So, you are interested in trying your hand at painting with oils? That’s great.
You’ve probably heard that it is one of the most challenging mediums to learn. A beginner in the world of oil painting may find it difficult without careful preparation.
However, oil painting is not quite as challenging to learn as you may think. It does take practice and patience, but it also requires the right supplies and some instruction on using them.
If you have a few good reference books to follow along with, or perhaps someone experienced who can give you tips and pointers along the way, then we believe you can be successful at oil painting.
This post will go over the basic supplies you will need to get started and why.
Here is a list of what you’ll need:
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Oil Painting Supplies For Beginners
Oil Paint
This one might seem obvious, but it’s important to note that not just any paint will do. When you first buy oil paints, you will realize that many brands are available, and the decision might feel overwhelming.
There are two grades of paint to consider when buying paint for your oil painting projects. There are student-grade oil paints that are more affordable and artist-grade oils paints that are higher quality.
Artist Grade Oil Paints
These paints are expensive, but they are the top of the line in quality and longevity. You can have a good number of them last for years if you take care of them properly.
Gamblin Artist’s Oil Paints And Sets: Gamblin Artist’s Oil Colors are crafted by hand and considered a work of art. They combine the best traditions from the past with the latest technical innovations to give you complete freedom in your creations without compromise.
Made using only high-quality pigments, Gamblin Artist Oils have luxurious working properties that create incredible colors when used on any surface or mixed for infinite variations! The range includes historically accurate shades and modern tones, so there is always something perfect for every Artist’s needs.
Winsor & Newton Artists’ Oil Paints: Winsor & Newton has long been known as the first choice for artists because other brands cannot match their colors. Their formulation guarantees that only top-of-the-line ingredients make it into each product, which means you’re using the best possible paints on your canvas when painting with Winsor & Newton oil paint.
With Winsor & Newton’s Artists’ Oil Colors, you can feel confident that your color will stand out and won’t fade away.
Winsor & Newton ensures the cleanest colors with their Artist’s oil paint line by using only pure pigments in production to ensure the brightest colors possible. This means no unwanted grays or browns mixed into a hue for an unintended effect. The company also uses carefully selected drying oils and pigment dispersal methods that preserve each color and ensure maximum quality control through every stage of producing these beautiful paints.
Daniel Smith Original Oil Paints: Made by hand in Seattle, Washington, Daniel paints are the perfect supply to any art room. Daniel paints offer reliable lightfastness, which means its pigments have been tested for their ability to withstand fading from sunlight over many years periods without significantly changing their original appearance or hue. They also produce consistent texture thanks to qualities like pigment-to-binder ratio consistency and control during the production process.
Student Grade Oil Paints
Blick Studio Paints And Sets: Blick Studio Oils are great for artists of all levels with various needs. Blick offers oils made from quality ingredients that provide reliable performance at an affordable price so you can explore new techniques without breaking the bank.
Daler-Rowney Graduate Oil Paint Set: Daler-Rowney has been the supplier of choice for artists since 1835, founded in London, England. This company is dedicated to producing high-quality art materials and supplies that are affordable and easy to use. The Graduate Oils have a buttery consistency perfect for impasto application. At the same time, they are also drying quickly, so they’re great for teaching oil painting techniques in classroom settings where time may be limited.
Maimeri Classico Paints And Sets: Classico Oil Colors will help you find what you need as an artist. They’re versatile and offer a high-quality product at a low price compared with other oil colors on the market. Classico uses only natural pigments like earth tones and Cadmium in their color palette, which is why they are so vibrant when dried.
The qualities of these highly concentrated colors make them perfect for beginners or those who want bright paint that doesn’t take much time to dry because it dries quickly once applied onto surfaces such as paper.
Necessary Colors For Oil Painting
Alizarin Red – red made from madder root or sometimes cochineal; may be lightened with white.
Cadmium Orange Hue – intense, brilliant orange; can be mixed with yellow for skin tones.
French Ultramarine – deep, pure blue pigment from the natural ultramarine stone mined in France.
Mars Black – made from bituminous coal; the most permanent black pigment available.
Raw Sienna – yellow-orange pigment mined from iron ore deposits; varies in color and consistency.
Titanium White – a white pigment to lighten colors.
Easels For Oil Painters
Blick Studio Easel: Every Artist needs a place to put their canvas while they’re painting. The Blick A-Frame Studio Easel is a unique, easy-to-use easel that can hold canvases up to 50″ high. This easel features our patented quick-release height adjustment mechanism, which allows for instant positioning of your work at eye level and then folds flat when you are done. The beechwood construction also makes it durable enough for long-lasting performance without sacrificing style or function.
Brushes For Oil Painting
When you are just starting, you do not have to buy every different type of brush available. Once you start painting, you will learn what shape brushes you will need for your artistic style. All you will need is a small brush, a medium brush, and a large brush to get started.
Here are some popular brushes artists use for oil painting:
Escoda Modernista Tadami Synthetic Mongoose Brushes: We all know that sometimes you need something a bit more out of the ordinary to make your paintings stand out from the crowd. But what if we told you, just maybe there was one thing in existence that could tick this box on every level? Well, it’s not so outrageous! The Modernista Tadami brush by Escoda is designed with synthetic filament and mimics mongoose hair – an adored material for centuries. This innovative piece holds its point remarkably well but doesn’t feel like stiff bristles when painting straight lines or curves alike. It might be time to try something new today.
Robert Simmons Signet Bristle Brushes: The Robert Simmons Signet brush is a quality handmade product that will last you for years to come. The bristles are made from Chungking hog hair, the ferrule is seamless and nickel-plated, while beech wood handles have five coats of lacquer applied to them. This excellent tool should work with both acrylics or oils without any difficulties whatsoever.
Da Vinci Plein Air Bristle Brushes: At last, a bristle brush that is designed for travel. The handles on these high-quality studio brushes have been scaled down to fit into pochade boxes or painting sets easily. With the Plein Air Brushes from China and finished with rustproof copper ferrule. Each of its bristles has an easy-grip making it perfect for outdoor use as well as indoors.
A Jar For Cleaning Brushes
You will need something to keep your cleaning solution in, and a jar with a tight-fitting lid is perfect for this job. Wash your brushes gently by hand very quickly after you have used them to remove all the paint. To keep your brushes clean, it is best not to leave them lying around on the palette waiting to be used next. It is always best to store them away in a jar when you have finished using them.
Mineral Spirits
Unlike acrylics, you do not clean your brushes with water. Instead, you will need a paint thinner. Mineral spirits are a good choice because they evaporate quickly, so it does not leave your brushes soaking in a puddle of paint thinner on your palette for hours before you get around to cleaning them. Turpentine is another good choice.
Linseed Oil
There will be times when you want to thin your paint, and Linseed oil is an excellent choice to thin it with. You need to use this sparingly because if you use too much, the paint will become very runny and washes out of any detail in the painting.
Palette For Oil Paints
A palette is a surface where you mix and store paint. Oil painters use plastic palettes for most of their painting, but sometimes they will want more control over the type of surface they are mixing on. For this reason, some artists will opt to build their palettes out of wood or even marble.
Canvas For Oil Painting
The most common surface to paint on is a canvas. Canvas is made from cotton fibers that have been stretched over a wooden frame called a stretcher-bar. The best choice for buying canvas for your oil painting needs is one with a reasonably solid frame. Canvases come in a wide range of sizes that vary from a few inches to several feet.
Palette Knife For Oil Paints
A palette knife is also known as an artist’s knife, and it can be used for just about everything. Oil painters will use their palette knives to mix paint on the palette. It can also be used for scraping off any unwanted paint from your brushes. The blade of a palette knife is even helpful for applying glue when building up layers of texture in your painting.
Rags
You will need something to wipe your clean brushes on, and rags will do the job while keeping everything tidy. Ideally, they should be made from cotton, but any old cloth you have lying around is better than nothing at all.
Apron For Oil Painting Students and Artists
An apron is a great accessory for any artist to wear while working on their oil painting. If you do not use an apron, it will leave paint all over your clothes, preventing them from staining the fabric. You can also buy aprons that have
Final Thoughts On Oil Painting Supplies
To sum up, there is a wide variety of oil painting supplies that you will need as an artist. We have listed the essential art supplies needed to get started. There is a learning curve for oil painting, but you will soon find yourself painting comfortably and confidently with the right art supplies.
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