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How to paint on canvas with oil paints. How to draw with oil paints: a guide for beginners

How to paint on canvas with oil paints. How to draw with oil paints: a guide for beginners

05.03.2020

Painting plays a huge role in the development of culture, for many centuries it has been developing, introducing the world to new techniques. Drawings of cavemen prove that painting allowed to demonstrate their thoughts and feelings. Their creativity is characterized by features: contours made with ash, chalk, clay - these are animals that are hunted; man is a hunter. It turns out that already in prehistoric times there was a kind of technique.

Animals from the 12th century

Colorful painting appeared somewhere in the 12th century, so ocher was used to depict the body of living creatures, which was accidentally found in a cave, while hooves and horns were painted with charcoal. The desire to create colorful “works” forced people to discover new things, thanks to which primitive oil paints appeared in the 7th century. After researching old works, scientists discovered natural pigments in them.

What can you draw

However, artists figured out how to paint with oil paints only in the 15th century. Jan van Eyck actively used them for his works, arousing the increased interest of others in them. Over time, he was the first to create rules explaining how to properly use such paints.

The Case of the Painting of the Dutch School of Painting

The methodology of the Dutch school always strikes with its realism and beauty. They were able to create such paintings that to this day delight both ordinary museum visitors and connoisseurs. So in the 80s, the attention of experts was attracted by a picture with a bouquet of flowers, from which a drop of dew allegedly fell on the table. Experts have come to a consensus that the drop is so very real and you even want to brush it off. It turns out that it "did not dry" for 600 years. Such "drops" make painting eternal.

What oil paints are

Oil painting for beginners will be difficult, but interesting, because the color palette

represented by a large assortment:

titanium white;
red cadmium;
viridian greens;
bright red paint;
dioxin purple;
soot gas;
yellow cadmium;
orange cadmium;
azure, etc.

And how to paint with oil to achieve expressiveness and realism? We need to develop and gain experience. To do this, you will need to allocate time, be patient and some drawing supplies.

Where can you find paints

Art stores offer a large selection of professional kits for creativity. For beginners, you can buy a small inexpensive kit for testing, it will be enough to create small paintings. It is recommended to master this technique by depicting bright things, for example, fruits or vegetables, not monophonic, but with iridescent sides.

For drawing, oil is useful not only for paints, but also for:

canvas (a cardboard sheet will do);
a few brushes.

Canvases are most often represented by a rough cloth or paper with a special primer coating. Beginning artists are better off buying a canvas stretched on a stretcher. As for the brushes, they are divided according to: stiffness; size; the hair used to make it. So hard and wide are useful for the background, soft for drawing, and thin for small strokes.

How much "oil" and paints does a novice artist need?

Too expensive sets are not worth buying, because you will use only a part. For those who are just starting to master the "oil" enough

5 different brushes:

flute wide;
medium #2, #3;

This set is enough for any picture. Do not despair if nothing works right away, everything comes with experience. By learning and practicing drawing techniques, you will succeed. Yes, the methods are complicated, but they are necessary. You will learn how to mix colors and create new shades. It turns out that the whole process of creating a work consists in the constant editing of tones. It is very exciting.

What should a painter know?

Only a diligent person can achieve the visible desired result from the first attempts. It is also important to have at least some drawing skills. It will be useful to be like classes, watch instructional videos, they will help you handle oil paints and brushes.

Step by step learning

So, how to paint with oil on canvas? We suggest you familiarize yourself with how to work on a picture. Stretch the canvas on a stretcher and prime it so that the paint lays evenly and does not soak. The most uncomplicated and fairly reliable soil is considered water emulsion paint combined with PVA, 1:1. Before applying to the canvas, the mixture is well stirred and diluted with water, the composition should be such as cream. You can work with the canvas only after the fingers stop sticking to its surface.

Next, draw with oil in stages, following our instructions. We create a background, it can be just a painted part or some kind of drawing. You will need a palette knife, it is very convenient for them to distribute the paint, getting an even and thin layer. This will allow the oil to dry much faster, as you know, this process is very long, it can take months. Be prepared to postpone further work for a long time.

Dried canvas - the next stage

As the canvas has dried up, you can start drawing a sketch, on a light background this is done with a pencil, and on a dark one with a small one. Be sure to make the contours before you start painting with oil.

If your painting will consist of several parts, then first draw the largest object. For example, you draw a jug, cups, a vase, plums, sweets, a tablecloth. And this means that you will use a variety of colors.

An integral part of the picture - shadows

Start painting with oil from a jug, apply brown color to the palette and dilute it slightly. Dip the brush into the resulting mixture and apply strokes. Having completed work with this subject, you need to deal with its shadows, brown paint will help you with this, but of a darker and deeper shade. To do this, add black oil to brown oil and combine them well. The shade for the shadows is ready, where they will be located, you yourself determine. Then you start working on the cups, they are made of the same material (conditionally), which means that working with them is similar to what was done earlier. Do not forget that light falls on objects at the same angle.

At the next stage, we deal with a vase filled with plums. Don't try to make a glass vase as there should be a lot of hues that in real life show up in glass. It is better for a novice artist to make a faience version, for which, in addition to painting, ordinary shadows will be required. Drawing plums is the easiest, the main thing is that they look natural, which means they overlap one on one.

And finally

Color the fruit in dark blue. In those places where they touch each other, you need to draw a thin line, as if separating them. For realism, you need to add fruit cuttings, but not to every berry. As for sweets, the main thing is to make the right contours. You can paint them however you like.

After completing the work, leave it to dry, turning it "face" to the wall.

oil painting- this is the most popular and favorite technique of many world-famous artists, both past centuries and our time. Due to its plastic structure, oil paints dry for a long time, which makes it possible to correct the drawing for a long time. Oil painting always looks elegant and refined. Learning to paint with oils is a difficult task, but it brings a lot of pleasure to the artist. If you have not yet mastered this technique, start right now: who knows, maybe the future Aivazovsky or Vasnetsov is hidden in you? What does a beginner oil painter need to have?

The list of necessary items for oil painting

Oil paints.
Brushes: you can use brushes made of natural bristles and synthetics (the choice of brush depends on how much you have and what result you want to achieve).
Wooden palette.
Oiler for thinner.
Thinner (used so that the paints are not too thick).
Canvases (canvas on a stretcher, canvas on cardboard, and primed cardboard are equally good).
Special liquid for washing brushes.
Kistemoyka.

Oil paints- paints created from oil, pigment and turpentine. For oil paints, linseed, hemp, poppy, walnut or safflower oils are used. Pigments affect the color of paint and can be synthetic or natural. Oil paintings remain in excellent condition for many centuries: when dried, oil paints retain their color, they are not afraid of light and frost. Due to the pasty structure, oil paints have excellent opacity.

brushes: Oil paints are best applied with natural bristle brushes or synthetic brushes. Each artist should have brushes of different hardness and different shapes - this will help to display the desired structure of the picture and make even small details clear.

wooden palette- this is an indispensable thing in the arsenal of an artist who loves to paint with oil paints. For convenience, you should have two palettes: one large - for drawing in the studio, the second - a small one for traveling. Please note that a plastic palette for oil painting is not suitable.

butter dish- special utensils for diluent, which is attached to the palette with a special clamp.

Diluent used to make paints less thick. For oil paints, petroleum, tee or linseed oil is most often used as a thinner. By the way, for people who react negatively to odors and allergies, it is better to use petroleum, since it does not have any smell.

Canvas- This is the material on which the paintings are painted. The variety of canvases in our time can confuse the novice artist. In any art supply store you can find a large selection of canvases on a stretcher or on cardboard and canvases wound on a roll. Canvases are made of linen or cotton, which makes their structure varied - from fine-grained to coarse-grained. Most often, medium-grained canvases are used by artists.

Brush cleaner- This is a special tool for cleaning brushes from paint residues. It is much easier to wash the brush with such a liquid than with other thinners, and with proper care, the brush will last much longer.

Kistemoyka- a small vessel, often in the form of a small bucket, with a spiral mounted on top to secure the brush. With the help of a brush washer, only the necessary part of the bone is in the washing liquid, which allows you to save the brush handle from damage.

Buy, quality oil paints, as well as all the necessary accessories for oil painting, you can in our store. We will be glad to help you!

Oil painting. Basics. Bill Martin's Lessons for Beginners.

There are things you need to know before you start painting in oils.
All paints are a mixture of dry pigment and liquid. In oil paints, the coloring pigment is mixed with linseed oil. Linseed oil is an oil that dries out in the process of air oxidation. It absorbs oxygen from the air and crystallizes the paint pigment permanently. Once the oil dries, it cannot be removed.
Oil paints are thick. They are produced in tubes. Paints are squeezed onto a palette, and mixed with a palette knife to obtain new shades. Then they are applied to a vertically positioned canvas with hard elastic brushes.
Oil paints dry very slowly. Usually you need to wait three days before putting on the next layer. Such a long drying time is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The big advantage is that you will have time to think about what you have drawn. This is very useful when you make gradient transitions from one color to another. Or, if you are unhappy with how it turns out while the paint is still wet, you can scrape it off with a cloth, palette knife or rubber scraper, and repaint.
The downside is that if you put wet paints of two different colors next to each other, they can mix with each other sloppily. The palette, brushes and wet cloth must be handled very carefully so as not to smudge yourself, clothes, food and furniture.
You can work with paint up to 12 hours in a row, then you must leave the work to dry for three days, after which you can continue working. When the paints have dried, you can put new colors on top. A work can have many layers. Each subsequent layer must be the same thickness or thicker than the previous one, otherwise cracks will occur.
After the work has completely dried (from three to six months), you need to apply a protective layer of Damar varnish.

DRAWING.

A complex drawing is quickly lost when applying oil paints, so it is better to designate a drawing with simple figures and contour lines. The drawing can be done directly on the canvas, or it can be prepared in advance and transferred to the canvas.
When applying the drawing directly to the canvas, it is better to use diluted paint. Since it's already paint, you don't have to isolate it from subsequent coats.
You can also use charcoal. The charcoal charge will need to be isolated from the next layers with a fixer. Soft charcoal is easier to fix with fixer than pressed charcoal.
The drawing can also be applied with a pencil to the canvas. Then also fix with a fixer. The sharp tip of the pencil can make cracks in the primer layer, so you can additionally apply another transparent layer of primer. If you have applied another coat of primer, no fixer is required.

In the photo: a spray can with a fixer, in a box - carbon paper.
It is better to prepare a drawing for transferring through carbon paper on thin tracing paper, then it will be easier to translate it. Attach the drawing to the canvas. Translate it with carbon paper. Outline your drawing with carbon paper underneath. Use a ballpoint pen in a contrasting color to see which areas you have already translated and control the thickness of the lines. The applied pattern must also be fixed with a fixative or a thin glazing layer of a transparent primer.

TRANSITION FROM ONE COLOR TO ANOTHER

Consider a graduated transition from one color to another. Oil paints, because they take time to dry, allow you to move them around on the canvas while they are still wet. That is why it is much easier to make smooth color gradations with oil than with other paints. This can be done with any brush. But flat brushes are best, and round ones are worst. For small and large stretch marks, the same principles work.

Paints are mixed on a palette and applied to their intended places on the canvas. Then the brush is moved back and forth in a crosswise manner between two gradations of color until a result that satisfies you is obtained. Then parallel strokes are carried out for the final processing of the site. Work with a clean brush from dark to medium, and then again with a clean brush from light to medium.

(A) In this example, the brush strokes are ALWAYS perpendicular to the highlight. Moving the brush in a circle, we try to make strokes perpendicular to the highlight, respectively, we get the shape of strokes of a twisted brush.
(C) Depending on the location of the primary colors of the stretch, an idea is created of the plane in which the surface is located. Notice how the shades are positioned to represent a flat surface (left) and a curved surface (right).

WE CREATE FORMS

All forms are created from five basic forms. These shapes are: ball, cone, cylinder, cube and torus (donut, bagel). Parts of these shapes form any objects that we see. Imagine half a cylinder on a cube - and you get the shape of an American mailbox. A half ball and a cone will give you the shape of a teardrop, a fir tree is a cone, an oak is a hemisphere (half a ball), and a cylindrical mug usually has a handle in the form of a half torus (donut).

Chiaroscuro creates a form. Each of these shapes has well-defined locations of light and shadows. The sphere is characterized by a sickle and ovals. The cones have a triangular illuminated part and everything else is in the shade. Cubes and flat surfaces contain stretch marks (gradient transition of light into shadow).
The cylinders are made up of strips. Thor - from crescents and stripes.
Concave versions of these shapes have the same chiaroscuro, but without reflexes.
If you learn how to draw these five shapes, you can draw anything.

The sphere (sphere) is defined by crescents and ovals. Balls are painted with crescent-shaped and twisted brush strokes.

The cones are made up of triangles of light and shadow. Cones write with triangular brush strokes.

The cylinders are made up of strips of light and shadow. Cylinders write with parallel brush strokes.

Cubes and any flat surfaces follow the same rules. Graduated transition from light to shadow. If the depicted surface is parallel to the canvas, then it is depicted in one even tone. A cube is a combination of intersecting planes. Each side of the cube contains a chiaroscuro stretch. The cube is drawn with parallel brush strokes.

The torus contains aspects of the other two figures. It has bands of light and shadow like a cylinder in the center and crescents like a sphere around the edges. Thor is written using twisted strokes and crescent strokes.

Here you can see that to convey the shape of the object, you need to use light and shadow, and not contour lines. Light can confuse you, so first try to see the shape of the object, and only then - how exactly the light falls on this shape.

COLOR MATCHING

The rainbow gives us examples of the pure colors that surround us in the world. The colors of the rainbow are in order: red-violet, red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue-violet, violet. When these colors are framed in a circle, we get a "color wheel". The color wheel is a necessary thing when matching colors.

The circle is positioned so that yellow, the brightest light color, is at the top, and purple, the darkest, is at the bottom. From top to bottom, on the right, are yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, red and red-violet. These colors are called warm.
From top to bottom, on the left side, are yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue and blue-violet. These colors are called cool.

Additional colors.

Any TWO colors opposite each other on the color wheel are called COMPLEMENTARY colors. Red and green are complementary colors to each other, as they are located opposite each other on the color wheel. Yellow and purple are also complementary to each other. Yellow-green and red-violet are complementary colors. Complementary colors placed side by side on the canvas reinforce each other. Complementary colors when mixed on the palette neutralize each other. On this plate, complementary colors are at opposite ends of the scale opposite each other. If we move towards the middle on this scale, we will end up with a neutral gray color, the least saturated of all.

All colors have shades. Pure spectral colors in this picture are marked with letters.
So, how do we choose colors, keeping all of the above in mind?
We only need to answer these three questions.
1. What color will the color we need come from, where is this color located on the color wheel? (meaning the spectral color).
2. How intense is it? (the more we add an additional color to the color, the less saturated the color we need becomes).
3. Hue (how dark or light it will be).

Here's how it all works.

Paints are sorted by color on the palette.

We select the color, like a brown leaf.
The spectral color will be red-violet. White is added to match the hue. Yellow-green, complementary to red-violet, is added to reduce its saturation.

We select the color of the green leaf.
Spectral green. Cadmium green is our base color. It contains a bit of yellowness, so we reduce its saturation with red-violet (quinacridone pink). Yellow-green and red-violet are complementary colors to each other.
White is added to refine the shade.

We select the color of the silver electrical tape.
The spectral color is blue. White is added to clarify the tonal saturation. Orange, complementary to blue, we add and get gray.

We select the color of a three-dimensional object. A piece of soap.

Let's pick the middle one first. The spectral color is yellow-orange. A very small amount of additional blue-violet is added to reduce the intensity of the color. And a little bit of white.

To get light areas of our soap, add white to the resulting color of the middle. To get the color of the shadow, add another blue-violet to the color of the middle.

So, the colors of the soap are selected. Usually, to get the color of the shadow on the subject, you need to add an additional color to the main color of the subject. For darker shadows, use the main color of the subject, but with less white. In some cases, adding an extra color doesn't darken the color enough, that's when we add some black.

SHADOWS

Shadows create light. Shadows fall into three categories. The first is the shaded part of the subject, known simply as the SHADOW. The second is a falling shadow from an object, which is formed by the fact that the object obscures the light from the light source. The third category is the shadow of neighboring objects.

The shadow part of an object is a darker, less saturated version of its base color.
Direct light produces dark shadows. Diffused light produces less intense blurry shadows.
Reflected light in the shadow (reflex).

Light falling on an object from its environment is called reflected light or reflex. The color of the objects that surround our object significantly affects the reflected light. See the green reflected light in the left ball? Notice the reflected red in the middle ball. The color of the environment is an integral part of all shadows.

The light and shade saturation of the surrounding objects also affects the reflected light. The first ball just hangs in the air. The second ball also reflects the white surface. The third ball reflects a black surface. The light and shade saturation of surrounding objects is also an integral part of the shadows.

Falling shadows.

A drop shadow is always characterized by being darkest and most focused at the source of the shadow (the subject). Drop shadows are written in a darker, less intense color than the color of the surface they fall on.

A drop shadow color always contains the complementary color to the lighting color and the complementary color to the surface color on which the shadow lies.
See the blue tint in the shadow of the subject that is illuminated by the orange light? And an orange tint in the shadow of an object lit in blue. In the shadow of an object illuminated with red light, there is a tint of green. And notice the red-purple hue of the shadow cast by the object illuminated by the yellow-green light.
Drop shadows are about shape and texture.

Drop shadows describe the environment of an object. On the left, the wall is defined by the falling shadow of the glass. On the right, the shadow indicates the presence of a mound.

The edges of the shadow determine the texture of the surface that the shadow falls on.
Grass on the left and mud with rocks on the right.

Drop shadows in direct and diffused light.

Direct light (left) usually comes from a single light source, such as the sun or a spotlight. It gives high contrast and rich dark drop shadows.
Diffused light is usually obtained from several light sources. It gives low contrast and fuzzy drop shadows.

Objects with little or no drop shadow are ALWAYS in ambient light, where they appear flatter and less textured.

Shadows from neighboring objects.

These are the dark shadows we see where objects touch each other. The dark line around the closed door, the dark line under the coffee mug, the dark line between tightly clenched fingers - this is the shadow from neighboring objects.
It is relatively independent of the direction of illumination. These shadows in the shadows are usually the darkest places in the drawing.

The narrow dark strip under the cylinder on the left tells us that the objects are separated. The cylinder on the right is connected to its base.

CONTRAST

Let's use light and shadow together.

Contrast is the ratio of the lightest and darkest part of an object or its surroundings.

Tone scale.

Left is high contrast, right is low contrast.

When objects have high contrast, they appear closer to us. When the contrast is less, objects appear farther away from us. Those rocks in the distance seem to us located farther from us, their contrast is lower than the contrast of the rock closest to us.

The gradual saturation of objects with contrast makes them visually closer to us.

The distance can be determined from the contrast of the falling shadow and its surroundings.

Low contrast

Objects in ambient light have the lowest contrast.

Objects without a drop shadow are always in ambient light. If an object has a medium to dark tonal range, it should have a drop shadow.

If the object has a tonal transition from medium to light, then it will appear as if in a haze or fog.

CONTRAST CREATES A TYPE OF LIGHT. High contrast corresponds to bright lighting. Low contrast corresponds to ambient light, far distance, and haziness.

TEXTURE

Texture helps define what you see.

The texture is best seen when light transitions into shadow. On smooth objects, flare is a distorted display of the light source itself. The sharper the focus of this reflection, the smoother the surface of the object. A glass bottle has a smoother surface than aluminum, which in turn is smoother than candle wax. We know how these objects focus the highlight on themselves.

On objects without bright highlights, the texture is visible well and is determined by the transition from light to shadow.

These ten objects are arranged in order of their degree of texture.
Notice where your eye is immediately looking to appreciate the texture of an object.

We look at the transition of light into shadow to determine how textured an object is.

Texture in diffused light.

On the left - direct light, on the right - diffused.

Objects in direct light appear more textured than objects in ambient light.
The log and towel appear softer and smoother in diffused light. Objects appear less textured in ambient light because the transition from light to shadow takes longer.

GLAZING / GLAZING LAYERS

Glazing layers are applied over the dried paint.

Transparent layers of oil paint are called glazing. Translucent - these are layers of glazing. To obtain a glaze, the paint is diluted in a ratio of 1/3 Dammar varnish, 1/3 turpentine and 1/3 linseed oil. Glaze is a thin transparent layer of paint that is placed on another dried layer to get a shade of the third color. For example, if you put diluted quinacridone pink (clear color) on blue, you get purple. If you glaze exactly the same color, then you will strengthen it. Falling shadows on complex textures are often glazed. Glazing slightly darkens the color. (See the lesson "Paints" about transparency and haze).

This is glazing.

For example, the shell of a beetle needs to be greened.

Glazing liquid is mixed on a palette with cyan green (transparent color) until the desired degree of transparency is achieved.

Then the mixture is applied with a kolinsky brush to the drawing in a horizontal position. We leave to dry overnight. When using glazing, you can change the color of the drawing without changing the direction of the strokes of paint on the main layer.

Glazing is obtained by using a diluted matte color over the dried color of another paint. The glaze layer does not change color and is a translucent layer.

The paint is also mixed on a palette with a mixture for glazing and applied to a horizontal surface with a kolinsky brush.

White (matte color) with glazing give us rays of light. Leave the work to dry overnight.
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You will need

Oil paints, primer, glue, fixative, palette, brushes (preferably flat and made from natural materials), palette knife, easel, simple pencil, eraser, tracing paper, carbon paper and other useful little things purchased by artists for ease of work.

Instruction

Buy a canvas. They are usually linen or cotton. Cotton canvas is cheaper and easier to handle. Linen is fine-grained, suitable for prescribing small details, and coarse-grained, on which it is good to reflect the texture (for example, stones, the sea). Instead of the traditional one, burlap, plywood, hardboard, and metal are also used to work with. Paper can also be used, but will not be durable.
The cheaper canvas is the one stretched over cardboard. It is thin and easy to transport, no more than 0.5 x 0.7 m in size. Canvas on a stretcher is more expensive and heavier, but larger - up to 1.2x1.5m.

Along with the canvas, purchase all the necessary supplies: oil paints, primer, glue, fixer, palette, brushes, palette knife, easel. If you sketch on paper and then transfer it to canvas, you will need transparent paper (you can take tracing paper) and. In the process, something else may come in handy, so check with the seller.

Glue and prime the canvas, and then let it dry. This operation is done so that the paint does not destroy it and lies well on the canvas.

Further, everything will depend on the technique of execution. If the picture is small, and the experience of creating paintings is still small, try the technique in one step (alla prima). This means that the picture should be completed in one or more approaches, but in time before the paints dry. The drying time of oil paint is on average about 3 days, depending on the thickness of the layer. The picture will get those tones and colors that you create by mixing. Additional colors will be obtained due to the translucence of the soil. The picture itself will be lighter and lighter.

Usually artists use a multi-layer technique: it reveals all the possibilities of oil painting. Its essence is that the author of the picture divides his task into several subtasks, which he then implements in different layers. First, a first thin layer is created, called "underpainting". For its implementation, the paints are diluted. Underpainting helps to determine the composition, tone, shape, shadows and light and shade.

In the next layers, the artist writes down the details, subtleties of form and color, and texture step by step. In the last layers, linseed oil is added to give saturation and color stability. After the paint has dried, it is varnished. The duration of this period depends on the thickness of the layers, and averages 6-12 months.