Alternative Views on Artists Brushes for Oil Painting

By Edgeworth Johnstone

This article describes some unorthodox methods for using paint brushes when painting in oil. None of these are intended to replace traditional advice. It is more a list of additional things to consider when painting, and hopefully get results from. It may or may not be relevant to your method, but I hope for some it is interesting, and even useful to consider. This article is perhaps more relevant to artists working in a relatively uncontrolled and rough manner.

Cheap brushes are often dismissed for failing to retain their shape, and leaving loose bristles behind in the paint. I have found most cheap brushes are ok, although some I admit are useless. Being so cheap, it is affordable to experiment with different brands and throw bad ones away, taking note not to buy them again. I have some expensive brushes that I keep separate, and use when required. But for the most part, I use cheap ones.

I’m not sure what the difference between oil and acrylic brushes is, but my favourite brushes for oil painting are acrylic brushes. They seem to last just as long, cope with oil paint fine, and are an inexpensive brand.

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How to Enliven a Painting with Pure Color

About Karin

karin 222x300Karin Wells is an artist of amazing versatility. She graduated with honors from both the New England School of Art and Design, Boston, 1965, and the Butera School of Art, Boston, 1986. Karin has enjoyed a career as an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and sign painter. She also taught Life Drawing and Painting for many years. She has most recently studied for three years at The New England School of Classical Painting in Greenfield, New Hampshire, under the direction of Numael Pulido.

To expand her craft, Karin has traveled throughout Europe studying the Old Masters. Her art reflects the deep influence of these great works. Karin demonstrates a remarkable facility for likeness and for the use of light.

The artist is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, The Portrait Society of Atlanta, and The Copley Society of Boston.

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Morning – A Demonstration of an Oil Paint over Gouache Painting Technique

By Philip Howe

The following oil painting demonstration is courtesy of Philip Howe . When you are finished viewing this demonstration, please take a moment to visit Philip’s site to view more of his artwork and to learn more about him.

You may also be interested in Philip’s New Book:

“Angels – The Artwork of Philip Howe”

This book is 134 full-color pages of the beautiful artwork of Philip Howe. The reproductions are from his spiritual and dream series of oil paintings, with dozens of images, exclusive close-up shots from the originals, and over 40 pages of demonstrations for artists and collectors. It is printed on soft matte paper, the same as our quality prints, so the color is rich and clean, with each spread designed to fit the images.

Follow this link for more details on the book.

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Oil Portrait Painting Demonstration Step by Step

About Jeff

Photo of JeffJeff is a 27 year veteran of the art industry working in both traditional and digital media. His passion for creating art led him to a career in art and illustration in which his artwork has been used for advertisements, book covers, magazine covers, computer games, etc.

Jeff’s art has been published by major corporations such as Disney, Pixar, Warner Brothers, DreamWorks SKG, EA Games, Blizzard/Activision, THQ Games, American Airlines, Texas Instruments, Pepsi-cola, Frito-lay, Bic pens, IBM, and Mead.

By applying traditional art principles to the digital media, Jeff found a whole new world of possibilities to create artwork. This opened the door into the gaming industry where he has worked as an art director,concept artist and illustrator for companies like DreamWorks Interactive, EA, THQ and Midway. Titles Jeff has worked on include Medal of Honor, Clive Barker’s Undying, Need for Speed Hot pursuit 2 and Evil Dead Regeneration.

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Oil Painting Tutorial For Beginners – Paint What You See!

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.

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Oil Painting Video Tutorial on Color Mixing & Theory

Here is a wonderful oil painting lesson by artist William Gelvin on color mixing, matching and theory. In this lesson, William teaches how to mix and match a variety of different colors from only 4 colors:  three primaries and white.

The three primary colors he is using are Rembrandt Permanent Red, Rembrandt Permanent Yellow and Winsor & Newton Cobalt Blue.  You don’t need these exact colors to do this exercise. Just pick three colors that you feel are as close to the true primaries as possible.

Tim uses a printout in this video lesson that contains 25 different color swatches that he created from the above mentioned colors. The purpose of this oil painting tutorial is to teach you how to match the colors on the printout from the three primaries.  This really forces you to think and learn more about the properties of oil paints.

This is a long video with over 40 minutes of wonderful instruction, so grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy this oil painting lesson for beginners. Read more

Oil Painting Video Lesson – Alla Prima Oil Painting Technique

Alla Prima Oil Painting Technique – A Video Tutorial by Larry Seiler

Here is a wonderful oil painting video lesson for beginners by artist Larry Seiler that demonstrates the All Prima Oil Painting Technique.

Alla Prima is an Italian word that literally means “At Once”.  Its a painting that is completed in one session.  This is a direct painting method that produces a fresh and spontaneous look to your work.  I love this style of painting because it allows me to get loose and just let go and have fun, which is exactly what Larry does in the following video tutorial.

He begins his Alla Prima painting session by mixing his colors ahead of time on his palette. He says this eliminates a lot of his decisions in advance and allows him to establish a color harmony that will work for his painting.  Another advantage of pre-mixing his colors is that his focus is on the subject that he is painting and not on color mixing.

After his colors are prepared, he then creates a basic sketch using some vine charcoal.

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Oil Painting Technique – How To Tone a Canvas

Toning Your Canvas For Oil Painting

Learn the proper way to tone your canvas in preparation for oil paints with this free video demonstration.  Toning your canvas before beginning a painting is a very popular oil painting technique, but there is definitely a right and a wrong way to do it.  In the following video, artist Don Stewart demonstrates his method for toning his canvas before he completes a painting.  Don combines a mixture of medium and solvent to his oil paint to get it nice and thin before applying it to his canvas.  After allowing that to dry for several minutes, he then wipes away the excess with a clean rag.  The result is a nicely toned canvas with a luminous quality to it. Enjoy this oil painting demonstration!

Sierra Splendor – Landscape Oil Painting Demonstration Part 2

This is Part 2 of Sierra Splendor, a Landscape Painting Demonstration by Mike Callahan.

Please click here to view Part 1 of this Demonstration.

Sierra Splendor Landscape Painting Demonstration Continued

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31.) With my thin underpainting in place, I can now begin to paint the trees that cover it

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Sierra Splendor – Landscape Oil Painting Demonstration

About Mike

mikecallahanNationally recognized, award winning artist Mike Callahan is a fourth generation Nevada native who counts himself privileged to grow up in what he believes to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains near Reno, Nevada where he still lives today. While he has been painting since childhood, he has only been painting in earnest for about the last 5 or 6 years.

Says Mike, “The topography of this area is simply phenomenal; one can go from the high desert to mountainous alpine settings in less than an hour. It is this beautiful and varied landscape that ends up being the subject for a vast majority of my paintings.”

However, if you look through the paintings on Mike’s website, you will quickly see that the Sierra landscape isn’t the only subject Mike typically paints. He also enjoys painting Western themes as well as figurative and portraits.

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