter. They are best used for making shorter controlled strokes. They do not hold nearly as much paint as a flat brush.

Filberts

The filbert is also similar to the flat brush only the edge of the brush comes to a rounded shape. The hairs of the filbert are medium to long in length. This rounded shape will give you more control then a bright. The filbert is great for blending and figurative work.

Rounds

A round oil painting brush has a round or pointed tip. They hold a nice amount of paint and are great for making thin or thick lines. Use this brush for dabbing on dots or blotches of color. Round brushes are also good for washes, fills and detailed work. They are not suited for creating hard straight edges.

Fans

The fan oil painting brush is a flat fan shaped brush. The fan brush is a specialized brush. It is either used very often by the artist or not at all. It really depends on your style of painting. This brush is not suited for holding paint. It is used more often for blending colors and you should keep this brush clean and dry if you plan to do a lot of blending during a session. The brush will begin to lose its effectiveness when it becomes filled with paint. You may want to keep a few extras on hand.

BRUSH SIZE

Oil painting brushes come in a variety of sizes indicated by numbers as in 1,2,4,6,8,10; size 1 being the smallest and 10 the largest in this example.

BRUSH MANUFACTURERS

Oil painting brushes are made by a number of different manufacturers. A few of the more popular brands are Winsor & Newton, Silver Brush and Robert Simmons. Some artists prefer one brand over another. Other artists like to have an assortment of different brands available. The only way you will know what you like best is by working with the brushes yourself.

CARING FOR YOUR BRUSHES

No matter what brush you buy, whether they are top of the line expensive brushes, or cheaper ones, you will definitely get more life out of them if you care for them properly. There seems to be a difference of opinion when it comes to brush care, especially when it comes to drying your brushes. I personally have two products on hand for cleaning and conditioning my brushes: Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver and Mona Lisa Pink Brush Soap. I have found that the Masters Brush Cleaner works great on brushes that are deeply stained and hardened with paint, that I would have otherwise thrown out. I use the Mona Lisa Pink Brush Soap to clean my brushes right after a painting session. These cleaners will also help condition your brushes.

After washing my brushes with either of these cleaners, I then attach a clothes pin to the handle of the brush and rest the clothes pin on the edge of a counter or table so that the brush is hanging with the bristles pointing toward the floor. Gravity then pulls the moisture from the brush so that it does not collect in the ferrule, which can damage a brush over time.

I hope this article has helped. Best of luck and happy painting!

For more easy oil painting instructions online including step by step painting demos, visit Creative Spotlite today.

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