Oil Painters?

[HiredGoon]

I've worked well with acrylics (I'm mostly self taught) but have always loved the way oil paintings look. I bought some and tried using them, but am clueless.

Are you supposed to mix the oil paint with paint thinner? How much of each do you use? Is it supposed to take a long time to dry? Do you use paint thinner in lieu of water to clean the brush between colors?

Thanks!

You're not "supposed" to mix paint with turp unless you want a thinner paint. It depends on what you want to work with. Mixing turp with paint extends it, but also makes it more translucent. So if you want a thick paint, no or very little turp, if you want a thin paint, then lots of turp. Play around with it. Find what you like, learn from experience. Yes it takes a long time to dry, depending on the thickness. That's the beauty of oil paint! You can come back the next day and still work with it. I dislike acrylic because it dries too fast. Yes, use turp to clean off the brush between colors, just water won't do anything. When you're done painting, clean with turp, then soap and water.

 

[distancerunner]

Thank you! That clears it up a bit

 

[GodFreak43]

I love oil painting, I have some great works but none uploaded.

 

[cze_026]

Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow
Cadmium Red Light
Alizarin Crimson
Cerulean Blue
Cobalt Blue Deep

Anything more than this is really unnecessary, think primary colors! You can change the hues to your preference, but the basic idea is one medium yellow, a light red, dark red, light blue and dark blue. You can mix anything from these, it's surprisingly easy, and a lot of fun, and fairly cheap. For me, it makes painting a deeper more involved experience, the time it takes to mix, the connection to the old ways. It's hard to describe. Using pre-mixed blacks, ochres, umbers, etc. just seems too much like cheating to me. Almost as bad as painting by numbers. In the end it's all a matter of personal preference.

For a full range, it is highly recommended that you have a warm and a cool of each primary, plus white and black(some even like a warm and cool of these as well). I occasionally will use a green, an orange, and a violet (which is very difficult to mix) for convenience. Blacks, siennas, umbers and ochres are earth pigments, not mixtures. Some paints may be sold as a "Hue" which is an approximation of the native color obtained through mixing, but it never has the same intensity as the native pigment. In some cases, the hue is necessary as the original pigment has become a controlled material, or is so rare, like bone black for instance, that it is nearly impossible to obtain.

A common primary palette is Alizarin Crimson (cool), Cad Red lt or med (warm), Yellow Ochre (cool), Cad Yellow lt or med. (warm), Cerulean blue (cool), and Ultramarine blue (cool), Ivory or Mars black, Titanium White.

CZE

 

[Vitaly]

Thanks for listing your palette colors guys. I wrote them down for further refrence maybe sometime.

Well, here my current palette:

Titanium White
Cad. Yellow light
Cad. Red medium
French Ultramarine
Burnt Sienna
Lemon Yellow

I also want to add:

Yellow Ochre
Magneta
Viridian
Cerulean Blue
Burnt Sienna

Ofcourse I dont/wont use all the listed colors at the same time. I usually try to stay under five.

 

[Vitaly]

I will work with oils on occation, however, I became alergic to the smells and was forced to choose another medium.

I like the durability of an oil painting and the ability to work with mixing the colors.

I suggest Water-mixable oils. There are great, and you can say 'bye' to turpintine!

 

[Im4HimiHs]

I suggest Water-mixable oils. There are great, and you can say 'bye' to turpintine!

My medium of choice now is Pastel chalk. It took some time to learn to blend the colors, but that suits me fine. After working with pastels for over 25 years, I perfer them now over any other mediums.

 

[singlemaleceo]

Hi All,

I am primarily a graphite and pen & ink artist, but I do have two oil paintings on my site under the religious category . My website is posted in my profile.