Beginner Oil Painting
I’m so excited to announce that starting January 4th, 2020, I will be teaching a Beginner’s Oil Painting Class at Burnt Hickory Park located in Cartersville, GA. I’ve also created a helpful Facebook video to answer questions and give you some tips. Find it here: https://fb.watch/2nEY7bSfCk/
To eliminate confusion and make sure you have the correct supplies, I’ve created a supply list.
You can find other brands if you like, but I recommend these products. Please note, although I recommend all the items on the list, I’ve marked the bare minimum required to get you started.
Also, there are various sizes of brushes recommended. They are helpful, but you don’t need all of them.
You can find the list here:
Blick Beginners Oil Painting Supply List.
Also, Here is my personal downloadable list, including some short cuts and recommendations:
Downloadable Tina’s Fine Arts
Beginner’s Oil Painting Supply List
Click here to download this list:
- Graphite Pencil
- Conte Sticks (optional)
- Sketch pad- gray or tan toned canvas is wonderful
- Fredrix canvas pad-See my Blick Art Materials Supply list. These are great for practice.
- Loose Canvas
- Two Canvas Panels or Stretched Canvas recommended sizesMinimum: 8 x 10 Maximum: 16 x 20
- One Tabletop Easel
- Bristle Paint Brushes (for oil paint)
- Baby oil for cleaning brushes
- Brush washer for cleaning brushes-you can use a glass jar with a secure lid if you wish. Ball Jars or old salsa jars work great.
- Paper Towels-or a washable smooth lint-free rag
Small Canvases will need the following brushes
Liner Brush, size 0
Filbert Brush, size 2, 4
Flat Brush, size 6, 4
Bright Brush size 6
Round Brush, size 1,4
Fan Brush size 0
1” Flat brush
Large Canvases above 11 x 14 inches will need the following
* 2-inch Hardware bristle brush for oil-based paints (you can find at the hardware store)
1” Filbert Brush
Liner Brush, size 0-1
Filbert Brush, size 10, 6
Flat Brush, size 12, 10
Round Brush, size 1, 4
Painting Knives
Painting Knives are useful for mixing paint. Please see the knives listed on my Beginners Painting Supply list with Blick Art Materials. Alternatively, You can get by with an old credit card.
Medium
I suggest Neo Meglip by Gamblin. It drastically speeds up the paint drying process. If you are confident in painting fast, you may choose Liquin.
Traditional Medium
Alternatively, if you want to fool with your paintings longer, think you paint slow, or want to take it home to work on it, you may want to explore the traditional method of linseed oil and thinner. For your thinner, you will need the following.
- Linseed Oil
- Odorless Mineral Spirits (for fine art only) Hardware quality OMS will not work.
- Pallet Cup
Pallets
You may use any pallet you choose, but I prefer the easily disposable 12 x 16 Pallette Paper by either Blick Studio or Jerry’s Artarama. It fits perfectly into a paint pallet keeper. My recommendation is
12 x 16 inch Pallet Paper
12×16 Masterson Pallet Saver (See Supply List)
Paint
I suggest a student grade oil paint for beginning. It cost less and you won’t waste expensive paint while learning. Some of the student grade oil paints are
- Soho
- Blick Academy
- Winton
- Grumbacher
You don’t need a ton of colors to get started. You can paint with black and white only if you wish. However, I recommend at least adding the following for color:
- Cad Yellow
- Alizarin Crimson
- Pthalo Blue
- Ultramarine Blue
Understanding these basic primary colors will help you in color theory. It’s more convenient to have a variety of premixed colors, but you can get close to many with these primary colors.
Would you like more personal instruction? I’m building online classes and also teaching locally at Burnt Hickory Park, in Cartersville, Georgia starting January 4, 2012. Registration is here: https://recreation.paulding.gov/wbwsc/webtrac.wsc/SPLASH.html. You will have to search for Beginners Oil Painting under Burnt Hickory Park.
Meanwhile, I’m working on an online version of this. If you would like to be informed when it is released, please sign up for my newsletter. I send it about once a month and I will never sell or share your information. You can sign up here: https://tinasfinearts.com/news/subscribe-now/.
Happy Painting,
Tina Adams Stoffel
